The hardest lesson to learn is that in the end, you’re on your own and if you’re truly in a path to do your own thing an be you there is gonna be a bit of suffering in your life and you really just fucking need to accept that.
No one.
Your gut instinct is to quip back “I care, people care, blah blah blah” and you’ve got your perfectly programmed little response based on the group think that has shaped your thoughts and opinions for you over the years and likely your parents before you. You have what you’ve been taught in schools, churches, and via political party affiliations to start. Then it’s your coworkers/friends and what they’ve been trained to respond to such. The church go may reply that your god cares, or that the teachings of various prophets have taught you to. If you’re a liberal you’re saying you care because supposedly only liberals care. Conservatives will argue they care to and that you just need to grab your big boy pants and find god. But ask any of those folks to really help you when you really need it and you will realize few care enough to practice what they preach.
You’re on your own.
Yet you’re supposed to pledge your allegiance to these things that ultimately don’t teach you or encourage you to truly seek out who you are. Sure, they all would say otherwise, but the catch is you have to follow something or believe in something that will forge your identity for you ever so slightly and as long as you’re aligned with such you’ll never really be you just a version of you that’s acceptable in those circles. Stray and you’re on your own.
No doubt it’s a lonely, sometimes incredibly lonely, path to go out and figure out who you are. To step away from the comfort of the circles of influence that’s given you that identity you have today. It’s important I feel to go through such a process though to find true meaning to your life, to question everything….really question everything…and then see what truly makes you content without hurting others.
Notice I said “content” and not happy. The pursuit of happiness is perhaps the most unfulfilling of all because happy is addict and often comes with a great deal of comfort which is as well. Being content however keeps you from pursuing things just because they’ll make you happy, and thats simply not enough.
No ones cares you’re happy. Because life is a struggle. You want to learn something new, it’s going be a struggle at first. Want to run a marathon? There is a long road of suffering before the start line, and after that you still have to compelet the race. It won’t be easy, but the reward of finishing is far greater.
In the end we’re on our own and we need to accept that as of yesterday if you haven’t already. So why not figure out what it means to truly be on your own? Have your own thoughts? Do your own thing? Stop worrying about what institutions like political parties or religions or even your schooling with think of what you may do or try next. Start pondering basic life and the world around you. Look up at the stars more. Walk your neighborhood. Stop watching TV for a week and try to limit how much you do watch. Get a bicycle and try to ride to places you would think are just a tad too far. Go for long walks and walk to places you’d normally drive to. And think. Think a lot about what really matters in the world as well as your world.
Listen to words of songs. Read more books and visit a library. Think of ways to grow yourself mentally and physically, and use the time spent watching TV, going to church, watching/reading “the news”, or playing video games to do those activities instead. You’ll gain more depth of personality that way and really learn who you are. Follow what interests you over what makes you happy, because happy is temporary and knowledge is one thing no one can take from you. Even if its’ just reading up on something as silly as the history of denim or a random place in the world….like reading about it once or twice a week for a few hours and doing so for as long as you can stand. You’ll give up on some things and create life long passions on others this way. All things unqiue to you.
Ignore all these self help fuckers repeating age old ideas with a twist that in the end of the day is meant just to sell you books of ideas that aren’t their own anyway. Distance yourself from the chronically overly positive and overly negative people and idealogies. None of this will serve you. It’ll only let each own a little bit more of your persona and leave that much less for you.
In the end, no one cares. So care about yourself and deeply invest in you.