Sunday, August 10, 2008
When I Grow Up...
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Last night I watched Cast Away and Tom Hanks says something at the beginning and the end of the film that is something to the effect of time being a precious commodity and how wasting time is a sin that we can't afford. Of course, the message of the film is something more along the lines of slowing down and appreciating what you have - but I feel a sense of urgency that, for some reason, I'm not acting on. I'm about to finish up another book by Don Miller, I mentioned it a couple of posts back, but I just got back from his website and the experience he had on which the book is based took place when he was 21. TWENTY-ONE!!! I'm already half-way through 22 and I'm still not sure what to do from here. Then I start to think even more about it and a lot of the artists and writers that I admire really got things cooking when they were younger than me. Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie was writing music in a band before he got out of college and I'm still trying to plunk out songs written by other people in a quiet room by myself. I'm not saying that I feel like I have to be a famous writer or musician to be happy or anything like that; I just mention those things to point out how I sometimes get the feeling that whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing, I'm getting behind on it. I wish there was a big neon sign somewhere with an arrow pointing the way.
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2 comments:
I know what you're feeling - I remember feeling the same thing at 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 and now I'm still feeling it at 27.
Just remember that you're still young and you've got a LOT of time ahead of you. Life can change in 6 months easily. All it takes is meeting the right person or following a strange opportunity and you never know where you'll find yourself, good or bad.
I think a valuable peice of advice that i could pass along right now is to enjoy where you are. Often when things change, you grow nostalgic for your past circumstances or look forward to future ones. That can make you miss out on what you've got going on right now. You're single, you're poor, and you're free. It's a good place to be, and it would be a shame to not figure that out until three years from now when you've finally got that job that pays you decently - the one it would just be irresponsible to leave. For right now, stay up late, watch your favorite TV shows, meet friends out for drinks (they sell sodas at bars, too). Take in a midnight movie, walk home at 3am. These things might not be options when you're 25.
Thanks David.
I think you're right - and maybe thats what Tom Hanks was getting at all along anyway. I really do see the benefit of being at the place that I'm at now. I do plan on scraping change together to road-trip to strange places on a moments notice, smoke a pipe with my friends in a parking deck at 2 in the morning and maybe even have a beer at the bars that you mentioned - following it up with late-night pizza and movies. The more I think about it the more fun it sounds. I think I do just get a little too preoccupied with thinking about the future. Yoda would be ashamed of me.
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