Struggling with Life

Recently, I have been questioning what it means to be alive. We live, we work, but when and how much are we happy. There are so many social stereotypes that we allow to take over our lives… we should do this, we should do that… but really, we are alive only once and how many of us, if given the chance, could honestly say at the end of our lives that it was a fun and enjoyable ride? What about all the bad days at work, at a job that you never really liked, but it paid the bills… or family and friends that were there, but maybe not the way you would really have liked. There are so many aspects of our society (here speaking in the Western culture) that we take for granted. We never stop and ask the question “why”? “Why” am I really at this job that I don’t like. “Why” do I have a house bigger than what I need, or a car greater than my needs. And god forbid if we ever asked the question as to why we choose to marry or have children. Sometimes one would be better off not marrying someone, or having children, but we do it because society “expects” us to. Or that we feel that we need to be with someone. Some of us are meant to marry and have children, certainly. We would die as a species if we didn’t! But it is not necessary for all of us to.


I know this sounds cynical and I don’t make it to be. What I want it to be is a challenge to step back and just think, think real hard, about life (and being alive) and the choices we make. But this isn’t a question of second chances, it is a challenge to continue to move forward in life, with the consequences of my life so far, and move forward as best as I can to make it ENJOYABLE. Not stuck in situations that are satisfactory. How many of us simply tolerate life? We have consumerism surrounding us, but how much of it is necessary? The challenge is to get to the basic values of life, the basic values of living. What do we need to make us happy, truly happy? The challenge is to try at least once a day to make a decision that you want to make because it is what you want to do, not what society or others want you to do. Surly the difficulty will lie in that our actions do affect others, and it is important to keep this in mind. Our living should not impose on the quality of the life of others, but this is hard because we are social beings. But it is important too to not allow the social aspect of our lives control our lives entirely, but to simply support it.