So one of the things I've been thinking about a lot lately is what a bad bill of goods I was sold,

especially in my impressionable teenage, like formative years of my life.

Some of the ideas that were promoted on MTV, on mainstream culture, produced by adults

for my age group is abysmal. I can't believe it. What was

essentially sold to me is that the typical average adult life filled with responsibilities

and duty and sacrifice was boring, unimportant, and a waste. And that people who went to a nine to five

every day to provide for them and their loved ones and to have a safe and stable life, that was

boring, that was unimportant. They were cogs in a machine. And there was this very romantic

idea of the perpetual bachelor the Bruce

Wayne the self-actualized man who by the way had no responsibilities no duty could experience a lot of

freedom and do a lot of cool things and travel the world and take as many

lovers as this character wanted live the quote unquote good life some would call it that that was

somehow the better option now as i've gotten older and i've seen how many people get to live that

life statistically how many people can economically break that life, statistically, how many people can

economically break free in a way that allows them to live a life with very minimal responsibility

or the ability to hire out their responsibilities.

I realized that I wish I grew up in a world that promoted the joys of adulthood, the joys of responsibility and sacrifice.

And yes, sometimes doing things that you don't want to do, but because it is the most practical,

safe and secure way to have a life that affords you the room and flexibility to find meaning, to find things that

you're passionate about, to explore this rock that we're all on and share together, and to explore

what it means to be a human being, I think, a much more grown up and intelligent strategy.

And this just didn't come to me out of nowhere. It actually came to me of studying the people who are doing best in my life. They're contractors, union plumbers,

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