Making a Living

Happy hours in the DC area are as commonplace as bums begging for change outside a metro station. You can't escape them. If your co-workers aren't sending you a Microsoft Outlook calendar planner, some random college friend is sending you the latest Facebook invite. The sad thing is that every happy hour is the same. Everyone talks about their recent office achievements in some sort of grandiose way, like what they did was singular in the universe and vital to the survival of their organization. The sadder thing is that everyone involved in the conversation knows it's complete BS anyways, yet people are still compelled to boast their significance. That's life in DC. If people aren't bragging about their job title, they're bragging about their employer.

I went to Australia a for the better part of three weeks and came away with one simple realization. We are far more concerned about making a living than we are with just living. Maybe that's just the corporate lifestyle. But one thing is for sure, Americans are so wrapped up in making enough money that they lose sight of everything else. Paying bills, a mortgage, health costs, car payments, etc. It's so easy to lose sight of important things like family, self-contentment, and just enjoying life. Think about it: the overwhelming majority of people work jobs they don't enjoy for decades in the hopes they'll have enough money to retire. I feel like there is a despairing resignation among most people who just accept the "fact" that you have to work most of your life doing a job you don't get much satisfaction from and then hope they have the money to retire and then enjoy life.

I'm vehemently trying to go against this. I want to be able to enjoy my life and not feel like I have to sacrifice happiness for a paycheck. I don't want to get consumed with the status quo. Or become complacent with the way things are. I don't want to spend 65 years in an office and then do the things I want to do. I don't know if I could justify a lifetime of 9-5 in a cubicle just to be able to retire comfortably until I died. Part of me wants to move to Australia and open a jet-ski/scuba rental business on the beach. I may not get rich, but I would have a lot of interesting stories along the way. Maybe it's not about who has the most toys or money. Maybe it's more about who has the most fun. But that's just me. I could be wrong.