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

A Gray Area

As we discuss the roles of pictures and words in conveying a story, I become mildly conflicted in several aspects. First, and most obviously, which one does the better job? To me, both forms of storytelling allow for creativity and personal thought. But, while writing is both specific and yet very imagination-based, illustrations tend to be only the latter. A drawing calls for "broader topics" (McCloud 815) of assumptions. And while that may be seen as a good thing, I see it as a source of miscommunication. Because images are open to so many different interpretations, often, the author's intended meaning is not truly understood. Similarly, I regularly find myself wondering if, as readers, we also look too much into the text and find meaning when the author actually had none. What if the author didn't really have a specific theme in mind and just wanted to write an amusing story? Of course, I may just be too simple-minded and unqualified, but I find myself doubting t...
7 comments
Read more

Never Let Anyone Dull your Sparkle! (unless you're the 1920s)

Knowing that the Great Gatsby is set in the 1920s, I had been looking forward to reading the book for so long. This decade has always fascinated me because of its creation of a new society, which--for the first time in history--is relatable to ours. In my perspective, before the 1920s, history was bleak, the human lifestyle seemed near archaic, and nothing was the slightest bit comparable to the twenty-first century. But at the turn of a new decade, Roaring Twenties brought along the "New Woman" and the birth of mass culture, including a surge of trends and technology. A curtain for my car window? Of course, I'll buy it! However, in the Great Gatsby , I seemed to have forgotten that the book I was reading was about my favorite decade! Where's the excitement and innovation? Why aren't advertisements for the Model-T being shoved in my face? Needless to say, I was underwhelmed! But I don't think I was alone in thinking this. In fact, Fitzgerald's mess...
7 comments
Read more

New Rules...

Rules. They're a set of regulations that we abide by daily. They're meant to create organization, civil conduct, and improvement among society. And it's necessary to enforce these rules so that order and integrity are ensured. But somewhere along the way of enforcing and following these rules, the purpose behind making them has been forgotten. At school, tardies exist to ensure that students are present for the lesson. But when you step into the classroom 30 seconds late (because of the terrible traffic leading up to the school campus), a mere four days of the ten weeks of a quarter, you are expected to spend several hours sitting idly for detention. The advisors tell you, "this will teach you to be punctual." But does it really make sense to be punished for multiple hours for missing a grand total of two minutes of your first period where class hasn't even really begun? Or when your teacher plays a movie because the school year is practically over, and yo...
8 comments
Read more