- Aug 22, 2007
- 1,110
- 0
- 36
- 36
I'll be blunt. I can't relate to the idea of living a long, "full" life at the expense of more imminent pleasures. It's blatantly putting quantity over quality. I've lived my whole life based on the societal tradition of working hard right now for pay-off later, but guess what? It never has worked out for me. I don't get any pay-off later. Way back in middle school when I would work my ass off for good grades, I kept believing that if I worked hard during the week I would have a great time on the weekends. Well, I never had a great time on the weekends. Not once. I had focused myself so much on my work that I honestly didn't even know HOW to have fun on the weekends! It came to the point where I hated breaks like Christmas and summer because I didn't know what to do with myself.
It's simple, really. You're working for your pension so that you can retire and live those last years of your life without working. Huh? That doesn't make sense to me. Why would you choose to have money when your body and mind are at their weakest?
I'm not arguing with anybody telling them that they should not live like that. I can easily understand how it would work out for some people. All I'm asking is, doesn't the notion make sense that some people would be better off living great lives right now and then bowing out gracefully?
The general defense of the work-now-play-later ideology is that you are living a far fuller life by working hard to live for a LONG time instead of not working and living for a short time. I simply don't think this is true, not in my case. All of the greatest moments in my life have been when I stepped outside of the boundaries and neglected the future. Those are the moments that I remember. Sure I've spent so much successful time logging hours in class, but I seriously don't remember anything about those times. And I'm not someone who hated school-work. Even the projects and classes I loved, I don't remember anything about them. But I remember all the details of those times I skipped class in highschool. I don't remember what it felt like to write my great essay about Charlie Manson but I do remember what it felt like that time I went to my friend's frat and hung out in the basement alone, and then woke up in the morning and everybody was gone.
I've taken this too far away from being blunt already... All I'm saying is that I've known a great many people who were miserable in their jobs, and I don't think that we must feel trapped like that. There are other legitimate options. I personally would rather live a life that I respect and enjoy than live a life that I feel miserable about. Just a week of pure fun would outweigh 50 years of misery easily. I'd personally rather go to my grave feeling as though I had lived a satisfying life, rather than go to my grave feeling as though I had simply gotten by as well as I could in a system that required me to work and sweat and feel subordinate. For me to achieve that, all I need to do is assert that the quality of my life is more important than the quantity; have fun and then bow out. I wish society could respect that.
It's simple, really. You're working for your pension so that you can retire and live those last years of your life without working. Huh? That doesn't make sense to me. Why would you choose to have money when your body and mind are at their weakest?
I'm not arguing with anybody telling them that they should not live like that. I can easily understand how it would work out for some people. All I'm asking is, doesn't the notion make sense that some people would be better off living great lives right now and then bowing out gracefully?
The general defense of the work-now-play-later ideology is that you are living a far fuller life by working hard to live for a LONG time instead of not working and living for a short time. I simply don't think this is true, not in my case. All of the greatest moments in my life have been when I stepped outside of the boundaries and neglected the future. Those are the moments that I remember. Sure I've spent so much successful time logging hours in class, but I seriously don't remember anything about those times. And I'm not someone who hated school-work. Even the projects and classes I loved, I don't remember anything about them. But I remember all the details of those times I skipped class in highschool. I don't remember what it felt like to write my great essay about Charlie Manson but I do remember what it felt like that time I went to my friend's frat and hung out in the basement alone, and then woke up in the morning and everybody was gone.
I've taken this too far away from being blunt already... All I'm saying is that I've known a great many people who were miserable in their jobs, and I don't think that we must feel trapped like that. There are other legitimate options. I personally would rather live a life that I respect and enjoy than live a life that I feel miserable about. Just a week of pure fun would outweigh 50 years of misery easily. I'd personally rather go to my grave feeling as though I had lived a satisfying life, rather than go to my grave feeling as though I had simply gotten by as well as I could in a system that required me to work and sweat and feel subordinate. For me to achieve that, all I need to do is assert that the quality of my life is more important than the quantity; have fun and then bow out. I wish society could respect that.
