Am I doing this Right?

It’s actually quite simple. Just be positive. It’s all perspective. Aspire to be happy. But don’t forget to be successful. You need to go to school and make straight A’s and network and graduate and write a cover letter & a resume. Then you have to get a job and make money and then get promoted, then promoted again, and then get married and have a happy family. That’s the goal, isn’t it?

Can you trust the children of today will follow the same formula? Do you want them to follow in your footsteps? Do you want them to be like you? Do you want to contribute to creating the next generation? You were put on the earth and you don’t really know why.

There are no rules. There are rules for the rules that exist on top of other unspoken but universally known rules. You should start thinking about retirement as soon as you enter the workforce. After all, it will take you years and years to secure enough money to start enjoying your life or just so that when you ultimately can’t work anymore, you won’t be impoverished. It doesn’t matter that copper is basically worthless, that paper money burns, and that computers die and hearts stop. Currency is all that matters. Productivity is all that matters. Doing everything right is all that matters. Following the rules is all that matters. Having a happy family is all that matters. Being happy is all that matters. You shouldn’t complain about how tired you are after work and if you’re stressed you just shouldn’t be because you have to think positive thoughts even though the world is not necessarily a fair, just, or generally positive place. Beauty and cruelty have been married since time began yet for some reason we are taught to laser focus on only the beautiful things. This is not new. This is not a surprise. You should have known how to pay your taxes and what political parties to vote for and most importantly: that you were wrong the whole time.

You haven’t been cooking your food properly. You haven’t been cleaning your house properly, you haven’t been interacting with people properly. Here is a video on how to stand correctly, breathe correctly, and live correctly. You haven’t been doing it right. You should have more hobbies and spend less time on your phone even though humans rely on technology as they do oxygen at this point. Here’s an article on why blue light is bad. Here’s another on how to decorate your space right. Here are 30 essentials you need from Amazon. You probably shouldn’t buy from Amazon though because that guy is a billionaire and there are people that are on the streets starving. Does that make you feel guilty? Sustainability and ethics are all the rage while we strive to live in a way that is entirely unsustainable.

You really don’t have the time to be tired or sick or sad or human because work-life balance is essential. Just juggle family, friends, relationships, hardships, day-to-day life, work, school, and leisure. It’s just that simple. Don’t forget to add the time it takes you to drive to work but don’t forget that it’s bad to drive a car because of the fuel emissions.

You’re killing the earth singlehandedly while private jets shoot through the sky. The amount of time you look at your computer screen is going to make you blind. You won’t see the fire but you will smell the smoke and when it’s all said and done will you feel any remorse? You were supposed to be saving the world, saving yourself, saving money, saving face. You were supposed to know that guns don’t kill people, people kill people so it’s fine if everyone walks around with a loaded weapon because there will be so many people dying today in car accidents and morticians need a job and you should probably be paying thousands of dollars for a wooden box or an ugly vase. You should’ve known not to walk outside after dark or have too many drinks in that bar, you should’ve been more careful. But you can’t be paranoid! Don’t overreact. You cannot be afraid of all danger because it’s inescapable but that should be easy to accept. After all, anything could kill you and that’s why you have to live.

You have to live and be grateful that you are living. But you have to do it the right way. You can’t worry about death, you can’t worry about life, you can’t worry- you shouldn’t worry, you have nothing to worry about. Provide, engage, fulfill, consume, overcome, endure. Move at the speed of light but do not make a sound. Smile. Stand up for injustice but sometimes bad people get away with horrible things and there’s nothing you can do about it.  You should be able to tell what is good and evil and bad and right and wrong. It’s all very obvious, but this news channel says one thing and the other the exact opposite. It all matters- but only when there are eyes that observe other than your own. It’s fine that we’re all a little blind at times, blurry vision is a side effect of the screen time and the microwaves and the radiation and the sunshine. It’s all okay in moderation of course, but moderate people are rarely if ever remembered by history.

Don’t you want to be a part of history? Do you trust everything that was written in those books? You know a human wrote them and humans make mistakes but machines die too so maybe you should become one. Work, reproduce, die. Be quiet about the last one or else you’ll make people uncomfortable. Don’t do drugs unless your doctor tells you to. Some of them are not bad but they also come with 3 pages of warnings and side effects so keep that in mind. You might see a commercial on TV one day saying that you are entitled to financial compensation because you’ve been swallowing poison for years. A little poison never hurt anyone- but that sunscreen you’ve been using has mineral oil in it and that might take a few years off of your life and burn a few holes in the atmosphere, so maybe don’t use that one.

Did you forget that the world was burning? Or is it freezing? Or flooding? Or falling apart? Maybe you should do something. Maybe you shouldn’t be so dramatic. Maybe you should care more, apathy is only okay in certain situations like seven days after the last major tragedy that the people swore they’d never forget. Or when someone who’s in movies or won a gold medal dies in that one way that no one ever really speaks about at least not openly.

Be aware of mental health, be understanding but don’t be crazy, and try not to say that seven-letter word. Reserve that for whispers, reserve that for white walls which won’t be so bright once you say it out loud. Talk about your feelings but not too much because you need to move on and you can’t stay in the past, you need to plan your future but you have to enjoy the present right now or else it will slip away through your fingers.

Everything you think is true is a carefully constructed lie, or maybe it is the truth after all. You’ll know all the answers because everyone knows. Google has 300 pages worth of 3 million articles written by professionals who did 3,000 hours of research and each one has a different answer. There’s a computer in your pocket that used to occupy a room. Are you sure that you’re unsure?

All you have to do is take yourself apart piece by piece and arrange your entire being so it fits into an ever-shifting societal mold. I’m beginning to think humans are as impatient as they are adaptable. And if you feel as confused as I do, I wonder how many others feel the same.