Everyone eventually reaches a point in their life where they fall away from reality, even for a few minutes, to reflect on their own life. It may not come by choice, maybe you’re stuck in traffic with nothing but your thoughts to distract you or a lyric from a song paints a memory of another time or maybe just observing a group of people triggers emotions and feelings of your own. Regardless, how often do we actually listen? These moments, where we detach ourselves from our life and view it as an outsider, emotionless and cynical, are trying to speak to us, they’re telling us to make a choice. Do you keep going round your merry go round, familiar with the scenery, knowing all the bumps and quirks of the ride, or do you jump ship, upgrade your merry go round and take a chance and seize the opportunity to expand your horizons?

These merry go rounds get bigger and bigger, they grow as we grow, each rotation taking longer to complete, giving us more time to learn the ride and take in the surrounds. These detached moments, they are our ticket to the next merry go round, but do we ever take it? Or do we keep going around, knowing where this ride takes us, knowing the bumps and seeing the scenery for the hundredth time. Why don't we jump rides? Fear? Procrastination? Ignorant? We may think we’re doing the right thing by staying on the same ride, not wanting to shift the balance, not wanting to disturb the ride for everyone else who is sharing our merry go round, but in the end, who are we staying on this ride for?

You may be doing the right thing by them staying on the ride, they don't have to be disturbed, and they don’t have to adjust to new surrounds when your familiar face leaves the scenery. It's something new, and new things mean adjusting and conditioning yourself to the new challenges, ready or not. Ever stop to think about you though? If you’re always doing the right thing by them, are you ever doing the right thing by you?

It's easy to forget about you, you’re used to it, you wake up and breathe you every day; you wake up and hear your thoughts churn hour after hour. You hear your head and heart fight with other, rarely agreeing and when they do only for a moment. It's the moments where you detach that you’re finally thinking about you. The thoughts are said, they are voiced, your head lets the heart speak of its own accord and your heart stops for a second to let your head have its say. Sometimes we have to rock the boat and jump ship. We need to dismount our merry go round and jump to the next one, seizing the opportunity. The thing is, sometimes we do, but our heads never let us forget of that warm feeling that guards you from reality, comfort.

The new merry go round shows you something new that you don't like, or the ride is just too bumpy, the faces blank and unapproachable, you can't do it, you’re scared, comfort steps in. You fall back to patterns, your eyes dart around the ride, looking for that familiar merry go round to jump to. Familiarity takes a difference face for everyone. Familiar because of the happy memories, familiar because of the faces, familiar because it's easy, familiar because you like the hope the ride gives, familiar because of the smiles it brings or the tears it makes you cry. It's tough, what if you liked both rides for different reasons? You can't have both, you think you can, you to lie yourself. You try though, you wrap one leg around a horse from each merry go round and just for that split second where the rotations meet you can do it, then as time continues, your leg slips, which horse do you grasp for? Mr Familiar or Mr Opportunity?

Mr Familiar wins nearly every time, no matter how much you know you should have jumped to Mr Opportunity. Mr Familiar is always there though, ready to hold you, support you. Even if the ride is bumpy and is the worse thing for you, for whatever reason, it doesn't matter, because you know how it feels, you know the pain it brings, after all you've been on this ride before, you know what happens next, you know that the ride keeps spinning and the only ticket off it is when you detach, listen and take control. You may have the knowledge, you may know it's time to take your ticket, farewell the ride and learn something new, but comfort blinds you, it argues with your head, 'you can do this, you've done it before, you made it through' and suddenly you sit back in your saddle and let the ticket fall away.

When do we get off? Why do we fall so heavily for comfort? How do you defeat it? Even then, why defeat it? It's so warm, so familiar…

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