28 isn’t really anything to write home about. It’s quite a dull age when you think about it. I also officially made it one year past the year where all the famous people die so at least I can take that away from my very mid age. But I think I’ve earnt the right to discuss some philosophical takeaways I have had from my, admittedly short journey on the planet we call Earth.
I think looking at life as an arbitrary marching forward of the years is a fatal mistake that we all fall into every now and then. Life should be looked at as qualitative rather than quantitative. It’s also interesting when you think about the growth you’ve experienced in life, I would harbour a guess, that for the most part it didn’t come from your greatest successes but actually from your biggest disappointments. When at the time you viewed it as a potentially tragic failure, I think you would probably look back and realise that it gave you a little grit and might have put a chip the size of a woolly mammoth on your shoulder.
I think that kind of resilience feels impossible to achieve while you’re in the middle of some strife that you have to overcome but its only when you come out of it that you realise you’ve probably gained a fair amount of experience from the whole affair. Not to discredit a potentially miserable time you’re going through now and coming off as if to say ‘’pull yourself up by your bootstraps!’’ I’m simply making the point that the greatest challenges you are facing in your life today will eventually be fuel you use to get better in the future, but of course I’m painfully aware of how hard that is to do in the moment.
In life we go through different phases of growth. Growth can be inherently positive but you can also grow to become a class A prick. Life dictates what bracket you’re going to fall into. It’s very easy to take experiences and use to as a way to make excuses for every ill that besets you in life but, it’s also important to remember that every person you meet throughout your day has the exact same reason to become a prick due to the experiences they endure, however most choose not to.
As we go through life we make mistakes, we win, we lose, we feel envy due to other people’s successes, we feel regret. Yet, we strive to be better. Why is that? The drive within us has never been adequately explained to me, whether I have sought the answer out enough is a discussion for another time, but I honestly don’t think there has ever been a mainstream consensus on the matter. In my opinion the main thing that drives us to be better is trying not to make the same mistake twice. Yes, we’ve all fucked up, I’ve royally fucked up on occasion. But what drives me to do better isn’t this pie in the sky idea of chasing glory or never making a mistake again, it’s simply that I fear fucking up the same way again. Not only would it be devastating for me, but for the ones I love – even more so.
We are all born naive unbashful optimists but life slowly beats the cynical sceptic into us from the moment we enter into society. We realise that life isn’t what we thought, yes, I’m aware at how much of an understatement that is. But the point remains, no baby is born a cynic, it’s engrained in us from a very early age. It’s perfectly normal to be cynical and sceptical, though. Sure if we weren’t we would fall for every scam In the book. Its just as important, though to keep an open mind to things. As much as we can use life as an excuse to tell the world to fuck off its important to keep some kind of hope.
As you go through life it’s important to engage with as many people as you possibly can, never shy away from dealing with people who have different opinions than you because all that does is encourage vacuum chambers and will make you become more enclosed to differing viewpoints because you’re afraid of being intellectually challenged. Nobody knows everything, it’s not only impossible but most things do not have a definitive answer. Think about how society’s views on everything from women’s rights to healthcare to civil rights in general has drastically shifted over the last years. We can’t even come to a general consensus on these things so how can we expect that there is definitive answers to anything?
Whether you deal with people in a professional sense or in your social/personal life make it your mission to seek out opinions and views that challenge your own but never shy away from debate. Debate is the basis on which we can resolve conflict before it divulges into more primitive methods.
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