Growing up, we were all brought up thinking that we should follow this life cycle – graduate from University, build a stable life with good career that also pays well, settle down and start a family, and then finally, plan for retirement.
You can of course, and most definitely, plan for short term travels and just go back to the normal routine after you’ve had a break.
Now if someone tells me that I should live that kind of life, my response would be simple — fuck off and leave me alone. How I live my life is none of anyone’s business.
Harsh but I speak only the truth.
I’m 34. I don’t have a family nor a stable career but I can sustain my own needs and wants and live my life in my own terms. I have my own definition of success and happiness. Yes, I may be living a life on the edge but at the end of my life’s journey, I know that I had lived a crazy, beautiful life that most people only dreamed of.
I don’t take offense when someone asks me why I’m still not married. I do take offense, however, when someone tells me that I should be married and have kids because that’s what’s NORMAL.
Tell me though, what is normal to begin with? If you tell me that NORMAL is following what society dictates or living a life based on what your family and friends expect from you, then by all means, let me be abnormal and different.
Related post: Why I Chose to Start a Life of Travel
For me, normal is living the life that you love and loving the life that you live. We only have one chance in living a crazy, beautiful life so why are we not hell bent in creating and living the best life possible?
Why must we be content in living just to pay the bills and planning for short-term travels to escape reality? Why can’t we have a life we don’t need an escape from? Why can’t we challenge the status quo and live our lives the way we want to? Without judgments from family, friends and society.
If you don’t like the life you’re living now, know that you have all the power in this world to change it. You don’t have to feel stuck and accept that this is the only life that is handed to you. If you’re not happy with any situation you find yourself in, rather than complaining about it incessantly, CHANGE IT.
I beg you, for the love of life and everything in between, please have the courage to live the life you have always imagined. It is never, and will never be too late to start over again.
And when you have the courage to start over, trust me, Universe is always conspiring with you.