Bittersweet Life

Yes, the title is stolen from a My Favorite Highway song, but the topic is hardly copy written.

I've never been a stranger to revelations, but this one left me especially breathless; gripping the steering wheel and taking the long way home in order to better arrange my thoughts. Being the self-proclaimed "enlightened" individual I am, my eyes are always open to the meaningful in the mundane and that's how this next topic came about. What is more mundane to us than life? We sleep, eat, have sex, laugh, and love (not always in that order) but rarely do we ever take notice of the complexity of our time here. Keep reading; this won't be some hippy rant, I promise.

Being a "Generation Y: Millennial", I walk my carbon-foot-printing self through my day to day life, better equipped than all passed generations for the arduous journey. I take pride in what my generation is helping to produce; the first black president, equality for all races and orientations, and Facebook (you know everyone can at least agree on this one). But I also see us not rising to our full potential. With all of the resources and knowledge we possess, we are still victims to the status quo. What do I mean by this? Well, the vast majority of us live the same day everyday; like that awful movie "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray. After high school, we go to college. During the week we go to classes (and those of us that aren't blessed with a hedge fund also work), and during the weekend we party. Repeat the process over the course of four years and you have a standard college career; an amazing one at that. But what then? A nine to five, chained to a desk in a plether swivel chair with an adjustable back contour? Well, for most of us, yes.

Life doesn't need to be so tragically boring and self centered. We constantly devalue some of the most important and fulfilling attributes of our own lives. We now live in a society where our connections and resources are unlimited. I can, with just a few clicks, know the goings-on of the kid who dressed up as my high schools mascot; with pictures to illustrate. It's a world where people never leave our lives. But even with all this human interaction, the vast majority of us grow colder and colder to our fellow man all the time. We lock our doors, close the blinds, and shut our eyes to everything outside of our day to day life. Are we really such recluses? You're probably saying no. But, when was the last time you helped someone without any ulterior motive? Or did more than just talk about global warming? We are a generation of grand ideas and dreams, but why is it so difficult to take these things off the drawing board and get our hands dirty? It's time to bring more to the table. Don't live the status quo; make connections, be a force, laugh a lot, realize the majority of people are good, and stand up for what you believe.

Life isn't passing me by; it's running to keep up.