Flashback to Brooklyn Bohemia

July 26, 2010:

Sometime in 2010, I wrote the piece below. Fascinating to discover that almost 10 years later, I still feel the same and my mindset still strays towards the bohemian lifestyle.  This piece occurred to me because just the other day, a former classmate of mine lamented that he was slowly fading into his "comfort zone." I remarked that it was not good, scary even. He inquired as to why, and my response was simply thus: "The Comfort Zone represents a state of complacency, which slowly turns into mediocrity." But when we work the 9 - 5 jobs and slowly edge towards retirement, what else is there than to creep into the inevitable 'comfort zone."

Photo Courtesy of NY Times

I read, or rather browsed through this slide show in the NY Times Real Estate Section of a group of 20 something artists who live and share a house in Brooklyn. 

The Bohemian aspect of it intrigued me greatly. You know I am drawn to all things "hippie-esque", anti-authority and bohemian. I particularly like the liberty that it brings to be free from all the constraints that society expects from us. 

Society expects you to have a 9-5, a car, all this stuff that you just might need someday, own your own home, have a mortgage that you can barely afford, etc, it expects that normalcy from you and some people just don't fit into that normalcy, a small group of people don't and this group seems to be getting smaller and smaller by the minute. But yes, some of us do exist that would rather choose to live the bohemian lifestyle; where we bike everywhere, sleep around all day and work in the evening, and spend all day reading and discussing Nietzsche, have visible tattoos that have some existential meaning that only we are aware of, get to go to all the cool art shows and discuss it like it's the meaning of life, and generally just have fun with our lives, just being. I don't know. I may not be making much sense. I just thought it would be really cool to live like that. As I scrolled through those pictures for a split second I wanted to be one of them, chasing my dream, living simply, among friends and like-minded people. For a brief second, I wanted to be one of them. I still do. However, today I had to wake up early to get to my 9-5. And you wonder what's wrong with me. 

EDIT: 2017 - This article no longer exists on the NY Times Real Estate page. Tried to reach out to NY Times for an update or at least for the source pics, but they have not responded. Hmmm...too bad.