If the sum of the parts is the solution then the sum of your experiences is life. That much is true. Life doesn’t exist in some neat little box you can place on your shelf. Life is out in the world and it won’t conform to your standards. I can reason that the product of my experiences is an interesting story to say the least. If my muse and syntax will allow I can recount those memories here.
I love my life; I make no qualms about who I am and how I think. I wish I could say that I wouldn’t trade my life with anyone, but that would be a fallacy. In truth a life as a Billionaire playboy is more appealing then my meager existence. Truthfully I do not think that a wealthy life would make me happier, the grass is just greener if you will allow an outdated idiom. I hope that I would have found happiness in any existence. As stated previously, life is the sum of experiences; from the joyous and somber, to the hopefully and realistic, and even the eager and humble. It takes the peaks and the valleys to make your whole being.
I wish that I could tell my past self some things about how the world really works. A part of me realizes that my past self would scoff at such advice. It occurs to me that at eighteen and twenty I wouldn’t have listened to even future me. In my petulant youth, I possessed a succinct lack of respect for the true difference between knowledge and wisdom. I reasoned that by virtue of being more intelligent then someone I knew more than they did. While this may be true for knowledge it is not the case for wisdom, which stems from life and experience. It took gaining wisdom and perspective of my own to come to grips with the relationship between the two. If fact it occurred when I noticed that those less wise then myself balked at my offered advice. I began to see that I had foolishly dismissed some very good advice over the years, and I was incorrect in doing so. I once observed that I would offer a person some advice, but he would not listen anyways, and he would in fact not heed said advice until he was older.
As you have probably figured out by this point, I can be quite wordy and sometime I ramble. I rationalize this to myself as simple philosophical thinking and I do sleep soundly at night. I have tried to twist and contort my life to attempt to fit it into someone else’s standards. This is in fact the stupidest thing anyone has even thought to do ever, in the history of the whole entire world. Live your life as you see fit and do not fall into this trap. Otherwise that twisted and contorted life of yours will end up looking more like a wreck than anything productive. Your standards that you set for you are the only important thing to measure yourself against.
Those mouthfuls being said at some point in your life you will encounter another human being who will make you think that you need to change something. If this person and you were meant to have a future together then they will accept you for you and not the facade you put on. A cheesy movie once quipped “True love is your soul’s recognition of its counterpoint in another.” There is a ton of true in that quote and coming to terms with it will allow you to begin searching for that counterpoint. I promise that if someone does not like you as you truly are, then it was never meant to be. Any relationship built on lies will be exactly that built on lies. And while it may appeal to some people to hide who they really are it will prevent you from ever being happy.
A television show I frequently watched once said “I used to think growing up was something that happened automatically, it isn’t it is something you have to choose to do.” At a point in my life I would those words to be very insightful. And while it may not be the same for everyone else in the world it is very true for me. I spent six years of my life acting like a teen aged idiot despite being in my twenties. I woke up every morning and upon reflection discovered I had not grown up magically overnight, I would go back to being an idiot. I was waiting to grow up when I should have been working toward growing up. If you spend your life waiting on it you will never grow up. If I may be so blunt as to say, the only thing in life worth waiting on is true love.
If I could dispense advice freely to the world I would do so, and if all my advice fell on deaf ears I would be okay with that. Just the notion of having my words go out to the world would be enough for me. I could live a content life with only the knowledge that I tried my best. That is another piece of advice that I would attempt to bestow, if you always try your best you will never fail. You will not get everything you have ever wanted but who wants that anyways. There is no happiness with having everything. As long as you always give it your all you will still be able to stand up and say so and that it the biggest win you can ever experience. To stand up and say damn it, I didn’t get what I wanted but there is not a single thing I could have done better.
Allow me to put it to you this way, when you are on your deathbed what are you going to look back on with regret? I know what my biggest regret is and I will one day have to come to terms with it, but have you? I also do not recommend running from your past, you should embrace your mistakes as chance to learn and grow. “The race is long and in the end it is only with yourself…”
No comments:
Post a Comment