My Unbridled Philosophy

Do you remember playing Two Truths and a Lie? It's a conversation game that teachers loved to use as an icebreaker in school and I've even seen some managers host it as a workplace activity. When I was growing up my one 'fun' truth was that I don't know how to ride a bicycle. That always caught everyone up, so I felt like I had won the game. No matter what celebrity someone met, or what crazy number of countries they had visited, the fact that I didn't know how to ride a bike was the one everyone clung to.

I had never thought of myself as very interesting when I was growing up so this always made me excited to share what I thought was the one semi-interesting thing about myself. I was a shy child and that developed into full-blown social anxiety early on, so I didn't often share much anyway. As I got older though I realized my perspective was not matching my peers. I rarely matched their thought patterns, opinions, beliefs, or energy level. I was competing in A and AA horse shows all down the east coast so I eventually transitioned to online school where my social life shrank even more. I won't get into the nitty gritty details there, but the main point is that this left me a lot of room for introspection.

Over time, I found myself drawn to the quote:

"You found a raven in your chest where others have songbirds. It is hard to be beautiful when you are darkness in a world full of color."

I’ll admit, I have a bit of a flair for the dramatic—but this quote perfectly captures my dark humor and the way I tend to see the world a little differently than most. It resonates with the shadowy, unconventional lens through which I experience life.

Now that I hold a PhD in psychology, compete as an amateur equestrian, work full time, and run a small home-based horse and dog treat bakery (and sometimes enjoy baking for humans, too), I find that I ultimately have a unique perspective on most things. A little dark, a little dramatic, and entirely caffeinated. So, if you're interested in the ChatGPT-sourced exercise plan I'm attempting to follow with my 5 year old OTTB jumper prospect, or what fun recipe I came up with last week that contained entirely too much sugar, or an analysis of chaos theory and unicursal hexagrams and what that could possibly have to do with the new Sleep Token album, or even tips on maintaining a positive headspace in the competitive horse world, you'll find all that here and more.

Talk soon,

Rhys