Life can be funny sometimes. We always say that we are all in the “school of life”; that learning never stops and we should always be teachable. Right?
A few weeks ago, I had a chat with a friend of mine and the basis of the conversation was how much life constantly evolves. Do you ever feel like you have been through so much, adapted and learnt your lessons, but as soon as you think the coast is clear, you encounter a whole new spectrum of things you must experience with a myriad of lessons? It’s like a never ending cycle of lessons and experiences, most of which, if you are not careful, will throw you off-balance and have you questioning everything you ever knew.
Needless to say, this year has been the most hectic one that ever existed. At least as far as my experiences are concerned. I think I have experienced every possible emotion imaginable and I am more than surprised by how I react to them.
See, the age between twenty-five to thirty is a very delicate stage. You are no longer a child. Your parents do not really try to direct you as much because you are deemed a fully functional adult. But you are not really a fully functional adult in the deeper sense because you are evolving from being guided to being independent. You have lived a little bit to understand a few basics about adulthood, but not long enough to have cutting-edge wisdom. When you are between twenty to twenty five, your mistakes can be brushed off since you are “young and stupid”. But beyond here, you are generally assumed to know exactly what you are doing. Except you do not! And a lot of people are scared to admit when they are unsure or feel a bit lost or notice a mistake that they made and want to rectify it. Why? Society is not so kind.
You will notice that many young people around this age suffer from some sort of mental illness. Mostly because they try to keep up with societal expectations or self-inflicted expectations that are actually unachievable. We put so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect knowing fully well that human beings are prone to err. It’s unrealistic.
And life is a constant teacher. You will experience so many roadblocks. You will face so many challenges, some more crucial than others. You will lose people. You will lose your focus. You will lose money. But you must never lose yourself. Above anything else, you must push to stay grounded and remember who you are; even when that’s not who you feel like any more.
Life will continue to teach you. Whether you like it or not. You will continue to experience things; both good and bad. You will grow. Wisdom truly does come with experience.
I often think about writing a book. Share some of my experiences. I think about the crazy and highly risky things that I have done and I laugh. Mostly because I accepted a lot of the crazy decisions I made when I was younger. I have learnt to forgive myself for my foolishness over time. It can be hard to do. But get it done. There are so many things to learn. If you look past your failures, regrets and “what ifs”, there’s a lot to see. So, be easy on yourself. Even at seventy years of age, you’ll still be learning.
That’s just the way life is!
Happy Sunday. And to a productive new week.