Mar 8
No, Traveling the World is NOT Your Passion.
Do you really enjoy different cultures or are you just escaping your life?
Another heavy hour passes by at work as I gaze unfocused outside my office. The room is a cozy 70 degrees box but the world outside reminds me that the New England winter is still bitter. The purified snow has now been shoved to the sides of the parking lot, where grease, dirt, and muck stained the snow to a disturbing black. On sluggish Wednesdays like these, it’s easy to let your mind travel to the deep corners of memories. Instead of the dry, lifeless winter outside, I see the divine Maui sunset that paints the cerulean waves with an orange sunset blush. Last year’s blissful journey to Hawaii somehow seems like a decade ago.
How many of us experience the same torture of mundane life? How many of us shamelessly exclaim, “world traveler” or “adventurer” on our Instagram bio, Hinge prompts, and LinkedIn profiles, yet are stuck in an office 350 days a year? How many of us find ourselves traveling under the caverns of consciousness, where all our remember-whens, could’ve-beens, and what-ifs hibernate? Are these merely first-world problems or something more serious, where our entire lives are at stake of simply blurring out to oblivion?
Well, these honest contemplations are probably first-world problems. While Ukraine is getting back blasted by the Russian air force and the Chinese industrial force pumping out 9 billion tons of CO2 every year, we still fixate on our personal lives. Because we’re selfish creatures. And because we’re all chasing our own version of fulfillment.
The shifting shades and the reflecting yellow glow from the parked cars indicate the early retreat of the sun in the New England winter. Time seems to stretch, like butter with too much bread. Somehow the last two hours always refuse to pass. This is the workers’ twilight zone, where after-lunch coffee wears off and the mind begins to drift to the possible activities after work. How many more of these evening dullnesses do I have to endure to finally understand that time is too slippery, too fast, too precious to spend it in a toasty office with lesser realities? When is the next escape? Next vacation? Next adventure that will rejuvenate my soul?
I can already see my dad’s eye roll, as he thinks about how careless gen z and millennial generations are. But unlike our parent’s generation, we are incredibly sensitive to our own sense of happiness. And it makes sense. The good ol’ Maslow’s hierarchy of needs shows us that you need to figure out the physiological needs first, then safety, then feel loved, then have the self-esteem to at least be in the ballpark of figuring out the fulfillment factor of your life. My parents damn sure didn’t have the self-esteem part figured out let alone feel safe during the political instabilities in Korea during the 1980s. So while my parents still fixate on stable, high-paying jobs, we look beyond the lower tier needs to find joy in life. It’s through their hard work and sacrifice that our generation gets to pursue higher self-fulfillment needs.
So here is my beef with my generation. Even though we got the lower tier needs figured out pretty well, why are we still depressed, still escaping reality with Hulu shows, still flexing on social media, and still have no passion to pursue? Our generation to me feels like the stacked private school Football team with all the state-of-the-art facilities and even a mindset coach but still somehow chokes in a game against a JV middle school team called life. No matter how much resources are blessed to us, we still walk in circles and find the same miserable desk jobs our parents found decades ago.
I have a theory. It’s the theory of expectations. Our generation has been the first to actually have a pretty stable and blessed political, economical, and societal landscape. Yes, there are conflicts and bear trends here and there, but there weren’t any major depressions or wars that severely impaired our pursuit of happiness. The worst event so far was Covid-19, which seems to have been a launchpad for some to find a remote job in the warm breeze of Florida. Amidst these blessed conditions as American young adults, we are still scared to pursue the top-tier fulfillment needs. Because our parents didn’t get to. Our grandparents didn’t get to. So who do we model after to live an actually happy life?
We are all lying to ourselves. We call ourselves artists, adventurists, cooks, athletes, whatever, and yet we only dedicate 45 minutes at most every day. We say we will one day leave our boring jobs to live a happily-ever-after life, but can’t let go of being a “Financial Adviser” at EY. You can’t be passionate about traveling the world if you only leave twice a year to use your PTO days to fly to Puerto Rico again. You can’t be passionate about surfing if riding a 2' wave on a foamboard is the “bravest thing I’ve ever done.” You are not an environmentalist just because you have your silhouette at a local hike with your Arcteryx backpack as your Instagram profile. I hope this stings some of you. Because I want all of us to actually pursue life outside of your cozy office.
So where do we start? How do we fling a middle finger to our boss and go chase our dreams? We have to start with gratitude. With empathy. To understand that our lives are very different from what the world is used to. That our hobbies do not need to stay as mere hobbies. We don’t plant flowers in the garden to pass time on the weekends. We don’t read mystery novels while waiting at the DMV. We don’t learn how to play the guitar just to say we can play Stairways to Heaven. We are able to grab our hobbies by their throats and get comfortable with them every living moment. Because social media allows us to showcase our talents like never before. We don’t have an imminent war on our soil. We’re not expected to have kids and get married by 21. We are blessed with the possibility to actually become a digital artist for life. To become an actress for life. To become a pro gamer for life. Because our Ikigai calls us. And it’s all thanks to your generation’s sacrifice. So thank you. We will use it to relentlessly live life to the fullest.
