Please read the foreword to this before continuing reading. And the afterword too!
Oh dear it is yet another one of those profound musings (as profound as a rambling teen can get of course). I have this concept about death and afterlife that most people don’t quite agree with me on. What happens after we die? Well one thing is for sure, we are obviously NOT ALIVE. And guess what, before we were born we were also NOT ALIVE. Before you were born you obviously can’t be DEAD, since being dead has the pre-requisite of having lived first, something an unconceived infant can’t possibly achieve; but pre-birth (as I would like to call the time before we are born) and after death share the same state of NOT LIVING. What does that tell you? It tells me that in a very sick sort of way that life is one big circle, you start off not alive and end up not alive.
Yes I have just insinuated that the entire process of living aka your entire life is you walking ONE BIG CIRCLE back to where you started, not alive…talk about wasting your life…I mean when you think about it this literally means you’re born to just die and your ultimate destination in life is where you started so why do you have to live at all if you’re just going to end up where you came from!? AAAAND cue THE CIRCLE OF LIFE!!!!
Okay no more Lion King…well be it out of necessity to preserve human sanity or out of philosophical brilliance, the phrase “the journey is more important than the destination” was coined for a reason. More often than not people embark on journeys only to end up where they started, I mean that’s how going sightseeing works no? You go overseas from your home and return home again. If destination was such a bloody big deal then why go out only to go home again? But it made a difference didn’t it? The entire trip, the JOURNEY made a difference. The journey of life made a difference, which is why the state of being not alive after having lived has a special term, called death. Which means to say being dead is a sort of achievement, okay so technically having lived is the achievement but….right I’m confusing you guys as well as myself.
What I am getting at is, if life is a road, it’s a roundabout, so if you’re walking in circles just by living, what’s the big deal if the other paths you take in life, the smaller (but yet somehow more significant) are all round about routes too? I get it, time is limited but at the same time we want our life to be long and I don’t see how we will be living a long life by rushing through everything? What’s the point of having left-over time that serves no meaning or purpose?
Walking a big round isn’t necessarily a bad thing; you see more things along the way, reflect on more things, experience more things and have a more fruitful journey. Isn’t it more important to have a memorable journey than a quick one? Yet in life we try to rush everything and think that the long roads are wasteful ones. What would you rather waste?? Your youth or your life? Think about it, we try to rush kids through primary education and secondary education and tertiary education because we want to work earlier….why? Why are people so afraid to “Waste their youth” on actually experiencing youth? Why use your youth to experience adult life?
You may feel smart when you graduate college 3 years before everyone else and getting a head start in life, but did you really? Sure you are young and thus have more energy to spend on working on your career but those people who spend 3 more years than you did may have experiences that are invaluable. Like internships, friendships and understanding every stage of life instead of rushing headlong into the next stage. You know Pokemon? When you think you’re so smart and taking advantage of type advantages to beat gym leaders with higher levels than you so you can be ahead of your friends playing that silly game? Remember how because your pokemon is under-levelled because you rushed through everything that you had a hard time beating the Champion league? Well life works the same way. What you’ve missed out by speeding through life may cost you in the future. You think you saved your youth but you end up wasting your life, not enjoying it, experiencing it to the fullest.
And this paragraph I dedicate to those who have chosen roundabout roads in life. Be it delaying marriage, education, so long as you are not delaying things and stages in your life as a form of escape but towards a proper goal and dream, who cares if you’re taking longer than others? Even if people around you tell you that you’ll be wasting your life and time, taking such a roundabout route, as long as you know that the road leads you to where you want to go, have faith that your way will bring you more fruits and experience than the normal road. After all, life is already one big roundabout, so who cares if you take a few more twist and turns to finish the course? Life isn’t a race, it’s a journey, it’s not about who finishes first but who finishes the richest, be it mentally, physically or emotionally. So don’t be afraid of taking the long way, whatever people say, you are neither stupid nor wasting your life, you are living it. (Besides, with today’s medical technology, age and time are one of the only things that human are getting richer and richer in.)
And so I say, the best roads in life are usually the roundabout ones.
The little things in my head 