Existence is funny
Wow. I wonder what made you click on this article. Scrolling across your Medium feed, and this caught your eye? Thanks, I guess.
Although I probably shouldn’t be thanking you. I should be thanking the universe.
“Nina.. I have a feeling you’re going to launch into a somewhat long explanation again.”
Ah, you know me. Of course I shall.
So, why am I thanking the universe? It didn’t help.
That’s because every action ever made and every thing that has ever occurred has led you to be here. Me too.
This might still be confusing. Honestly, I’m confusing myself too, so I get it. Let’s use a different example.
I tripped on my bag today. But I had only put my bag there because I don’t have school. And I don’t have school because of COVID-19. And COVID-19 is only here because of breeding between bats. And bats only breed because of general animal relationships and mating.
And general animal relationships and mating only exist because of nature and evolution. And that only exists as a result of the Earth’s change. And the Earth exists because of the Big Bang. And the Big Bang only exists as a result of the universe’s shenanigans.
So, really, the universe is to blame for me tripping on my bag.
Sure, you could blame it on me. But let’s be honest. The likelihood that I was going to be born is 1 in 10²⁶⁴⁰⁰⁰⁰ (ancestors meeting, parents meeting, sperm and egg matching), and due to the universe’s shenanigans, once again, I was born.
So I guess you could say that every single action that has ever occurred has caused me to be born and every single action I’ve ever done (like getting up at 5 am this morning or deciding to put my bag at that exact latitude and longitude) has made me trip on my bag.
That’s a lot to process. But how does this connect to existence?
Now, existence itself is a fickle subject matter. We have been studying what makes us exist and be conscious for YEARS now. However, we still haven’t pinpointed the mechanisms leading to consciousness itself.
What makes us be conscious? However, that is a different question than existence.
When we ponder existence, I wonder if we should ponder the species Homo Sapiens or the genus Homo.
If we choose the former, we arose between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago. In terms of the genus, we arose 2 million years ago.
So, we’re basically a bunch of glorified evolved monkeys. Optimistic, right? :)
So if we’re just a society of monkeys who are trying to make life mean something, one may wonder what the point is.
And I wonder that too. However, if we zoom back in to the literal standpoint, maybe we just exist and we need to create meaning. This is existentialism.
If so, we have approximately 79 years to do so. Minus 22 for education, 33 years sleeping/trying to get to sleep and 10 years of being sick at the end of your life plus compounded during your life.
So, really, you have 14 years total to create meaning. Assuming that’s about 5113 days, and as a result, 122712 hours.
But, what about eating?
Fine. Minus 32,098 hours, you have 90614 hours.
But, what about exercise and working out?
90614 hours minus 37992 is 52662 hours.
You have 52662 hours, much of which you’ve wasted or will waste to create meaning. That’s nothing relative to the amount of time we thought you had. Damn.
So, why not create meaning now? Why not do something with your life?
Because money itself is a resource. It is an aid. But never an end goal. So why spend your life stuck without meaning when you could live those hours meaningfully?
Some food for thought :)
Check out exurb1a if you want to watch similar content, this was inspired from his videos!
Thank you for reading my article :). I hope you liked the tips and tricks I dropped. Sign up for my monthly newsletter. It updates you on my progress that month, articles I’ve made, videos I’ve created, and conferences I’ve attended/spoken at!
If you want to continue the discussion, email me at kheranina@gmail.com or connect with me on Linkedin!
