On not being "fun"

"Fun” is everywhere. “Fun” is marketed 24/7. Everyone is having fun on Instagram.

We all have that thing we worry privately about on a quiet Sunday evening. “I’m not very good at X”, “I’ll never meet the right person”, “I should do more exercise” or whatever happens to pop up on the list at any given time. Mine is sometimes I worry I’m not very fun. “Fun” is everywhere. “Fun” is marketed 24/7. Everyone is having fun on Instagram. Fun at festivals, fun at parties, fun in the sun! Female TV show protagonists are so fun, wild and adventurous. Drinking culture is about squeezing in the most amount of FUN. In Waterstones yesterday I noticed a book in the window: THE POWER OF FUN.

We buy the t-shirts that say life is short. We use the hashtag #yolo.

But if someone asked me, in all seriousness, what my ideal evening would consist of, I would close my eyes and think of the following (in this order):