We're constantly doing and going and none of it seems to be for us. It's been ages since I've heard someone say "Who cares! I'm young!" which was my own personal slogan for what seemed like ages but what was probably just for the summer before I went to college.
Other than that, my whole life has been focused on getting ahead. And it's not just me either, but my friends, my siblings, even my parents. It all seems to be fueled by this sonic-paced lifestyle we live. No one else ever seems to stop going, so why should I, right?
Facebook update: Your childhood best friend just got a super successful internship and is making a boat load of money and you're....... doing..... what?
Instagram post: Someone you graduated with is touring Europe going from place to place and enriching their life and the most exotic thing you've seen this week is the mold growing in your Greek yogurt.
Twitter status: In under 140 characters, someone has said something more clever or funny than you could say if you were given 14,000 characters.
And you never stop seeing this stuff. It's like every time you pick up your phone someone has done something to invalidate what you've just done. Someone's having more fun, doing more, being more proactive, saying something profound.
And with all this constant pressure on us, with all these constant reminders that other people are succeeding, how can we stop? How can we not feel like anxious balls of stress? It's not like we're not justified in feeling this way. At this point in life or time or whatever is the cause, if we stop doing or going, we automatically forfeit the race. There is no "me" time. People even check their phones while they're on the toilet. How can we expect a minute to ourselves when someone is sending out emails while they're taking a shit? How can we compete with that?
Maybe it's the quick progression of technology that makes us so fast-paced. Maybe it's the pressure to succeed our parents, to support them and take care of them one day. Maybe it's the hope that we could be the 2014 Jay-Z, selling cocaine one day and dropping albums the next while never stopping the hustle. I don't know. What I do know is that when I read the quote, "They say you die twice. Once when you stop breathing and the second, a bit later on, when somebody mentions your name for the last time," I felt this insane pressure to not be forgotten. To never die the second time.
And I don't mean I want to be up there with Gandhi or Abraham Lincoln, I just mean I want my great grand kids or great great grand kids to still talk about me. I think this fear of dying the second time, being forgettable, not doing enough, is what drives us. We all want to be legends. We want to keep going, we want to leave our imprints on the Internet by posting our successes, failures, heartbreaks, and bathroom breaks. I think we want to do enough and be enough and that is why we can't stop.
I think our cell phones, laptops, and tablets, are constant reminders that things do not stop moving and neither should we. Because before the Internet, when the sun went down and it was time to sleep, we weren't acutely aware that people in China were awake and working their asses off.
Honestly, I think it's so great that so many people are so driven. I think it's great that we want to succeed. What I don't think is great is that there seems to be no limit to greatness for anyone. There is no stopping point. If I had a million dollars.... I'd want a million more.
I just hope at some point we realize that it is enough. That whatever we've done, after all our tireless work, is enough. I also hope that we don't take too much time to realize it. I don't want to look back on my life and remember resumes and job applications and emails. I hope we all give ourselves a break and take time to appreciate ourselves and our hard work because we deserve that much.
Good vibes y'all,
Priya
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