Cycle of Life - Reality of Life

When you're growing up, everyone tell you to strive and fight for your dream. They tell you don't ever stop believing in yourself or your dreams. It doesn't matter what your dream is. It may be to be a famous athlete, actor, writer, singer, dancer or any other occupation society deems "far fetch" for any responsible adult to hold on to. They tell you to shoot for the moon, if you fall you'll still be among the stars. They then proceed to tell you about the multitude of people who went from nothing to everything. My personal favorite is the one about Michael Jordan, who failed to make the final roster of his Junior Varsity basketball team only to go on to be the greatest basketball player to ever handle a Spalding. Most importantly, they say you can be anything you put your mind to. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that, after all, with today's misguided youth it's a good thing to provide a sense of desire and purpose in a young person's life.

What happens when this young person gets hit with the cold hard reality of life? They start to realize a lot of what they've been told isn't always true. They start to realize they weren't told everything they should've been told. What they don't tell is that not everyone can be an actor, rapper, singer, athlete or dancer. Somebody has to be the teachers, guidance counselors, salesman, police offers, firefighters and such. They don't tell you in addition to hard work, you will also need a little luck to reach your dreams. They don't tell you sometimes a dream is just that, a dream.

They ultimately fail to tell you, sometimes your life expectations will exceed it's opportunity.

As unfortunate as that is, it's the truth for a lot of people. So you go through your early life believing one thing, only to receive a gut check aka reality check (normally you get this reality check sometime in your early twenties but some people receive it later in life). This effectuation can hit you like a sack of bricks if you're not ready for it, most people aren't ready when it comes and have a hard time accepting it. All this is just part of the process of maturing and growing up. Being 21 and older doesn't make you grown , it just means you're old enough to make decisions for yourself but you may still be too stupid to make the right decision. Oh, did i say stupid?? I meant 'inexperience'. You end up learning life is ultimately a cycle of highs and lows. It ebs and flows over time.

The Ohio Players once told the world about the "Love Roller-coaster" (Roller-coaster of love...say what?!) However, there's a roller-coaster of life too. Socrates, Plato, Machiavelli, Aristotle and other great thinkers of their time all tried to understand the meaning of life. Life is simply a series of good and bad, highs and lows.

You will laugh, cry, love, hate, sometimes all in the same day.

In due time you learn to enjoy and appreciate the highs/good while learning from the lows/bad. It's easy to dwell on the rough patches of life when your dealing with a death, personal or professional failure, or when the love of your life breaks your heart. The author of Ecclesiastes tell us, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." You should embrace the seasons when they come, regardless of what season it is or what emotions/feelings the season ushers in. It is better to be old and wise through life's many experiences than it is to be old and naively oblivious to the world. For wisdom is better than sliver and gold.