I'm not sure why I'm doing this. This is a little wonky, considering that there are brilliant writers on this platform and I'm sitting here and fooling around.

Around this age though, I think it's cool for people to develop their own tastes, and explore their unique interests. Interests that come naturally, not the "interests" that are forced upon young people because these particular "interests" will help them become "successful" in the future.

The future is always looked at as the final destination of our long and hard toils of the present; the future is supposedly when we can reap the rewards of the sacrifices we have made today.

Today, however, is just as potent as the promised land of "the future." The future is a dangerous thing to hedge your bets on, because who knows what will happen tomorrow. Tomorrow, if a gigantic meteor collides with planet Earth and decimates mankind, will all the tedious hours of studying and the millions of dollars of nest egg savings have all gone to waste in the end? Endings don't mean anything if you don't enjoy the present moment. Moment by moment, our life ticks forward, so do we live today as though we are saving up all our happiness, excitement, and zeal for life, for when we retire?

Retirement is seen as the pinnacle of life; it's some strange, heavenly goal on this earth to work hard for 80% of your life and "enjoy" the final years in peace, wealth, tranquility, and so on.

On that note, I'm kind of surprised this little writing challenge I set for myself at the beginning of this article has taken me down this weird thought experiment about how to live life. Life is a mysterious thing; honestly, I'm still learning new things about who I am and what I'm meant to do every day.

Day in and day out, for roughly the last ten years now, I've largely been following instructions from superiors (faculty, teachers, counselors) in school. School used to be an obsession of mine, so even though I wasn't some academic genius I felt a looming, phantom, pressure to do well. Well, to be fair, it is no wonder why education has become a perverse game to find out who can be the most studious, most dedicated to academics.

Academics, I believe, was meant to serve as a foundation in which basic skills are introduced, so that the student is capable of using these basic skills (I'm talking basic — like reading and writing) to pursue creative crafts they truly enjoy. Enjoying your profession, or creative pursuit, in life is different than "being super good" at it. It is true, yes, that many who enjoy their endeavors naturally become very good at them. Them skills do get sharper with practice, y'know.

Knowing all this knowledge from school (especially obscure, intricate subjects) to me perverts the purpose of learning and living life. Life's purpose, for some, might be to get a high paying job and grind out the working years of adulthood, doing so under the guise that "one day, I'll be able to retire and enjoy my life."

Life is a gift somehow given to each of us lucky human beings, and so why should we want to waste it doing something we don't have an interest for? For what sum of money, for what prestigious job title are you willing to suffer the regret of a squandered life at your deathbed? The deathbed is our true final destination, and that's not so glamorous, is it? It has come time for me, and you, to realize that we are so incredibly lucky to be alive today. Today, we can choose not to waste our valuable time in this world, and stop living our lives according to the whims of others.