The Introverts Guide to The Meaning of Life.
Yeah the title is a bit grandiose but I like it.
This is coming from a place where I wanted to be able to help people. I donāt always know the best words to express what I think when I speak but lately Iāve wanted to work in a space where I could just speak at length about what I feel Iāve learned in my life. About how I think and relate to people and the world at large. And I wanted to do so in a space I felt would maybe be seen and help a person or two.
Hence I made the decision to come to Tumblr.
Call it Madness or Wisdom, youāre still probably right.
So this is going to be my partial diary, partial wisdom blog, partial hard record for whatever therapist wants to look at me down the road. Hopefully they appreciate the documentation.
So I guess the first thing I want to kinda dwell on is, as the caterpillar asksā¦
TBH I think about this question a lot. Sure I can answer with my name, and thatās indeed who I am in society, but where I begin questioning is who I am to myself.
To anyone who is reading this, Lils is fine.
One of the things Iāve always had a problem with is trying to describe myself. The concept of ice breaking activities fills me with dread, or more commonly these days itās the ominous ātell me some of your strengths and weaknessesā.
Whoever came up with that question needs to be sentenced to having to use the bathroom on stage in front of an audience.
Seriously there are no good answers to that question! If you say to many good things, or those good things in the wrong way, youāre perceived as arrogant. If you say to many negative things, you lack confidence, or worse they lowball you in pay cause they think you wonāt fight back.
And the thing is that you should have confidence in yourself! We are in a big old universe that, as far as we know, stretches on for immeasurable lengths, distances where you can only measure in how many years it would take light to reach it *and it can still be millions of years*
On top of that matter that had at one point just been floating in the void floated into each other *so hard* that it became a giant floating rock. Then this rock managed, through scientific fuckery, make water! An atmosphere! *Fucking Life*. And whatever you think about *what* made life, the fact is that from there, millions of years passed, dinosaurs happened, then they stopped, then humans. Greece, Rome, Wars, and all that time has led to you.
And then fuckin life happens.
Oh yeah, itās a miracle but it doesnāt mean it doesnāt suck a whole bunch of nards. Christ almighty, itās a miracle when a kid makes it out of high school without some form of lasting trauma. And then we mold ourselves around that trauma, in the worst case passing those issues onto the next generation.
Why bring up trauma? Well I think thatās why I have a problem with the initial question of who I am.
I used to really like ice breaking activities when I was younger. I always saw them as an opportunity to make friends, maybe if we have similar likes or interests, one of the peeps in my new class will like it too, and we can bond over it and then boom, friend made. So a lot of times, I would talk about what I liked, or things I learned from properties that I liked. It seldom worked the way I expected, but again, stories for another time.
That was my safe spot you know? The things that I liked. I knew those. Give me two options and I can tell you what one I prefer. Tv shows? No problem. Video games? Piece of cake. Sportsball games? I might not be super into them but I can tell you what team I prefer over a different one, even if itās just based on their uniforms or mascot game.
But then everything changed when the question did.
See, you *have* to go to school. You *have* to do your homework. For stricter upbringings like mine you *have* to get good grades. Living within those confines is itās own form of comfort. You know what youāre going to do, the question was doing it in a fashion that you like. And after many years of picking between PokĆ©mon starters, that was an easy task. But then one day, maybe later than other people, I wasnāt asked āwhat do you likeā
I was asked āwhat do you want to do.ā
For some people, that question is easy. They know what they want to do. Doctors, artists, scientists, parents, people know what they want to do and the most tenacious of us make it with jobs in their chosen field and I am genuinely thrilled for people who follow their passion. But when I was addressed with that question, I froze. Want was never included in my world up to that point. There were things that sure, if I had complete freedom and unlimited money Iād like to do, but being invested in anything like that was merely fantasy. Sure, being able to lie on the beach in a nice chair with a book in hand sounds like paradise but itās not really a realistic goal. Same with world domination.
After that I struggledā¦a lot. I started learning about the things that I like, maybe I could refine down what it was that I liked about them and magically, like an epiphany, I would see the thing that would make me happy, the passion and determination that others had when it came to their craft. But nothing came. I got a retail job after that and spent a good long time basically chasing that next bit of Serotonin. Nothing dangerous but definitely not good for my mental health. If passion wasnāt in my future the least I could hope for would be comfort.
Then I moved into my own place. I had a job that could (barely) afford, and then I looked around and said āwell. Now what?ā
That was the goal. Self sustainability. And I donāt mean to sound dour about the whole thing, itās an accomplishment that I am proud of, but a ghost loomed over my head. The concept that now that I am self sustainable, what did I want to do? Obviously there are limits, but now I could exist beholden to no one but myself andā¦I didnāt know what to do with it. I still donāt. and itās felt very lonely. Lonely because I feel this bright passion inside of me and I have no way to share it. No way for it to exist in this world.
I donāt know what I want to do but I want to do something.
I want to live my life in joy
I want to love whomever I want at my own pace
I want to be passionate and excited and run into the future with the confidence of the ball of conscious stardust that I am.
And even if no one reads this, writing it down helped a lot. The fact that the very thought exists somewhere helps.
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