Life Goes On

Life never stops.

And it’s so busy.

How is being an adult so – exhausting? Between bills, cleaning, cooking and work there’s hardly any time left for hobbies and relaxation.

I never realized how I took being a kid for granted. By the time I was old enough to have a job – I got a job. I wanted to be an adult, and golly I sure tried. I wanted to drive and make my own choices, I wanted to move out and try “adult-ing” instead of cherishing the last years I’d have with no obligations. I didn’t want to be young and I wanted to take care of myself.

Thanks Mom and Dad, you know, for not telling me the dirty truth.

Oh well I’m sure they did. They told me to not grow up too fast. They told me enjoy being a kid and go run and play. Go to school and make friends, play sports, find the activities you like to do.

What they didn’t say were things like “When you get a paycheck as a young adult it feels like you are literally lighting it on fire and burning it because that’s how fast your money will go.” You know, or even let me know how important money really is. Yeah, I got it to an extent, that you need money for – practically everything. But damn – could we have thought about the student loans a bit more before I signed my soul over to the Federal Government?

There are just things you don’t get until you are living the adult life. I guess it can’t be explained. This must be what inspires people to reach for their dreams and make something they love to do into a career

Because, as it turns out, what you end up doing for a job becomes what you spend the majority of your time doing. We as humans spend our lives working. For money to pay bills to live. Living isn’t even free – not truly. Not unless you have land off in some remote, uncontrolled property and can supply yourself with food, shelter and all necessities. Basically not unless you’re rich. It makes me wonder –

When did being alive get so expensive?

And dear gosh why didn’t they at least design life to have four day work weeks and three day weekends. I think if that were the standard people would be a lot happier. And ultimately isn’t that the goal of life – to be happy?

But seriously. There’s something wrong with our standard of living – with our society. We are thrust into the adult world without clear direction and for an unfortunate majority spend most of our lives doing things we hate. We have to or else we can’t have a place to sleep, let alone food or money for children. We are taught to believe that this is “the normal” that this is how we’re meant to be living.

I don’t think so. There is so much more than working, paying bills and dying. We are meant to do so much more and the world is at our fingertips to discover. How do you shift the social norm? Life needs to be busy – that’s good. But why can’t it be busy with being creative, learning, helping one another and building a genuine, fun and peaceful world? Why can’t we work with the land instead of against it?

The only thing I can do is continue adult-ing and pursue my dreams. If I can find a way to be happy then hopefully I can share that happiness with others. And in the meantime you know what happens?

Life still goes on.