I need to be saved from my life. It sucks.
It absolutely, spectacularly sucks. Well, okay, being a natural pessimist prone to exaggeration, maybe it doesn’t all absolutely suck. It seems that only the most important part of my life sucks. The part where I am supposed to be enjoying myself.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m reasonably fit and healthy even if I am older than I’d like. I own a townhouse I can almost afford to keep. On the positive, it is near to some very beautiful beaches in one direction and some very beautiful rainforests in the other. I have a very nice partner who listens to me complain about my very reasonable job and not having enough money from my totally acceptable wage.
As a teenager, did you ever complain about how unfair your life is? Did your parents ever give you a version of this speech –
“Your grandfather had to walk five miles to school in the snow in bare feet after milking the cows/feeding the pigs/exercising the horses at dawn with only bread and dripping in his belly until dinner. Your life is easy by comparison. Teenagers are so ungrateful….”
Call me ungrateful but I want more than to be fed, clothed and dry. I want my wage to cover my bills AND leave me enough for a life. Don’t you dare roll your eyes. I don’t have a personal trainer, weekly nail salon visits, a-la carte dining or tropical island getaways. Hell, I don’t even have an internet connection! My very reasonable wage only pays for my bills and a very basic, pared down, slightly student-like existence. When I’ve paid my expenses, there is just enough money left to buy groceries and get creative with home cooking.
I am on the escalator of mediocrity with all the other mediocre people and I want to get off. No! It’s more than that.
I want to run up the down escalator screaming and waving my arms.😜
I want to upset all the other mediocre people with their blank faces and boring lives until they tut-tut and shake their heads.
I’m not so arrogant that I believe I have the right to judge everyone else. They are either happy or unhappy with their lives the way they are. They may or may not have motivation to change. They may or may not have had the catalyst, the awakening, the SNAP!!! They may not have experienced the thing that opens your eyes and makes your life completely intolerable the way it is. I feel sorry for them.
What’s really sad is that I’m surrounded by people living lives just like mine who are dissatisfied with their lot but don’t do anything.
Is it living if you spend all your week working and all your weekend preparing for working again on Monday?
Is living defined by how well you can pay your bills?
They say “life’s short”. I’ve just realised that “they” were probably nearing fifty and wondering where their bloody lives went. I decided to do my life right while I still had the energy.
