If you follow they typical life instructions on how we are “supposed” to live it would appear that we should be in the prime of our workaday lives. Reaching a level in our careers that bring us pride to talk about.
I knew early on that I didn’t fit in that mold. While I did pursue higher education in the hopes for creating a good life for myself, the whole idea of work was secondary, not the main reason for my efforts. I remember being in my first year of law school, listening to my classmates imagining a future of saving the world, I was thinking not about work, but about how I was going to use my credentials to help me afford to buy a beach house and live a chill life.
People talked about their dream jobs. But seriously, my dream job was no job at all. The ONLY reason I even wanted any part in a job was just for the money to do what I really wanted. But I didn’t dare say that, for fear of appearing lazy. During my many, many grueling legal writing assignments I fantasized about being able to write about what I’m interested in, instead of contracts or the Constitution. That was more than 20 years ago and I still don’t have that beach house as yet. But now, there are plenty of opportunities to earn money writing about whatever I feel like…
I work day in, day out, for a decent salary but nowhere near what I would require to live the way I really want to live. It nagged me at the back of my mind but I didn’t stress much about it, after all, working was a part of life. Everybody (I knew) was doing it. It’s not really that I don’t want to work at all, I just want to work doing what I want to do, which does not include going in to somebody’s office for 8 hours a day 4 or 5 days a week.
The Covid pandemic helped confirm what I already knew to be true: That the 40 hour workweek is bullshit and I can work just as well, if not better, without anybody lording over me. But that wasn’t all. We got to see first hand how life can be with more free time because less time is wasted commuting, buying breakfast, lunch and coffee, and getting dressed in something more professional than shorts and a tee.
I finally get it now. We really are free to do what we want but we have to make it happen on our own. I’m living it right now, though this is only the beginning and it can be nerve wracking for someone like me, who had a job with a set salary.
It sounds so simple yet it is so scary to decide to create a life I really want, by myself. But the time has finally come for me to stop living the bullshit lie, that would have me spending a whole third of my life doing something meaningless just so I can eek out a couple of weeks of the year living the way I think I should live every single week. And the money I earn, is nowhere near what I would need to do it.
Now is the time, I’m not getting any younger. I’m terrified but I’m doing thi shit anyway. I hope you will continue with me on this journey.
