So I switched around some themes and widgets to make the blog cleaner, I believe it looks better than the 'we tried so hard to make it cool that things will break the moment you tinker with the source' feeling the previous dynamic template gave me. I've also renamed the 'Reads' section to 'Off-Topic', because that's precisely what it is.
This is post, titled 'Life Reflections' is something different from what I usually post, and is a condensation of a constellation of thoughts that floats around in my head, and in the head of every typical teen, I imagine. If you're reading on, brace yourself for unnecessary philosophy, mindless twin-persona monologues and and hazy strings of thoughts that phases between deep comprehension and thoughtless blabber.
We may be human beings, the most advanced organism on planet Earth. But at the core, we are animals created as the product of evolution, and at the most fundamental level our very purpose is to be born, perform actions that extend the survival of ourselves and our species, before eventually succumbing to biological decay. From such a perspective which, human lives don't matter at all, no more than lives of lower animals matter to us. But for the lives of the animals matter to themselves, and our on lives and what we do with it matter to us. After all, we're a mixture of carbon and hydrogen trying to find ways to incite happiness-inducing hormones in a time frame equal to a single axial rotation of a celestial sphere, not an omnipotent force that has complete comprehension of the full scale of the universe.
And so we evolved. At a rate several times faster than any creature to walk the earth. We evolved from advanced primates to intelligent species capable of forming a stable society. Within a millennia, which is an insignificantly small period for evolution as a whole, we went from hunting deer with sharpened rocks to sailing across seas in warships to conquer new land. We were thinkers, adventurers and conquerors. Fast forward another one thousand years and we reach the present world of democracy, social structure and unfortunately, a sped-up lifestyle.
Make no mistake, I'm not blaming the present society. I'm glad that my problems extend only to choosing between career options and not factions in a civil war. I'm glad I live in a time of peace without the threat of my world being torn apart by bombs falling from the sky. People have suffered, and some even continue to suffer from much worse things than an accelerated life around the world. But with this post I'm focusing on what is now considered the average life of an typical citizen of this planet.
Too many of us wish if life had a pause button. I couldn't wait to be an adult when I hit my early teens, but now I just want it to stop. I don't want to know how people about to go past their youth feel about the same. Of course, the world might be full of opportunities and experiences waiting to be gained, once lost these don't come back, much like everything else in our day-to-day tasks. Once I decided not to attend a hands-on workshop on basic programming logic (Not as boring as it sounds) on the account of missing several days worth of classes at school. Most of my closest friends attended the workshop, and from everything I learned later, they had an absolute blast. I never stopped regretting the decision I made. That was neither the first nor is going to be the last decision I would regret. I'm sure that every one of us have similar experiences in life, of decisions that we would rue forever. It is, of course, impossible to take every opportunity that come by in life. But I now believe that that forgoing something that is done routinely for something else that breaks the monotonacity and promises memories that will last is worth doing.
The present generation lives in a world of expectations and limited paths to walk through. Even if a soul is brave enough to walk the lonely, untrodden road, he is usually dragged down by the pressure to do what is expected; the pressure to be normal. Only a few take steps as a professional to breath life into his childhood goals. Fewer achieve them. The cornerstone of social imbalance is perhaps this bottling of youth into a limited spectrum. Those who can't fit in are simply rejected.
Another aspect of our lives is the day-to-day duties that we carry out without question, that makes us slaves to a routine and turns our story into a dull stream that flows from day to day, week to week, month to month and renders the experiences that should stand out into warbled static in the background. Even if it does not involve anything special, slowing down our day is something imperative to do every now and then. I'm no specialist in living, so I can't give any advice as to how this can be done. Moreover, what 'slows down the moment' is largely dependent on personal characteristics and preferences. Blogging is a great past time that gets the parts of my brain rendered blunt by the routine of school cranking back to life. Watching sunrises and sunsets serves as a great reminder of the beauty of the world we live in. On cloudless nights, observing the beauty of the milky way and gazing at infinity is pure bliss. This is also mentioned in this Calvin & Hobbs cartoon that initially inspired me to put pen to paper (Okay, more like fingertips to keyboard) for this post.
If we just get caught up in the flow, we kind of defeat the purpose of our existence. The material we learn in school, as often criticized, give us very little practical knowledge and just gets us a certificate at the end. Most of our toils in University are oriented to gain a good job. And why do we need a job? To earn money. While there are millions who work in jobs that mean so much more to them than a medium of earning their monthly paycheck, for a typical person the cash, privileges and social status that comes with a job serves as their only allure. Too many people work hard to create the right situation so they may enjoy their lives later, while missing out on everything happening in the present. A person may forgo all his enjoyments in his school and collage life to get placed into a A-level company. Then he may spend several years building up his bank balance, working 9-to-5 and overtime to achieve his targets. By the time he looks back, he has a good education, a good job, a safe financial blanket, but not an iota of youth left with him. To make things worse, the social hierarchy of economic classes has made a cruel competitive mentality that can lead to such a situation a necessity to achieve a minimum position in the society.
So, I believe sometimes everyone needs to slow down, take a moment and reflect on their lives, and those of ones around them. Happiness is not meant to be something you get in little bursts , it is meant to be an emotion that should always accompany you. And if you feel lost or depressed like I have so many times, take a moment and pause your life. Spend some time alone. Go for a bike ride, meditate for a while, visit the beach during twilight or do anything that unplugs you from your daily worries. There is perhaps no better way to achieve a mindset that can solve our problems in a calm and controlled manner.
I'm wrapping up by saying once again I'm no philosopher or expert in anything, just a teen who likes to think a lot, and I'm not even sure if I'm putting many of the things I wrote about in this post into practice myself. This post is a mix of personal experiences and things I believe are true in the real world, and I just felt it would be nice to put down my thoughts in my blog. If you did read the whole thing, well, thanks =)
Do you think it's important to reflect on our lives now and then? Share your views and opinions in the comments below.
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