I’m Starting To Feel That [Almost] Unavoidable Pressure From Most People In My Life To Do Something. Those [Almost] Unavoidable Crossroads In Which Now Is The Time In Which I’m Supposed To Decide On The Rest Of My Life, As If That’s Something You Can Do At 22; As If People Don’t Have Various Changes Of Hearts; As If People Who Get Married Young Are Immune To Divorce 5, 10, Or 15 Years Down The Line.

Life Is Malleable, Which Is Evidenced By The Food We Eat, The People We Talk To, The Clothes We Wear, The Interests We Enjoy, And The Skills We Learn/Unlearn Etc..

The Only Thing That Happens During This Point In Someone’s Life, When Being Pressured To Live A Life That They’re Not Absolutely Certain About, Is The Guarantee That You’ve Just Put A Down Payment On Your Own Mid-Life Crisis.

Mid Life Crisis’ Happen To Those Who Seem To Forget Like They’ve Left Something Unfinished Early In Their Lives And That There’s Suddenly Not Enough Time To Live Out All Of Your Dreams And Fantasies.

There Are A Million Different Ways You Can Turn Once You’ve Hit These Various Crossroads And It Mostly Has To Do With How One Interprets ‘Dreams’ As They May Mean Different Things To Different People.

For The Young, Dreams Are Everything That We’ve Known Since Childbirth And As We’ve Grown From Innocence, Our Entire Purpose In Life Becomes To (Subconsciously And Eventually Consciously) Actualize Those Dreams As Best We Can And Try To Transfer All The Images We’ve Known Since Childhood Into Something That Will Carry Us Now And Mold Us As We Grow Older.

For Older Folks, Dreams Can Mean Either One Of (Maybe) Three Things Depending On If They’ve Gotten The Opportunity To Actualize Their Own And If There Is Any Lingering Bitterness If They Had Managed Not To. There Are Those Who Fully Endorse The Dreams Of A Younger Generation, Knowing That Creative Freedom And/Or The Freedom To Pursue Comfort And Happiness Through Their Own Vision Is Essential For Sustaining Life. On The Flip Side, There Are Those Who, For Whatever Reason, Were Not Able To Fully Actualize Their Dreams And Resent Themselves And Others For It, Falling Into A Machine-Like Way Of Thought Where The Only Way To Find/Achieve (This Arbitrary Definition Of) Success Is To Follow A Formula And Become Another Link On The Conveyor Belt Of Mediocrity.

I Realize The Harsh Generalization Of That Last Group (As Some People Might Become Happy And Content With A New Reality, Which Also Is Perfectly Fine) But I Feel That This Is Where The Pressure To ‘Be Somebody’ Is Birthed From. It’s Been Well Established That Everyone Is Not The Same, Thus We All Use Different Barometers To Measure Our Own Progress, But Because We’re Infatuated With This Particular Formula Of School & School & Work & Work & Love & Marriage & Monogamy & House & Kids & Life And So On…We’re Sometimes Forced To Live Life By Someone Else’s Standards And It Is In That Very Moment That We Begin To Stunt Our Development And Diminish The Chances Of Actualizing Our Dreams As A Result.

Everyone I Know Has Felt, Is Feeling, Or Will Feel This Particular Pressure At Some Point In Their Lives And It May Not Be A One Time Thing But The Only Way I’ve Known How To Alleviate It Is To Stay The Course That You’ve Set For Yourself.  No One Wants To Wake Up 20 Years Down The Road And Realize That They’ve Been Living Someone Else’s Life.

Your Life Is Your Own, And No Matter What Anyone Says, No Matter What Conventional Rules And Illogical Formulas Tell You Is The “Right Path” To Success, No Matter What Kind Of Pressure People Put On You, Remember That No One Can Live Your Life For You So It’s Up To You To Fulfill Whatever Purpose You Feel That You’re Alive For.