What’s stopping you?

Have you ever wondered how it would feel like to press the fire alarm at school or other establishments just because you feel like it just to see how people will react, will there be chaos as panicking people rush out of where they’re at, running and shouting or will it be just the same, a little confusion in their heads but their day and time will still continue as it should be, unshaken from a little ringing of whatever kind of emergency it may be.

Have you ever experienced bringing snacks and refreshments at places where “food and drinks are not allowed”? To see people eyeing you judgingly as you munch into your snacks shamelessly, feeling a sense of accomplishment that you’ve defied the rules and was able to be there with food in hand while others don’t, and you can feel their envy and annoyance radiating and it’s directed to no one but you. And you, you have this voice in your head saying that “I’m better than those people who live their lives following the rules and not making the most out of life.” They are, as what you call it, “no fun” type of people.

Being able to enter the school premises wearing ripped jeans, incomplete uniform or without and ID, that feels a different kind of satisfaction, a weird kind of achievement, probably something that you would brag your friends about all day.

Breaking rules a little won’t hurt that much. Or as you thought. When you press the fire alarm out of curiosity, making people panic and causing them trouble and supposedly “harm”, makes you eligible to go to jail or at least have same file against you and be given some punishment for your action. When a staff sees you wandering with food and drinks (which aren’t allowed), you’ll be asked to leave the premises or at least leave your food outside. Same with wearing incorrect uniform.

An iconic tagline from a sports brand tells you to: “Just Do It”, so what’s stopping most people? The rules! The guidelines the society or a group of people in a certain place have set before us, of what are customarily allowable and not. The set of guidelines we have to live by or else we’ll be given certain punishments.

But if we would ponder deeper, would it still feel the same without the rules? The thrill and excitement of doing things that we are not supposed to do?