One or the Other…
I am lucky. Lucky enough to meet very different people who fell on the different ends of the spectrum. Individually and collectively they helped me grow, taught me to believe in myself, and consistently found never-ending ways to better my life. Aside from that, being from different ends of the spectrum they each brought out different values on the table, none of them wrong but just inherently different. One, in particular, stood out to me: To live now and worry later or to worry now and live later. I know it must seem a little abstract and vague but what it means in a gist is to choose to invest in absolute happiness first and then worry about making ends meet or to make ends meet first and then pursue happiness. Now, I’m almost a hundred percent sure that regardless of who you are, your background, or your current situation in life, this question must be something you have asked yourself at once. Ultimately it is one of the biggest choices that you make and probably one of the hardest.
This particular excerpt is not the answer, although I would love to be of help to everyone on this matter, I doubt an inexperienced, sheltered twenty years old would be a very credible source for advice on this. However, this excerpt will be focusing on the pros and the cons of both potential paths and just like life, I shall leave the rest to you.
Let’s begin with the first path. Choosing happiness first. Imagine this, you’ve got a little bit saved up, enough to get you by with occasional splurging here and there with friends. You work a job that you indefinitely love. You get up every day, excited to hustle to work, but it’s a tough day. At the end of the day, you have to take the long commute because you cannot afford to rent up a flat that is available and nearby where you work. You see your friends once a month or once every two months because going out to eat and all those after drinks eats up into your savings. You try to make do with your laptop even though it keeps crashing. But you’re in a job you love. You see the pros here are relatively obvious: you’ll love what you do. However, sometimes what we love and what can provide us doesn’t always overlap. If they do, great. You’re sweeping through life without batting an eye. Now if they don’t, this is where the consequences somewhat kick in. You’re happy at first, you work hard but some things in life become overbearing. The struggle to keep up with everybody around you and everything eventually will get to you. You’ll start wishing that you had taken the 9–5 job everyone was encouraging to you, but you chose to stick by your values and you weren’t wrong.
The second path. You’re winning. You’re making the big bucks. You took that 9–5 that everyone was competing for. You skipped out on parties, family dinners, or brunch with friends. You got told: you work too hard, you have such a one-track mind, success is not only defined by your definition. You’re doing well, you’re financially stable. But you’re a lot older now, all the things you wanted to save the money up for in the first place are a lot more out of reach now. You have other commitments. Maybe a family, a better position, obligations to your parents. Or you’re just no longer up for it. You outgrew your friends, your old dreams and now you’re just wallowing in a pile of money. You worked hard, you pushed through and you made it. You weren’t wrong here either.
Funny enough, both paths seem to have a dreary ending. So maybe it’s not all about the ending that you will eventually face. It’s about the quality of life that you gain from referring to either of these paths. Each path will define you differently, contribute to different strengths, and shine a light on completely opposing struggles. Maybe that’s how we’re supposed to approach life: choosing between instant gratification or delayed gratification. I’ve seen people go through both and they’re doing alright. They’re surviving. Whatever you choose, just remember they both have their own set of rewards and they both come at a cost. It just depends on which benefits you want to reap and what costs can you actually bear. As for me, I’m still figuring it out, I am only 20.
“Life is always playing us, we just got to go with the flow.” I know, spoken like a true hippie. Well, it is what is.
Push through…We’ve got this!
