Style

‘If you’re going to do it, do it with style!’ ‘More stylish’ characters say this line to ‘less stylish’ characters all the time, be it in fiction or in real life. Is this line a brag or is this line a lesson? As someone who is humble and still finding their style, I take it as both. I like confident people and a good lesson!

I find this statement ironic because I believe every person is born with their own style. Their own style of speaking. Their own style of reading. Their own style of writing. Their own style of drawing. Their own style of doing anything really. There is no ‘unstylish’ person on this planet Earth. However, a person’s intrinsic style will change with time and life experiences.

A person’s style will certainly be influenced by the style of the people around them.  I think one’s immediate friends and family are the most influential. If one goes to school, they will be also influenced by their teachers, their fellow students and the people that contributed to and are covered within the school syllabus. Furthermore, there is the impact of people outside one’s private life. I immediately think of my favourite artists whenever I think of my style – musicians, writers, painters, sculptors, carpenters, designers, etc.

Broadly, I divide styles into either those that are more popular, or those that are more niche than others. I used to think popular easily-adoptable styles were bad because people do not need to think before being influenced by them. I thought niche styles were good because, perhaps again, there was more thought and energy put into narrowing the style down. Furthermore, I thought understanding the itty-bitty details of niche styles meant having a closer affinity for said style.

Now I tend to think that popular, easily-adoptable styles are better and niche styles are worse. Funnily enough, I think so because of mostly the same reasons as before. Isn’t that funny! Maybe it is because I am at a stage of life where I want to become more popular. I want to become more understood by others. I think it is how I will ‘make it’ in this world. How I will be ‘useful’ for this world. How I will be happy in this world.