Skip to main content

The Game of Life

In accordance with the 8+ age recommendation plastered on the side of the Game of Life box, we've been exposed to the "blueprint" ("Life Stories") of life since we were mere children. Our stages of life have been set out for us, with timestamps at the approximate ages of 5, 18, 22, 30, and 60.*

It's so standard--this kind of thinking. And there's a reason for it. Obviously, these stages of life are traditional for most people, but they're also so tightly grasped onto because of the stability they provide for holders of this idea. It provides a clearer vision and comfort from the frightening mystery of the future. 

Yet as we linger in each stage, we continuously look to what comes next. Personally, I've always admired those older than me and glorified their experiences. In comparison to their grand stories, my life always felt slightly less interesting-- always one step behind. And being exposed to what would soon be coming, I only had my thoughts set on the future. 

While being in college was once my only aspiration **, now I aspire to savor the present. Cheesy, right.*** But in all seriousness, we've been accustomed to suffer now and be happy in the future. Unfortunately, it'll only get worse in the future: looking forward to yet another stage of life and probably even backward to what we once had. And just to touch onto another flaw in this thinking, your expectation based on the blueprint will undoubtedly be failed sometime in your life.

So savor the moment. 

It's cliché, but it's common for a reason. Now that it's our last year of high school, try not to get too caught up with what's right around the corner. And now that I've adapted this new type of thinking, I cannot contain my excitement for what I am now: a senior!****



*These numbers correlate to the obvious events of starting grade school, becoming an adult and going to college, graduating to find a real job, getting married and starting a family, and, finally, having grandchildren and retiring.

**More specifically, a romanticized future that I foolishly could not contain my excitement for

***I hope you got the joke

****Yes, all my friends have already gotten annoyed at me for pointing this out dozens of times

Comments

  1. Abby LiangSeptember 18, 2020 at 1:43 PM

    Hahah Sabrina I love your footnotes!! But wow this hit hard - I think especially with quarantine, I've been trying to live more in the present. Can't believe we're seniors, wow 🙈

    ReplyDelete
  2. KatieSeptember 21, 2020 at 8:28 AM

    This was so eloquently written and I really get what you're saying! I think lately I've been feeling a bit differently because I've been caught in this thought cycle of missing the past. I'll keep your writing in mind :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prepare to be Disappointed

The human mind naturally develops pattern recognition. In psychology, this describes how we make connections between memories and information perceived because our brains want to predict situations from past experiences. Because this behavior is so basic and innate, considering the logic and accuracy of patterns, it seems that we've integrated it into our thinking even when we shouldn't. Throughout our K-12 education, we're taught to analyze characters: what are their key traits? Their conflicts? Their attitudes? And through this, we've gotten into the habit of labeling them and putting them into categories for the convenience of characterizing them. It seems like every character has a distinguished role and a distinguished set of ideals. But in Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the main character Ifemelu and those around her challenge this way of thinking. In Americanah, central conflicts arise from status--both finance and race-based. Like the rest of the...
7 comments
Read more

Married to Money

Nearly everyone imagines getting married one day. Some girls create a Pinterest board with the perfect dress, venue, and bouquet, while others don't. Regardless of the amount of thought put into it, the majority of people picture having a grand white wedding with all their friends and family--just a happy time. But aside from the obvious fear of commitment and attention, one of the scariest parts of a wedding is paying for it. Sources state that the average wedding costs $38,700. This includes the cost of an engagement ring ($5,000), the ceremony and reception ($29,200), and a honeymoon ($4,500). To put this into perspective, according to the U.S. Census, the average household income in 2018 was $63,179. That means on average, couples spend over 60% of their annual income on a single unrecurring event--and that's being generous considering the fact that new couples make less early on. As Didion criticizes the commercialized nature of American culture, she exemplifies with a...
6 comments
Read more

Think Before Judging

A Raisin in the Sun  is a play about the Younger family, consisting of five members: Mama, Walter, Ruth, Beneatha, and Travis. Each character plays a distinct role in the family dynamic, but some carry more weight than others. While others might say that Walter is the worst and even drags down the family, I take a less critical approach. I fully admit that Walter, at times disgusts me, as he is the type of man who would waste his family's hard-earned money in a casino. However, he carries this sort of judgement with the risk he takes playing the role of a Lone Ranger. Diverging from the norm, Walter makes decisions alone, which will not always satisfy everyone. Another influential character is Walter's sister Beneatha. Portrayed as an untraditional and progressive woman, Beneatha is nearly perceived as Gandhi. In such a way, Beneatha's character provides verisimilitude by prompting to compare her to Walter as the better sibling. While she defies conventional images of a...
5 comments
Read more