By Dallin Rahlf

I seriously think I’vememorized every aspect of my living room. I counted every single strand ofcarpet. There’s at least 400 strands, give or take 50,000. I’ve watched everyshow on Netflix. I played every single video game I had. I even consideredgetting into scrapbooking. I reorganized the kitchen like, 10 times.

“Silverware in this drawer?No, silverware in THAT drawer. Yeah… that’s what’s gonna make this place moreenjoyable. Problem solved.”

The mighty Couch Industrydoesn’t tell you that if you sit on your couch for an entire year and you’reabove the age of 18, it super hurts your back. I feel like there should be awarning about that somewhere. Major note-to-self in case I need to sit on mycouch for an entire year again. Next time, I’ll break it up by just sitting onthe floor.

My wife and I even got intocleaning the house. Like, it was fun. When we get to a point in our lives wherecleaning the kitchen is the fun part of the day, it looks like we needsomething to break up the routine.

This year has been NUTS. Juststraight crazy. How incredible it is to finally be coming to the end of all ofthis. I’ve needed something to get me out of the house more than ever. Gettinga dog certainly helped—I’ve been outside of my house more than I ever havecause of the little guy. It’s made me realize how fun my not-living room is! Anentire world exists outside of the realm of a television, video games,blankets, back aches from sitting on the couch too long, stomach aches fromeating too many cookies, and the awful feeling of vegging out.

Up until that point, all Iwas doing for an entire year was SITTING.

 And I’ll be the first one totell you—I don’t hate sitting. I usually prefer it. Sitting in a cool house allday playing video games? At a first glance, it sounds awesome. My wife had togo out of town the other weekend and I was thinking, “Oh yeah. I literally getto sit on the couch for an entire weekend and play video games. I don’t have toeat if I don’t want to. Bathroom optional, but probably preferred for allparties. This weekend, my butt and the couch will be best friends, all overagain.”

The first two hours wereAWESOME. I was having the time of my life. The best day ever. Suddenly, it was10:00am and I realized that this really wasn’t that fun. Like, at all. It wasmind-boggling. I had never felt this before… It was almost scary. I had therest of the day. What on EARTH WAS I GOING TO DO.

You wanna know what I did? Iwent outside of the house. I had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew Ihad to get out of the house. I got in my car and just drove around. I stumbledupon some tiny but charming axe throwing place that I never knew existed. Idrove on that street a million times, but this was my first time seeing thisplace. Weird.

I called up a couple friendsand they came by. It seemed like something super random, and my friends weren’tthat down at first. For some reason, I just wanted to do this. I’ve gone axethrowing before, but none of my friends have. I don’t blame them—when you thinkabout doing something on a Friday night, axe throwing probably isn’t on my top50. But I knew it was fun and I knew that they would enjoy it! I twisted somearms and got them there.

Two of my friends reallyliked it and wanted to come back again next week. The other was, and I quote,“glad she tried”. Which, hey, not everything is going to be everyone’s cup oftea. But we all had a really good time together! It was simple, fun, and it wasreally nice to give a local venue a good experience as well.

Moral of the story? GET OFFOF THE COUCH. I mean, at least every once in a while. Try to do something funevery day. It could even only be for 20 minutes, but I super believe you’ll beglad you did. It doesn’t even take that much planning! Just get out and go.

Go my friend. Be free. Do notbind yourself to that fabric sofa. Or leather sofa--hopefully not leather.Leather couches are a 3/10.