I just spoke with a friend earlier, and she said something quite nice. We were discussing the topic of living your own life, and she said that, no matter what, she would always want to lead a life she chose for herself, regardless of what others thought. Her exact words were, "Why let someone else describe what your life should be? You should be the one determining how you want to live."
Great point.
Sometimes, we take for granted that we have our own lives to lead. We often let the dictates of society rule our lives. We let our friends choose things for us, (ex. "Why go out with her... she's so ugly?") sometimes stopping ourselves from doing what we really want to do, sometimes stopping ourselves from even thinking of what to do. How many of us have chosen our career paths because our parents told us to take a certain degree in college? How many of us have broken up with someone because our families couldn't, or wouldn't, like him/her? How many of us have eaten food we didn't want to eat, gone to places we didn't want to go to, or even avoided things we didn't want to avoid... all because other people told us to, and not because we made an honest, open, informed choice?
I agree with my friend. If we keep doing things we don't want to do, we are letting other people "describe" what our lives will be like. We are surrendering our destinies to other people. And we will lose what little of ourselves we have.
The next time someone asks you to describe your life, and what you do, ask yourself this, "Is this the life I truly want to lead?" Because if it's not, stop describing it. Just tell him/her to go to your friends and family, and society in general, and ask them. After all, you're living the life THEY want to live.
No comments:
Post a Comment