welcome to the rest of my life

i just read tim's post on, err, life. and

"Wake up early, work, come home, eat, sleep
next day *insert repeat*"

sums up my life right now. to a tee.

i worked pretty much everyday (sundays included) during the lead-up to Christmas, and have been doing 6 days a week since then. today is my first proper day off (i.e. not factoring in days when the store isn't open) since the 22nd of last month.


i was reflecting on this last week when i had a disturbing thought.

this is what the rest of my life is going to be like.

it was a revelation, and i'm sure i would have felt slightly afraid had i not been so sleepy at the time.


because you don't know where life is going to take you; you don't know whether you'll ever finish high school, whether you'll get a degree, whether you'll ever learn to swim, to play the piano, to anti-differentiate reciprocal functions... whether you'll even be around to catch the next episode of That 70's Show on TV.

the possibilities are countless. our chances? slim.

nobody knows for sure what's going to happen next, all we can do is hope for the best.

finish high school with respectable TER, graduate with professional degree, get job with good salary (preferably with benefits), become CEO at 29, retire at 39, live rest of life on Island of Bob.

but what if hoping for that best is precisely what leads to the wake up, work, come home, eat, sleep, aaaaaaaand repeat kind of life?

nobody wants to get stuck in that trap.

like rickthewise said, it'd totally make a difference if you were working a job you loved.

"like those people who suffer for their art, but are really happy."
supposedly.

but you won't know what it's like until you try it out. then you might realise that the last 4 years and $20000 bucks of your life was wasted on a degree that got you a job that would never be fulfilling.

a job that rendered you lifeless.


so you know what?

i'm not gonna define life either.

and i'm going to agree with tim (for once) when i say that it's in the little things.
it's the in between stuff that makes us smile.

try
wake up, breakfast, work, help someone, mess around a little, come home, play, dinner, movie, ice cream, yum...

because it's not what you're given.
it's what you make of it.