We had to do a project on presidents of the US from 1920 to 2012, and so when I got to Obama, he saw that I put “Gay rights” as a domestic issue.

Teacher: Don’t you think there are more important things that he’s had to do? More prominent issues?

Me: Well it’s a civil rights movement, it’s kind of important.

Teacher: Well not everyone considers it a civil rights movement.

Me: It’s a movement to gain rights for people. What else do you call it?

Honestly, I don’t understand people. Was it just whining when blacks wanted desegregation? Or when Women wanted to gain the right to vote? No. They were civil rights movements, and people now treat those movements with respect. Are people today really so shortsighted that they can’t see how ridiculous they seem?

Of all the paths of life, you will cross many. But in the end, you’ll have forged your own, never to be taken by anyone else again. It will be passed over and observed, but it is and always will be uniquely yours. The condition of the path looking back will reflect who you are, as well as who you were. It will show what your priorities were, what you really wanted out of life, what you didn’t get… looking in retrospect is always the clearest and most painful. Knowing means no longer being able to imagine the possibilities. The possibilities which are endless. The possibilities which were endless. But that’s all speaking from the point of view of a person whose life has already come and gone. We must look at things from a younger view. One with all the possibilities and opportunities the world has to offer waiting to be taken.
Pretend you’re 16. Old enough to be expected to be responsible, while being young enough to not have any real idea of how to do it. You’re old enough to have to start making choices that can have effects on the rest of your life, and yet have no life experience to base your decisions on. You are expected to know what your parents do not, such as high level mathematics, how to name ionic compounds, what type of sentence structure is which, etc. You see no reason to know it because you know (with your or other people’s parents as proof) that you won’t remember any of it in 10 years. You’ll know how to do what is necessary for your job, be it menial and boring or high, mighty and adventurous. And you’ll know whatever else pops up on the internet. But that’s all you need to know, right? That’s enough to go through life with. Or so we all would like to believe. Is that really life? Is that really living? If you’re living life like that, you’re doing something wrong. You’re stumbling in the dark, trying to find your path. Trying to find yourself. And chances are, you’re failing. It’s something so many people do without even realizing. The way society works is this; Get good grades, go to a good college, get a high paying job, retire early, fish, die. And the part that’s even sadder? It’s not even that good anymore. We’ve got kids dropping out of school, sitting at home smoking weed thinking they’re on top of the world. Thinking they’ve got EVERYTHING figured out, when in all reality, they’re even farther removed from what’s going on than the drones that live by the old standard “Make money and die” lifestyle.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t get good grades, I’m not saying don’t get a high paying job. If for some reason you really enjoy doing paperwork, day after day, year after year, then great. I commend you for doing what you love. But that’s all I’m saying. We so often do what will make us the most money, or what will gain us the approval of our parents, or what will impress the pretty girl, or whatever. And we do. We make money, our parents approve, and we marry the pretty girl. But the question stands, are we happy? Are we? No. Probably not. We may think we are for a while, but then something happens to us that makes us realize just how sad and unfulfilling our lives really are. And we want nothing less then to go back and change it all. A lot of the time we don’t even know what we would change, we just want another chance. Even if that means screwing it up again. We don’t seem to understand just what makes us happy. Why isn’t the big shiny car making me happy? Because it’s an object. Why isn’t my super model wife making me happy? Because you don’t love her. Why am I unhappy? Because you unknowingly did most everything in your power to make yourself unhappy. That’s right, you set yourself up. Why? Who knows? I have absolutely no idea why we don’t just make ourselves happy. Is it because we don’t know how? If that’s it, I feel a responsibility to share it with the world. Is it because we’re greedy for a higher level of joy that doesn’t even exist? If it is, I feel great sadness towards the potential of the human race. Is it because we’re afraid that if we don’t get a high paying job, if we don’t marry a super model, if we don’t make just every one ELSE happy, and instead do what we enjoy above all else to make a living, marry the woman of our dreams that we love above all else, and make ourselves happy instead of focusing on everyone else, we might just fail?

But isn’t it worth trying?