Young Folks

Self reflection. Today was a day for it.

Do you ever feel like you're going through life as a routine? You know what Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday will bring. Yet, you don't. Life surprises you often in ways unpredictable and more often than not, those surprises are the causes for our evolution.

This state of change, it's a gradual process, keeping the essence of the self yet finding ways to complete oneself. Not through having a companion, a spouse, a partner but first just being complete, happy, comfortable and at one with the self.

It's no easy feat. We live in such a mediated and digitalized world. We rely on all these external, excessive stimulants to "complete" us. Gadgets, cars, clothes, all these materialistic items, their meanings are only as valuable as those you place upon them.

Today, I sat at a coffee shop, read my book and occasionally I would glance up and look towards the busy traffic passing me by. Women proudly donning their Louis Vuitton totes, Burberry Handbags, Balenciagas, Coach and the likes just wearing it as if it were part of their persona. Status mattered to these people but what did they make of it? Are they changing the world? Perhaps some are, who am I to judge but yet I couldn't help but wonder.. Why is society fueling the greed of corporations. Why aren't they doing more than they can with themselves? We are humans, we are engineered differently for a reason. We each have our purpose.

Consumerism. In this day and age, just seems so incredibly overdone. Multi-national corporations know us better than we know ourselves! They know what we like, which age group spends the most, what we spend on, how we think. Doesn't this scare you? Not even just a little bit?

Our lives are being manufactured, they're being constructed for us without our conscious knowledge.

I'm not claiming to see all the imperfections in society but just something about how so many seem centralized on the idea that money is everything. It isn't. Experience, exposure, these involvements can't be bought with money. Money cannot buy time. Money cannot buy knowledge. Of course one can pursue a higher education which yes, money can buy but what education is it buying? A linear deterministic one? One that doesn't allow for detours and only claims that one route is the way to success?

Where are we today as a community? Why are we so critical of what others do? Why is culture standing in the way of people broadening their mind. Are we so hardened and frightened by the unknown that we'd rather live in a bubble, in oblivion, in ignorance? Cowardly shying away from anything that seems new or having an alternate perspective.

We are Young Folks, we should seize opportunities and if they don't come by, we should make them. This generation already has such a dystopian outlook on the future, Europe is crumbling, America is about to decide on their next President who will either make or break them given their massive amount of debt, Asia's growth is beginning to slow down and will eventually stagnate. What's the use of having Youth if we do not do something worthwhile with it for the future.

How will you live your journey?