The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
H. P. Lovecraft
As a high school student, I’ve gotten my fair share of essays and questions dealing with the “future” and what I expect from it, where I hope to be and whatnot. Frankly, as the title probably gives away, I find the future to be riddled with uncertainty and the unforeseeable, for many that may invite woes aplenty, but personally, it is rather exhilarating, it’s why we like a good book after all, “what happens next?”
I’ve never been one for plans, routines or schedules. It feels restricting at times, suffocating even. I’ve always been an advocate of impromptu and spontaneous decisions because, in my humble opinion, you don’t really know what you want until the very moment the choice is presented, the split second you have to weigh that decision; at that moment, the one which your instinct points to, more often than not, is the right decision for you and, who are you living for if not yourself?
I’d decided my career path long before I had been faced with the choices to choose, and even then, I’d wavered and dabbled in other interests and possibilities: a game developer, a filmmaker, an engineer and many others, I’ve a knack to the lean towards the creative. I’ve allowed myself to explore who I wish to be freely, and if you’re reading this, you may know I adore writing; maybe I’m not extraordinary in comparison to the greats, perhaps I’ll never get there, but the joy in doing something is all the drive I need to do it, being the best, be it in a sport, a skill, a talent, or whatever, it’s somewhat overrated.
The path the world expects a budding adult to walk is one focused on their career, focused on providing for themselves, while it is essential to survive in the world man has created, aside from comfort and material gain, what does one really get from devoting their lives to this cause? I don’t need, nor do I really want, to walk a path in life that’s littered with roses and gilded with pure gold. How much happiness can one extract from such ephemeral sources of pleasure, from these material possessions? The answer is right in front of our faces. We’ve all heard it hundreds of thousands, if not millions of times, money can’t buy happiness; therefore, the answer to this question is simple, nothing.
The only place where humanity can derive a sense of inner peace and happiness is within oneself; to walk the path that one believes is the best for themselves, it may be wrong in the end, but at least they dared to take that step forward, for themselves and none other. I believe that even if I make every wrong decision at every crossroad, I’ll still be satisfied knowing I walked my own path, one I paved by myself.
All I say sounds appealing, at least it does to me, but from the moment we are born, we are chained down to the ground by society’s shackles. It may sound cliche of me to say, but the truth often tends to be overstated. We are bogged down by traditional, cultural and familial standards and expectations. When the path you want to set yourself on doesn’t align with a guardian, it’s hard to break out of those shackles. I don’t envy those who had to tear themselves away from their families to be themselves, to be happy, but I admire the dedication and respect they have for themselves to be able to do so, and I hope if that day ever arrives for me, I find the courage to do so as well but only time will tell, just, and nothing but, the future holds the answers.
The quote I started this post with is one that I’ve used a few times in my time writing on this blog; I feel it captures humanity in so many regards that it’s not possible to ignore it and still have it feel appropriate to talk about whatever it is I decide to talk about. The future, in all senses, is the unknown, and many fear it, try to do the best they can to remain in the state they are in. I pity those people. To dwell in a stagnant world with no ambition is a tragedy, one that many people live, one that is not so easy to rid oneself of, not at all. I wish I could offer the solution, but in this case, the answer isn’t quite so simple. Freeing oneself from the mental restraints one has tied oneself with is a personal and perilous journey, a path one has to walk lest they be consumed by the darkness within themselves; easier said than done, far easier.
The future brings with it uncertainty; whether we choose to fear it in every fibre of our being and fight its inevitable consumption of the present, or we choose to embrace the change that it brings, diving headfirst into the unknown to experience that which holds new experiences, is a dilemma entirely up to us, to the individual person. I know not what the people in my life will choose, but the former is a prison, and the latter proposes freedom; now, as you have already inferred, for me, the choice is as clear as night and day.
Saye Kamal 