What Is This Life?

More musings. I might do this more often.

The biggest question I have asked myself lately is this: Does life get worse as we get older, or do we just learn more? People commit suicide, they become alcoholics, they lose all hope. Do they know something we don't? Or does it go deeper than that?
Sure, there are personal reasons for losing hope. You lost your well-paying job, your girlfriend dumped you, your children resent you. Maybe you feel like giving up is the only option.
It's not.
Before you give up, ask yourself this question: What is this life? What is life in general? Is life defined as a series of pre-meditated events by something unseen, or is life something undefinable, something each person experiences differently? Think about it.
After you've gotten that figured out, ask yourself this: What is THIS life, the life you're living? Is it defined by the people who care about you, the family you're born into and the family you choose? Is it surrounded by the beauty of the world, whether it be the biggest city or the furthest forest from anywhere? Is it brought to life by feelings, good and bad?
It should be. All lives should, whether you feel like your life is definable or not. Life is meant to be loved and lived, because it can be easily lost. Sometimes we lose sight of that; we're too busy going too fast to places we hate going to, that we don't slow down and take a look around.
You start to forget that you have family and friends that care, that somebody somewhere loves you, that you are more than just what you look like. You are not to be defined by a BuzzFeed quiz. You are you and you alone. There is no one else exactly like you alive right now, so live your life in a way that makes everyone wish that there were more people like you.
It's not an easy thing to do. You will need support, so find it where you need to. Go to school, go to church, go online, go to the coffee shop and talk to the barista. If you look for it, you'll find it just about anywhere.
You are not alone. There are many many people like you who don't know how to really live. They get lost, they lose focus on where they need to be. But that really is the first step to living; you lose yourself to find yourself.
So don't lose hope. Life isn't simply something that can be defined in a dictionary. It is up for interpretation by everyone living it. And even if you can't answer it now, the answer will come to you. It always does.

So, does life really get worse as we get older or do we just learn more? Well what have you learned?

Reviews

[Paul]

It is good to read an optimistic voice. The advice in this piece could be called naive or optimistic but if it is sincere then it is worth saying. To answer your question, life does not necessarily get worse but it does get more complicated and therefore harder to manage sometimes. If you know who you are the hard times can be managed.