What You Would Be Like In A Perfect World

Aug. 4, 2011
I write and edit Thought Catalog. I'm a brat. Send me fun things at ryan@thoughtcatalog.com

In a perfect world, you would never disappoint yourself. You would never make a mistake more than once. Your learning curve would be excellent. If someone hurt you, you would delete them from your phone and not think twice about them. You wouldn’t get too drunk, wouldn’t make a fool of yourself in a party dress vomiting on the side of the road. I mean, why would you ever do such a thing?! You’re just bound to be in a shame spiral the next morning. Why can’t you just look ahead for once? Why can’t you think of the consequences?

In a perfect world, you would be the best friend anyone could ask for. You wouldn’t feel jealous when they got into a relationship, wouldn’t secretly feel relief when you hear about them being in a fight, wouldn’t say that catty comment behind their back. You’d be selfless. You’d never resent them, feel pangs of abandonment, never cry about the fact that things have changed. You accept everything at face value and you don’t question it. That would be perfect, wouldn’t it?

In a perfect world, you could please everyone. You’d be the perfect child, perfect lover, perfect renter, perfect eater, perfect employee. You would call your grandmother the second she got her hip replaced, you would send your mother flowers on her birthday, you would get your work done every single day and pay your rent on time. None of this would cause you anxiety or make you feel overwhelmed. It was just how you were wired. You were born to do everything perfectly. You’re going to be how everyone wants you to be.

In a perfect world, you don’t procrastinate or cry about things in the middle of the afternoon, things that are beyond your control and you have no hopes of fixing. You would never do that because it’s wasteful. In a perfect world, useless emotions are never felt.

In a perfect world, everyone you loved would love you back. It’d be as easy as 1, 2, 3. “Oh, you love me? I love you back then. No questions asked.” There’d be no unreturned texts, no jabs, no infidelity. They’d be exactly how you want them to be. And they don’t get to leave until you say it’s over. “I’m not done loving you. Come back right now!”

In a perfect world, you would exercise and not eat that hamburger and love your body. You would never have a day when you would feel fat and you would have no shame in wearing denim cutoffs. #touchmybody

Wait, you aren’t perfect. Wait, you sometimes date jerks and eat hamburgers and get too drunk and think bad thoughts about friends and feel fat and forget to call your grandma and cry over stupid stuff. And you know what? Thank god you do. Because if you were perfect, you’d be so boring and everyone would hate you for real. And we’d have no dreams or goals because in our minds, we’d already be there. Oh my god, we would be like Scientologists or people who read The New Yorker?! TC mark

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  • Leah Dessin

    Perfect isn’t the vision of an ideal, it’s the beauty of reality–we’re in a perfect world if see choose to see it that way :]

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=504951716 Tau Zaman

    In a perfect world, I WOULD be able to eat the hamburger and NOT exercise. Because in a perfect world, my metabolism would be like, “I just got it like that.” *snap snap*

    • Guesty

      You can do it now!  Do it.  

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=504951716 Tau Zaman

        Well I’m also vegan. So in a perfect world they would be from…I dunno, cruelty free cows?

      • Guest

        Yeah, that would be fucking awesome.  

      • a.

        “Cruelty free cows”?! That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day, omg.

  • Jazz

    “In a perfect world, useless emotions are never felt.” Why cant that happen in a flawed world as well?! This perfect world doesn’t sound the least bit bad except, for the being the way everyone else wants you to be.

  • CC

    “The imperfect is our paradise. / Note that, in this bitterness, delight, / Since the imperfect is so hot in us, / Lies in flawed words and stubborn sounds.” 

  • Arkhatron

    In a perfect world there would be no such criteria as “PERFECT”,  people just wouldn’t know the difference… boring indeed.

  • Ceqli

    Ryan, it’s a good thing one of your readers is a neurochemistry major.

    Wait a few years. I can come up with your perfect world, and put it in pill form.

    • Guest

      No, you can’t.

  • http://samanthashorey.blogspot.com Sam

    I love this so much, Ryan. This reminds me of the Miranda July short story “This Person”.

    It’s true :  in a perfect world, I wouldn’t procrastinate or cry about things in the middle of the afternoon.  Especially when I’m crying because I procrastinated about something.

  • http://www.nosexcity.com NoSexCity

    I think more people hate Scientologists than ‘New Yorker’ super-fans, but agreed.

  • Amro

    my mom is perfect

  • Marianela D’Aprile

    “I’m not done loving you. Come back right now!” so perfect.

  • Hannah

    What’s wrong with reading the New Yorker? I didn’t get it..

    • Arkhatron

      I’m from New York and I don’t get it either… no seriously, what’s wrong with reading New Yorker???

  • http://fastfoodies.org Briana

    I got really hung up on the fact that I didn’t feel like #touchmybody WORKED in this context, despite it being in a sentence about having a sexy and touchable body.

    seems RULL BLEAK.

    • http://fastfoodies.org Briana

      oh mah god what am i even saying

  • Charlie

    “Oh, you love me? I love you back then. No questions asked.”  I love this and you.

  • guest

    I’n my opinion #touchmybody fits absolutley any context. 

  • Julia

    you’re right!

  • Sarah

    It wasn’t too long ago (i.e. yesterday, and almost every day) that I wished I didn’t feel useless emotions. I love this.

  • http://www.justdothemath.tumblr.com Alice

    Beautiful post. But I think that in a perfect world it would be more outwardly acceptable to wear your heart on your sleeve regardless of social reciprocracy. 

    “In a perfect world, everyone you loved would love you back. It’d be as easy as 1, 2, 3. “Oh, you love me? I love you back then. No questions asked.” ”

    This shouldn’t even matter, right? I think it should be “Oh, you love me? I still respect you as a person and don’t think less of me because I don’t love you back in the same way/just because your feelings aren’t being returned doesn’t mean that therefore you are a failure.”

    simple acceptance of yourself and rejection of the ideal you’ve outlined in your post (ie. I will not eat that hamburger)… that in itself is perfect (I will eat that hamburger because it is delicious, dammit!). my $.02 :)

  • Reena_karmani

    in a perfect world first of all we will finish the tourizim

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