A few years ago my godfather died, and we all had to go to the funeral. There I was, in the middle of the summer, all dressed in black, outside the church, waiting for the funeral to end so I can go home and work. While being there, I saw something that made me think a little about my life.
In the church there was a woman who knew my godfather really well,and while his wife was strong enough to not cry a lot, that woman started screaming in the church, saying all kind of things. I didn't really care about that, and I minded my own business. However, when I looked at a few people who got out of the church at that point, I realized why we all need to live without regrets.
I saw old people getting out of the church shaking, with their eyes wide open, afraid of anything that is related to death. Their time has passed, and I thought that maybe some of those people are regretting the lives they had, or some choices they made because they "had to".
I always thought that the words "have to" are very situational, and that most of the time you don't really have to do anything. We just choose to do certain things based on a set of rules and scenarios that we make up, in order to make sure no one gets mad or laughs at us.
But is it worth having regrets when we'll get older, just because we try to not piss off anyone right now? Is it worth risking regretting our life just because we don't want a bunch of jerks to laugh at us?
I don't think so. I think we should do our best to do whatever the hell we want, and make sure that by the time we're 65 we can look back at our lives and smile, because we had a nice ride. It's not about the life we should have based on some "moral rules" that society created for us. It's about doing what we enjoy and feeling good about ourselves.
There are people who are afraid to even follow their dreams because they are afraid not to embarrass themselves. They are so scared of failure that they'd rather spend 8 hours every single day, doing something they hate, just to make sure they're safe and they never get out of their comfort zone.
Every time I go to the city near me I see students wandering around, having no idea what they want to do with their lives, trying to find an answer to all their problems and desires while also making sure they don't piss anyone off. They are scared of everything in front of them, and they do their best to not take any risks.
I believe we should take risks, and we should do exactly the things we want to do, no matter what our parents say, no matter what our friends or teachers say, and no matter what society will think about us. There's only one thing that we know for sure in this life, and that is that at some point in the future, maybe near future, we will die, and we will not be able to enjoy this journey any more.
I'd rather die with a smile on my face thinking about all the things I did now, things I enjoyed, than dying with tears in my eyes thinking about all the chances I lost and all the opportunities I said "no" to because of fear.
To be frank, I don't really care what you want to do in life, I just want you to do it. If you want to go and explore the world, then save some money and do that as fast as possible. Make sure you have amazing memories, something to tell your children about. If you want to spend most of your time inside your house, in front of your computer, then go ahead and do that.
Every person out there has a few things he or she wants to do, and they should do that no matter what happens. Even if all you want to do is to stay inside your house, you should not go out just because other people say. If you go out, make sure it's because you want to, and because you want to see something out there.
I'm tired of following orders, and I'm tired of doing certain things because people want me to. I don't want to "have" to do anything, I want to "want" to do a lot of things.
It's your life we're talking about here, and you should be the one creating the rules by which you live. Don't let anyone tell you how to do certain things, because it's not worth. Take 5 or 10 minutes and look at society, at mediocre people that go out every single day trying to "have fun", doing what society tells them it's okay to do.
Most of them are boring people, with boring problems that never do something they really want, because they are afraid of failure. People who go in clubs and dance all night, who drink, who never read books, people who spend 90% of their time with their drunk friends having fun. Those people are convinced they are living life as it fullest because they do something everyone does, while not realizing they are wasting their life just as any other person out there they believe to be a loser because he or she won't get out of the house. It's not about going out, it's about doing what you like.
The funny thing is that we're not prisoners to anyone. The "system" doesn't keep us from doing what we like, and the government doesn't do whatever it takes to not let us be free. Those are just excuses we find to justify our actions.
We're prisoners to our own thoughts and limitations, scenarios that we invent in order to have a reason for not doing what we love. We're not prisoners to a society that doesn't want us to do certain things. We're prisoners to all the invisible rules society has, rules we're so terrified of, we'd rather die than to get out there and risk failing for what we want.
Living with regrets is my biggest fear, and I'm doing my best to avoid that. I learned how to say "no" to everyone who tried to make me do something, and I learned how to disappoint people in order to do things I enjoy and take risks.
I'm repeating myself, but it's because I want you to understand that you have around 60 to 80 years to live on this planet, and you can either not give a crap about what every idiot says about you, and do whatever the hell you want and enjoy life, or you can crawl under a rock and wait to die, because you're too afraid to be criticized by others.
It doesn't matter what you do in life. It doesn't matter if you want to be out all the time or if you don't want to get out of the house. Make sure you live the way you want to, and don't let anyone tell you what to do. When you die, I'd rather know you're smiling because of the life you had, than crying for the life you refused to have.