The Cycle of Ordinary

            The expression “take your life one day at time” is frequently used, and is often recited to people who “worry” about their future all too often.  I believe the expression came to fruition due to the fact that most people are too scared to look at their future; as their destiny is as repetitive and bleak as their already every-day institutionalized lives.

            From the beginning of our existence, we are institutionalized in a school system, which provides us with the knowledge and ability to acquire information as our lives progress. For the majority of us peoples, we are set to a routine from a young age to wake up at around seven o’clock, get ready, look nice for everybody else – and then tend to our jobs, duties or careers. As a student, our main goal is to excel in academics and studying. This takes us from elementary school to college, and for some of us graduate school. Through those years we wake up early, attend class, do our assigned homework, study for our tests which me must pass if we want to “go anywhere in life”, take part in all kinds of extracurricular activities to prove to our “future bosses” we’re leaders and exceptional individuals, maintain an adequate social life, sleep – and repeat.  After the repetitive week, it is time for the weekend! A time where we can let loose, consume all types of alcohols or substances of choice, get reckless, and maybe even wake up not knowing what happened! (If you really had a good time!) and forget all about the bleak and repetitive cycle which will reinitiate itself on Monday.

            After the teenage years pass, when schooling and time for learning is said and done, it is time to move onto the real world - and get a job! This job is the definition of what the past 20 something years of your life has culminated into. This is your first position in the real world, where you will be part of something greater. This may feel different than the rest of your life, but this progression from schooling to a career will continue the same repetitive cycle as you have experienced throughout your entire existence. The majority of you will wake up at an ungodly hour, eat your breakfast, make yourself look pretty for all your co-workers and arrive at work. You will put your hobbies, activities that make you happy, and personal goals behind you - and attempt to excel at your career, just as you attempted to do in your times of higher learning. The majorities of peoples (AKA the 99 percent) will never graduate from this cyclic destiny and will continue on their path of working to live. The majorities will continue to wake up at 7AM to appease their boss or corporation that doesn’t really care wether or not they’re happy, they will continue to excel at a menial job in which they one day hope to graduate from, and you – yes you the masses – for the most part, will never reach the hiatus on what you dreamt yourself out to reach. For some, this mediocre destiny is okay and easily accepted. But for the other creatures, which inhabit our earth, their mediocre existence is the source of anger, confusion and the self-hatred, which so many are treated for by countless medications such as Xanax and Percocet. It is this inability to reach ones goals, the inability to break out of our institutionalized system, which leads to our volatile behavior and the recent trend of binge drinking and drugging amongst confused teenagers and adults across the world. There is only one way to escape this cycle perpetuated by the average man of society, one way to be great and one way to be different. You must be prepared to fail, you must be prepared to have people criticize your way of thinking, and you must have the courage and determination to follow through with your ideas. You can be the person who says, “I thought of that idea,” or the person who says, “That was my idea.”  

            There are many people my age who probably have these thoughts somewhere in their minds, but which differentiates the wise man from the foolish man, is his determination and ability to bring his ideas into reality. Once our childhood ends and we are faced with the time constraints of our adult life – we freeze. We freeze our youthful creativeness and sense of adventure because we are trapped in our daily cycle. The break-through payday, and the headlines of your company blazoned on every news outlet in the country, are the things that happened when people took the leap; the courageous leap out of your daily cycle while facing a possibility for failure. It is unfortunate that this leap consumes the many people that attempt to make it in life, but most of these failures are from people who gave up without realizing their closeness to success. So when you’re kicked, covered in blood and broke, do not give up - because a life of dissatisfaction is a sin in the pages of history. Just remember, everyone’s life is a story – so make yours worth reading.