I’ve been grappling with this question for a long time, since around the age of 16?
It started off as questioning the education system. I thought the system was toxic, a monolithic structure which was ineffective and dull; deplorable and only to be doomed sooner or later; a system only capable of destroying the young creative minds of the next generation, a myopic system which holds no regard for anomalies. But I’ve soon come to realise that with its shortcomings, it is still a respectable, meritocratic system which rewards hard-work and provides social mobility for everyone.
Then I despised the workforce and conventional employment. I thought 99% of people in the workforce were corporate slaves, people with no dreams, people who sold their souls, people with no sense of adventure and people who were better off dead. Then I realised that not everyone had the privilege of choice. And that from their generation, they were dealing with problems different from what I face today.
I have always been questioning who I want to be in the future, what do I want to do? Whether what I did was who I am or were they separate subjects? How to find the path? What to do to start the journey? And I still don’t have the answer. And I realise maybe I never will but it is more important to keep trying and stop wasting time.
It is privilege to be able to contemplate such problems. From an evolutionary standpoint, we came from a species which had to fight for survival. Most of our days were tasked with finding food and shelter, but through the progress of mankind, most of the menial jobs have been industrialised and automated. Leaving us with much more time to worry about problems and grand ideas such as purpose and fulfilment.
If there are still any loyal readers out there, what advice would you give to a young man trying to find out what to do in the future?