"For many, life's expectations sink so deeply into their bones that they hardly pause to ask: Do I actually want this life? Am I simply following the path I was told to walk? The reality is that, as someone living through the experience, choosing a life that doesn't look like everyone else's can be confronting. I'm single at thirty-eight and have no kids and live alone."
"I feel this at my core. I'm home. The Heavy Weight of the Word 'Should' I despise the word "should." It's a heavy word because it comes wrapped in fear. More pointedly, fear of letting people down, of being rejected, of daring to dream of something that isn't on the tried and tested path, and ultimately, the fear of getting lost in uncertainty."
An individual felt different from other children since about age four and continues to carry that sense of being an outsider into middle age. Society promotes a conventional life blueprint—education, career advancement, a romantic partner, children, and material milestones—that many accept without questioning. Choosing a life that diverges from those expectations can be confronting. The person describes being single at thirty-eight, childfree, and living alone, yet genuinely content and at home in solitude. The word "should" is portrayed as heavy and rooted in fear: fear of disappointing others, rejection, uncertainty, and loss of direction.
Read at Tiny Buddha
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]