All things strive.

In my youth I focused on academics. The result was, I graduated - just like billions of others around the world, and the billions more who will come after me. I studied and did not see any value in arts or physical education. The consequence is I am lacking in ways that other people are not, them having had a more active childhood than I. The paper my parents spent so much for me to get - getting it resulted in me working a post that can be easily replaced should I ever decide to leave. I have to keep studying and finding training because my skills quickly become obsolete in my industry.

I know now that the brain's plasticity does not remain into adulthood; for anyone who disagrees, try learning a new language in your thirties and compare it to learning your mother tongue - or even a second language - growing up. I remember even reading that the brain cells are completely replaced every ten years. Whatever achievement you got growing up, it's not yours: it's someone else's merit, someone who is now quite dead.

Beauty, strength, speed, wit - all these fade with time. Things that were perky before sag as gravity lays a greater claim on it. People in relationships change, and the challenge is in finding something to love in this stranger who calls herself your spouse. The money you save depreciates in value every year - and the inflation rate is something entirely out of your control.

And then there's other people. Be it out of jealousy or pride or small-mindedness or whatever, there will be those who will see fault in how you work or live or do business. Who will run away with your reputation in a narrative not of your choosing. All to pull you down - perhaps to raise themselves up? Or just so there's more people at the bottom...

And then there's you. You, who is so afraid of things changing and becoming more uncertain that you would sabotage yourself just so you won't have to change.

The general trend is down. Everyone goes down; it takes a special amount of effort and will and luck and thinking to move UP. And whatever it was helped you raise yourself up, isn't guaranteed to raise you up again should you fall. If it is available the next time around, that is.

Whatever advantages you bring now get used up or are rendered irrelevant. So go make more.

 

Forging a path forward is messy - expect to be soiled. But this is the very nature of the universe - so go ahead, no matter how dirty or disgusted with yourself you get. The fight is yours alone. Keep moving.

We were made to strive in this environment. We need to remember that we have to work hard, and whatever respite we get is temporary. Let's painfully struggle, to our very last breath. >:D