For a while I have been living my life trapped under the illusion that I must follow a predetermined path; set out for me by society. Yet, what I never quite grasped was that life is more than this. That I could live exactly as I wished if i just opened my eyes a little to rigidness that we all conform to.
It seems to me that from birth we are trained to think in a money-centric fashion, that our whole existence relies upon us making money just to spend it again. We go to Primary school and are taught core skills for learning, socialized to the norms of society and then sent to secondary school. Secondary school is pivotal point in your life as from Years 7 to 11 you make the most progress in an aim of finding yourself. However this is where you become segregated into classes dependent on your Primary schools evaluation of your intellect. This is flawed as it encourages intellectual elitism, discourages those in the lower tiers from aspiring to be anything more and creates social disconnection as the students in each tier mostly stick with each other. When you get to Year 11 the new educational law has raised the compulsory learning age to 18; forcing those who didn’t enjoy schooling to endure two more years of being told to work harder, that they are receiving low grades and that their attendance is unacceptable.
Through six form, if that is your chosen path of the compulsory two years, you’re indoctrinated into the idea that university is the only path if you want to recognized as normal in society. You are told to write your personal statement and apply to the university; there is no real mention of other paths you can take, just the one which leads to debt, anxiety and alcoholism.
Of course at the time with all the hype of university being where you make your friends for life, where you grow into your own person, where you gain true independence, you sign up with happiness and excitement. Nevertheless I already had my friends for life, I grew more as a person in the months I struggled to go to university then I did learning skills which will never truly aid me in life, and true independence doesn’t come from debt, rigid learning with no creative thought and social pressures, it comes from freeing your soul and understanding who you truly are.
Sometimes I feel like I’ve been lost in a battle within for years; trying to conform but never truly believing it was all for me. It’s taken some pretty big events in my life to wake up and realise what I want is to be myself not societies image of what a person my age should be like, and now I have the task of finding out who I was supposed to be.
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It’s funny i was thinking about the same things the other day! It’s like your a train on a track, you can only follow the path laid before you! The only way out is to de-rail,to break the status quo, but most people are afraid of change and detest being outside of their comfort zones.
I personally would love to just be out in nature enjoying the company of others while travelling the globe!
P.S this is fantastically written.
Thank you so much! It’s hard to find a way to live your life that doesn’t follow the status-quo though, and that’s the thing that gets me; we are almost forced to live within certain confines with no real direction of how to live another way.
I concur ! It really bothers me when i hear people say how lucky we are to live in a “free” world, like you said, our direction in life is somewhat predetermined by social and political institutions !!
Yet that what society has told us makes us happy – a horrible trap humanity has been led into 😦
interesting read…… strong views
Reblogged this on yasniger and commented:
Lots of young people should read this.
Thanks for showing interest in what I put out. I sincerely hope you continue to find my works entertaining & pleasurable. Be safe.
Reblogged this on LifeStyle Over 40.
I loved this post. I’ve always struggled with feeling different, and how trapped I feel in certain society. I felt like I had to change the people around me if I was going to ever feel free. But I came to realise that we are all in a dance, and if I don’t want to continue in the dance, I can step out of it, and in taking that step, it will also change the dance going around me, which can’t continue as it was before – without my collusion. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment on my blog and also sending me a little snippet of your personal philosophy. I feel honored seeing as you blog is so profound and I enjoy so many of the things you say. I’m sorry I took so long to get back to you, life has given me so many obstacles to overcome recently that time has been slipping through my awareness. 🙂
I have endured repeated years of university and constant struggle to eventually reach exactly the same conclusion. It seems that I was doing exactly what was expected of me during my schooling but given proper freedom at university level I derailed.
But this derailing is a blessing in disguise for me (even if it took more than 4 years to realise it!). Only a few months before graduation have I woken up!
Your post is very adequately summarised by Alan Watts – Music and Life (http://youtu.be/6I2pcIbyq-0 )
Literally love Alan Watts, only discovered him a month or so ago through an artist called Rameses B. I have managed to get all of his essential lectures so now I can listen to his amazing truths whenever I like 🙂 Yeah that is the problem we are so young when we chose are choices in life and after leaving university I feel my mind has matured in such a short period of time – as I am no longer clouded by what society thinks I should do 🙂
Brilliant post! So many people unfortunately live not their lives and not their scenarios…
I realized it long ago and have been trying to build my path according to my own scenario and incarnational tasks, which was rocky at times. Keep trying to go your own way and expressing your true self and never conform to what others expect you to be!
I feel that I have matured so much after pulling myself out of the system of I was living in and have thus found my true calling in life and that is one of helping people get their lives back together through drug-free teachings of how to cope which what life throws at you. I feel so many people need to realise they are in control of their lives and what energies flow through them and they should not surrender this to the control of medication to pave over cracks within their psyche 🙂
It takes strength and courage to break away from what society considers the ‘norm’…congratulations on your spiritual awakening and many blessings on your life journey!
Thank you very much for taking the time to pass by and comment so kindly! I am just glad I was given the support and understanding to follow the live I wanted to lead and not remain on the track I was going! 🙂
Being confined by social conventions happens the moment conventional society accepts you, it’s the biggest hook out there. So it’s simple…don’t take the bait.
I didn’t take the bate as much as go into a subject I am passionate about thinking that this passion could be transferred into a higher academic setting. But no they suck the life and creative from the words you write and replace them wit strict confines and bullet points to adhere to! Thank you though for reading my piece as it does help to know that people see the world in a similar way to me! 🙂