I'll Take Adventure

     I would be lying if I said these past few months have been anything but okay. They've been tainted by mediocrity and conventional forms of entertainment. My heart feels dulled and heavy by the sounds of my peers telling me "You'll never get anywhere with such impossible aspirations." My mind feels warped by existential depression. I've been plagued by the question that I sometimes wish I'd never asked.
WHY? 

I realized when I asked "Why" over and over, I just kept getting the same answer...

"That's just how it is." 

"Why do I have to go to college to be successful and happy?"
"Why do I have to settle down?"
"Why does the amount of money I have in my bank account determine the amount of success or happiness I have in my spirit?"


"That's just how it is."


I couldn't accept such a mediocre response.
I needed more. Why should life be anything but an adventure? Why do we force ourselves to work 9 hours a day so we can afford our overly expensive material possessions? When our hands become unusable and our eyes lose their sight, and our ears lose their hearing, what will we have left? A $120,000 house? Memories of waking up to go to a job you hate? I'm sorry, but if that measures my success, then you can count me out on that one.

I'll take memories. I'll take adventure. I'll take risks. I'll take being called irresponsible by the people who do exactly what they're told by others who are also clueless about happiness. I'll take reckless. I'll take all of this because I've learned a very special secret. I'll tell you, my friend, but you have to promise you'll use it wisely:

We write our own stories. We choose every single reaction we give, and every single place we end up. We choose when we cry, and when we smile; we choose anger over tranquility, or resentment over forgiveness. The words that end up on the pages of our eulogies are the direct reflection of the choices we make and the lives we live in the now. We're writing our own biographies, friends.

If your life was a story, would you read it?