Another year spent.
How should I look back on it? Was it a year filled with learned experiences or was it squandered on meaningless activities? Most people seem to think that life gets worse as you get older. I can't help but wonder why. Remember when you were little and you saw what many grown-ups were able to do? You wondered what it would be like to be like them. These people did things like compose masterful pieces of music, build towering structures, and fly spacecrafts to the moon. Yes, grown-ups have many more responsibilities than a 6-year old who is free to run about, but it is often this child who looks up to the adults around her and thinks "I want to be like them. If only I were older so I could be important too.".
What happens when this child grows older and the weight of the real world grows heavier on her shoulders? She becomes tempted to look backward, back to the time when she was free to run about. She worries about all of the things she must do and loses sight of the things she wanted to do with her life. Obligations take the place of dreams for the sake of "security". As she progresses through adulthood, her childhood spirit is all but forgotten and she winds up with a home filled with things to fill the hole in her heart.
I believe this describes many of the people that I've become tired of listening to. These are the people who say "This is the way things are, so there's no point in trying to change them." or "Life sucks and then you die." I simply do not understand how life is supposed to be more palatable with that mindset. Did our world's great political leaders stand up for change because they thought "Well it would be nice, but it makes no difference in the end"? Did great scientists give us new technological advancements simply for our enjoyment, since we might as well not have them in our short lives? Do people band together every day to promote activities and ideas just for the fun of it?
Why does so much change happen in society if there's no point? Why do anything if it ultimately makes no difference? Just take a couple minutes and look through many of the social organizations and movements that happen by you. Look at the diverse expressions of art and culture that fill our world. There's got to be something to life that would fuel so much activity.
Many of our forebears believed in making a brighter future. We are living in it today. What good is it then if we cast it aside and give up? If they were able to make a difference, then why shouldn't we? What definitive reason to do we have to put a halt on progress that they did not?
There is a noticeable outward difference in a dreamer who holds a deep passion for something and a skeptic who removes himself from any idea that could prove disappointing. The dreamer has a degree of zest for life that comes from the potential each day brings to live out the dream. The skeptic scowls at each day, seeming to prepare himself for the coming disappointment so as to not be caught off guard. Which attitude seems more appropriate for a life filled with possibilities?
Life is full of potential. If it sucks, do something to change it. It does not matter how old you are or what happened in your past. Your future self does not have to be who you are now. That is what I've been wanting to do for myself. That is how I will spend the coming year.
