Goodbye, Mediocre Living

In the past few weeks, I've had a lot of time to think about my life and my plans for the future. I've spent time regretting (and not regretting), planning, thinking, and re-assesing. I'm trying to figure out what is most important, what is not important, what needs to change, and what I most definitely want to keep around. I've come to a few basic conclusions:

Life does not have to be lived how everyone else tells you it has to be.
And contrary to popular belief, you really do not have to do things you don't want to do. Really. You don't have to go to medical school (heck, you don't have to go to college), you don't have to work from 9-5, you don't have to shop, you don't have to learn math, you don't have to spend time with people you hate, you don't have to have health insurance, you don't have to save for retirement with a 401 K. You don't have to live in a certain state because you were born there. You don't have to eat food you don't want to eat, you don't have to go on a diet, you don't have to work out. You don't have to get fat, you don't have to be careless with your physical appearance, you don't have to wear clothes from Wal Mart. Heck, you don't have to wear clothes if you don't want to.

Do you get it?
Its not that the above things are harmful, and the point is not that the above things should be avoided. Many of them (particularly wearing clothes) are good things to do. But the point is, you don't have to. You can live a "succesful" life without doing any of the above. People will probably find you a bit insane. But that's okay, because insane people are the best. Some people want to be normal. And that's fine. But I don't. I don't want to be normal. I don't want to live an average American life. My motivation is simple: that's boring. And I hate being bored.

See, I've thought for a while that I want to live a nice, secure life. I wanted to graduate from a prestigous college, go to a prestigous law school, get a prestigous career (preferably in politics), possibly marry a prestigous husband, and raise a few prestigous children. You can't have read that without missing the word prestigious. And that's the problem.

A. Prestige is based entirely on other people's opinions. One of my favorite quotes is "If everyone elses opinion is what matters, do you ever have one of your own?" The answer is no. And that's how to live a meaningless life. Which leads me to B.

B. Prestige is empty. The only people who find prestige important are those who somehow consider themselves prestigous. Its kind of like high school. There are always some of those really cool kids who find themselves a cut above the rest of us (and enjoy shoving that in our faces), but at the same time, everyone who's actually cool (as in, interesting, deep, unique, fascinating) could care less about being cool. C. Prestige is boring. Look at "The Real Housewives of New York City." Every person on that show is bored to tears. There's nothing there for them except the approval of other people. Why would anyone want that?

This isn't to say I'm giving up on politics, prestige, my love of nice things, or college. This is to say I'm reevaluating. Maybe those things will stay. Maybe they won't.

This is to say I'm done with living my life for other people. Not that I'm going to become a self-centered, self-seeking individual. But, I will probably dash quite a few people's expectations in my lifetime. Actually, I guarantee I will. But I also want to go above and beyond what anyone could expect. I want to break out of mediocrity.

I've gained a lot of inspiration from the bloggers below. The first guy has set a goal to travel to every country in the entire world, and he has a really cool and inspiring mindset that he shares on his blog. Awesome. The second is a guy who's living his Life List. A Life List is the typical 100 (or 43) things you want to do in your lifetime. A Bucket List, basically. I'm rewriting and adding to mine, and making them more tangible and achievable and awesome.

http://www.johngoddard.info/life_list.htm
http://www.project183.com/

Updates to follow....