Escapism, to a Fault

I don’t know about any of you, but I personally get caught up in my own thoughts, sometimes to the point where I have to kick myself back into the real world. I go through these phases where I move through the daily routines of life in an almost robotic fashion, but my mind is swimming with thoughts of other places, other situations, and other people. Maybe it happens when one is in a rut, or maybe it's just me, but I know that too much escapism is not a good thing.

Ever since I was a child I had a very active imagination, and it served as an escape from the peer pressure and meanness of my fellow classmates at school. I was too sweet, too sensitive, and too brown in my small Catholic school class, and the other students and a few teachers took advantage of these “shortcomings” for their own reasons. When family life got to me at the same time, there was nothing I liked better than reading a great book, watching a good movie or TV show, or just writing little stories and drawing sketches to immerse myself in my fantasy world.

I could handle my dreams; reality was harder to deal with. Even when I went to college, met better people and had more positive experiences, I would find myself getting swept away by my imagination at times. Some people don’t surrender so easily, but I have been known to do so on certain occasions.

The Internet has become a major source of my temporary escapism, which we all know can be very addictive. I have to use the Internet for work, but I have to discipline myself more to resist the temptations that the World Wide Web has to offer. It is too easy to waste time looking up random (sometimes useless) information.

Can you relate? How do you reconcile the realities of life with your imagination?