Wake up. Go to work. Pay the bills. Repeat. It seems that this is what society has grown accustomed to. It is what we call an acceptable life. A successful life. Occasionally we may slip in some family time or a two-week vacation but only when time permits. Only when we can schedule around work and school. From birth, we are taught that our parents need to go to work and that work takes precedence over most other things. At five years of age, we are shipped off to school to learn, and soon after, learning turns into memorization. Memorization and regurgitation of information is how we spend the next 12 years. Finally, we graduate.

Finally, we have the freedom to decide where we want to go and what we want to do. We have the freedom, but we do not have an infinite amount of time; we are told to decide immediately after graduation. We are told to leave for college to pursue a fulfilling career that makes enough money to pay off the tens of thousands of dollars that we just spent acquiring the degree that will help us maintain that “fulfilling career.” After 24 years of preparing for adulthood and acquiring a lifetime worth of debt, we are ready to enter the “real world.” Finally, we graduate college. Finally, we can begin our lives. We have the freedom, but we do not have an infinite amount of time; we are told it is time to find a job, find a home, and find a husband or wife. We better start to settle in now so that our future children have a stable home with a stable family when they begin the journey that has been so carefully laid out for them. Once we are settled, we better get cozy. This is where we should stay until retirement, for now we have a stable home and a financially secure job; what more could we possibly want? According to society: nothing. We should be content. We are living the American dream.

We should use our vacation time to travel to a resort with American accommodations and a nice view. For years and years, we will abide by the rules we have been given, and our entire existence will be governed by thin pieces of paper referred to as money. Finally, we retire. Finally, we can spend an infinite amount of time with our children and grandchildren; we can create healthy relationships, see the world, experience life, and live in bliss. Only our family does not have an infinite amount of time. Our children and grandchildren must attend work and school. We have slaved our lives away to receive a break only long enough to watch our grandchildren make the same mistake of having a perpetually mundane existence. And we will congratulate them on their “success” of completing a routine life with financial security: the most critical aspect of life. Our only desire is to do what we love, but in society today it will never be enough.