I think it’s time for another deep emotional talk about something very emotional and deep.  After all, I am watching America’s Funniest Home Videos right now.  They just showed a bunch of clips of strange things happening at weddings.  Actually they weren’t so much strange as they were people falling down.  My guess would be they had a little too much to drink.  Although that’s just speculation.

The deep emotional thing that I would like to talk about is the difference between conventions and traditions.  I don’t drink and I never will.  Actually there was this one time but that’s a different story for a different time so don’t ask and I won’t tell you anyway so shut up! I was once asked if I would drink some wine for the toast for my own wedding.  I said no.  The person I was talking to almost felt crushed.  By the way she was a girl.  Not even my girlfriend, just some girl I worked with.

I now realize that she was upset because I wasn’t going to give into the normal conventions of the normal wedding.  That actually kind of ticks me off a little bit.  I’m not one to give into conventions.  Why?  Because I don’t believe in doing things simply because other people have done them in the past.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “aren’t traditions things that people do just because they’ve been done in the past?”  And you’re partially right.  People do follow traditions because they have followed them in the past.  But they’re not following the traditions the same way that they follow the conventions.

People usually follow traditions because they are something the family has been doing for quite some time.  However a tradition also has history behind it.  This history is not just some general reason why something is done.  The tradition has a meaning behind it that has something to do with the family whose history the tradition is intertwined with. Every family, or even entire towns have different traditions for the holidays or different times of the year. Some people drink hot cocoa all winter, while others spend the entire summer going on one vacation after another. Some towns have parades for a particular holiday while others have fairs or picnics.

A convention is pretty much the same thing as a tradition except for there’s really no reason why it’s being done.  People just do it because it’s a convention.  The thing that really bugs me about conventions is that people really don’t seem to care what your personal reasons are for not following it.  All they seem to care about is that you’re not following the convention and for some reason, no matter what your reasons are for not following it, they’d get mad at you.  For example: I don’t drink.  So if there is alcoholic wine at my wedding reception I will not drink it no matter what the toast.  And quite frankly I don’t see any problem with this.  However because the convention has been set, people usually look at me in disdain when I tell them this.  They look at me as if I’m getting ready to cut the tail off of a puppy.  Which, by the way, I’ve never actually done.

Sure, some traditions are a little strange and some traditions I don’t care to take part in.  But I absolutely loath conventions.  Why should I have to do something just because other people tell me that everyone else does it.  I already graduated high school and quite frankly I didn’t care about following all the conventions back then and I still don’t today.  I’ve gotten pretty good at making up my own mind.