CAN WE JUST DELETE LINKEDIN AND THE ENTIRE CORPORATE WORLD

I always thought that once I graduated and had a degree, these imaginary doors would open for me. I thought I would have many job opportunities, and good-paying ones too. I thought I would have officially made it. Boy, was I wrong. I struggled for so long, not realizing the true key to success was passion. But how are you supposed to cultivate passion in a world that crushes it?

I have always had my nose in a book since I was little. Creating worlds in my head to get lost in, expanding characters I had read about or even just made up. I was clearly never one for reality.

The only time I was ever truly happy was when I was reading or in awe of the books in the bookstore. My mom and I used to mess up a good Indigo trip. But there I was, struggling every. single. day. to get out of bed, to study, to eat.

I studied philosophy in university (surprising? No), and although I might not have loved every minute of it, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I kept asking myself, “How do I keep doing this? This is what I want to do. I want to learn, I want to read, I want to think. Is being a philosopher even a thing?”

The only other time I was happy was when I was travelling—something I was never able to do much before leaving for school. I loved seeing the pictures in my textbooks come to life, seeing how different life could be and how it was both different and the same. I loved knowing that there were grander things than myself out there. I loved meeting people who had completely different lives than mine and hearing their ideas, stories, fascinations, and needs. It kept me going. I told myself that all I wanted to do was study people and how they lived, and why we lived, why we loved, and why we thought it was all worth it.

It took me until the ripe age of 22 to admit to myself that I wanted to be a writer. That I was, in fact, an artist and wanted to dedicate my whole life to it. LIFE- SHATTERING? Maybe not—but to me, someone who was brainwashed into thinking that writing is not a real job and that to be successful and fulfilled you had to hold a respectable, high-paying job—it was. Everything that I loved couldn’t make me any money. What was I going to do, be a poet? A writer? A book reader? No.

But is that really true?

Success to me is not having a large home, a hefty bank account, or being the most important person in the room. Success is not crying yourself to sleep because you feel overwhelmed every day. Success is not being someone every day who you are not. Money is not worth it. Social status is not worth it. And let me ask you, where has it gotten you?

The fact that the "Sunday Scaries" is such a normalized and heavily experienced phenomenon is disturbing. Of course, there are going to be things that we have to do that we don’t want to do; we are all going to have to earn a living one way or another. But every day should not feel that way.

We should not wake up in the morning holding our breath and go to sleep on the verge of a panic attack. This society that we live in today does not value creativity; it does not care about your passions, it does not care about your mental health because the show must go on, and if you can't make the things you love into a product that you can sell or a service you can offer, then you must dedicate your life to something else.

Hustle culture itself can be extremely toxic. If you are genuinely happy in a corporate 9-5 job making good money, that is not bad. That is success to you. Working all the time brings you happiness; if you are passionate about it and content, then you are successful.

But not everyone is. And not everyone should be. We are human beings, and we are being distracted from what is really important by things we are told we want. We are made to consume but not create.

So if no one has ever told you this before: you are not lazy if you do not want a typical or traditional job. You are not a loser if you are trying to do something different from everyone else. You are not going nowhere in life if you still live with your parents (especially in today’s economy), and ultimately, you are nothing but a human being if you don’t want to work and be busy 24/7. I don’t want to be a rat in this race, and if that means I won’t be successful or have as much money as I could have, then that’s okay. Maybe success was never something I wanted if that’s what it looks like.

But I will find my own success because I will paint the life I want. I’ll seek the beauty in quiet moments, the joy in simple pleasures, and the freedom in living a life true to myself. In the end, it’s not the accolades or the riches that define us, but the love we give, the dreams we chase, and the stories we leave behind.