I'll try my hardest not to ramble, although I usually do with stuff like this. Stay with me though.
I think about this year round. I've also written something similar more specific to the holiday season, but only sent it to family and close friends years ago. I think about this even more around the fall season. But it's hard not to. It's almost a forced thought, but one that I actually like being forced into thinking about. It's not one that you comes to mind easily, depending on your lifestyle and really who you are. We can get lost in all of the tweets, IG posts, commercials, and pop up ads about the newest ideas for gifts. And now we have gift ideas for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and New Years instead of just Christmas. I mean come on. But those are the things that continuously make me think about appreciating what I am supposed to appreciate.
The holidays mixed with social media are really the two things that inspired this piece today. Along with some other basic logic. Every day we are able to discover the latest and greatest inventions. Things that will "make your life easier". So we order it, because we have Prime, and why not? I get it. I do it too. Those Amazon boxes arriving at your door is fun! It's like Kevin in Home Alone when he gets his cheese pizza.
I say that line just about every other time I receive a package.
Also, year round we're smacked in the face with social media and everything that our friends are doing. Celebrities are doing. I can go on and on about the shit I hear on a day to day basis about what this celebrity is doing on that yacht and what that celebrity is doing in this penthouse hotel in Dubai. It's a constant loss of reality and wishing we are somewhere were aren't. Dubbing a Maserati as #goals is one thing, but shaming your car because it's not a Maserati yet is unhealthy. We all have goals and we need reminders for where we want to be. But the complaints we see by others about where their life isn't, especially when it comes to material things is baffling.
Time and time again, wealthy members of the spotlight that are plastered all over the tabloids get their personal piece in the biggest magazines in the world. And time and time again, they are asked about money and fame. And the amount of times I see the statement repeated: "Being rich doesn't solve all your problems." It's got to be true. If you truly think about it, it's all relative. You're getting a bunch of Amazon boxes maybe priced lower than the boxes wealthier individuals are getting. Don't let me pocket watch, but that's just a fact of life. But at the end of the day it's a material thing that, yes, may make a certain chore or activity in your life a bit more enjoyable or easier. But it's the same for them, it just may be designer or cost more. Did you still end up getting that thing fixed? Or did your new throw pillow still make the living room more appealing?
That car you drive. While you're complaining about driving a Ford Fusion, (bless her, my first car) the people lining up at the bus stop are watching you drive past them thinking, "I wish I had that car. Life would be so much easier to get around when I wanted on my own schedule." The kid riding the bus to school or even walking may be watching a kid on a bike ride by wishing he had one. The guy on the bike riding to work watches a car go by wishing he had a car to drive. The woman in the Ford Fusion watches that Lambo go by and she wipes her drool as she's slamming on her breaks from staring so long, saying a quick prayer in hopes she doesn't rear end whoever's in front of her. But I think that kind of thing, that's where it starts getting unhealthy.
I will be honest. I have rambled a lot to get to my point but that was it. I felt like helping visualize my point first and putting things into perspective may help. There are levels in life, but the true meaning of life is the same at each one. Well, I think so at least. There are necessities that everyone needs. Everyone. Love, health, tools to accommodate, happiness, etc. And there are wants and desires that some simply don't deserve yet. Or actually, to put it into more optimistic terms: aren't destined for yet. You can absolutely get to those desires. Maybe it's just not your time, though. Which is okay! And we can call that unfair, but if life was fair, it'd be pretty fucking boring. I should repeat that wanting nice things and expensive things isn't what I am saying is the bad thing. Rather my point is that if those desires and craves become the only reason you're doing what you're doing or surrounding yourself with who you're surrounding yourself with, you're living life wrong. And that may just be my opinion but I'm willing to stand by my opinion knowing that majority of people that see the important things in life, agree.
Put those things you want to a list and help that be motivation. That list may change down the road as you level up. There are many levels I have yet to step foot on, but as I have leveled up in my own way since living at home, as most of us have, I've realized a lot of the things I said I wanted as a kid have changed. A lot of the things I thought were super cool and though 'If you wanted to be accepted you needed', changed as well. Because I have come to terms with what, in my life, is important.
I personally no longer ask for Christmas gifts or birthday gifts even. Except for the jokes like, "We'd love a house if you guys wouldn't mind chipping in this Christmas." I realized three years ago that giving around this time was a whole lot better than the small things I have received over the years that I never even touch anymore, besides my Xbox, lol. Find and accept the people and opportunities that make you happy in life. Invest into them. Don't let material things distract you from what really means shit in your life. Don't let that post on IG distract you from your Sunday dinner with your family even if it isn't on a cobblestone street in Italy.
That couch you're sitting on. Love it. It's better than sitting on the ground right? That phone or computer you're reading this on. Give it a kiss because it's better than having to send mail with a pigeon right? Then wipe the lip print off your screen because that's absolutely irritating. Shoot, when you're brushing your teeth smile knowing your breath won't smell like hot trash for the day. Until you eat that garlic pasta, that is. Then go appreciate some mints.
Find happiness within yourself, the things you currently have, and the things that matter. Only then can you stop depending on Amazon boxes and retail therapy to bring you back and forth to light. It's already right in front of you.