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Why do people need money to be happy? Ill tell you. People need money to be happy because money is a sign of success. Success is a sign that you did something meaningful and profitable with your life. You made some right decisions along the way. Its not the actual money that makes people happy, having a couple of green bills in your pocket or a slip of paper from your bank which reads your accumulated cash flow, its the objects you can buy and things you can do with the money. Having a large house or an exotic sports car is a way for successful people to say, hey look what Ive done with my life and those people deserve to have nice things. But no matter what, someone is always more successful and more wealthy than you. On the other hand, you are always more successful and more wealthy than someone else too.
Id like to have more money than I would know what to do with. Or would I? Would I appreciate it when I finally saved up enough money for that motorcycle that I have draped all over my walls? Would I appreciate it at all when a friend picked up the check at dinner? Would I feel pure paradise while basking in the warm Cancun sun if it didnt require so many sacrifices and discipline to pay for the trip? I think not. Being filthy rich certainly is not a bad thing, but I think that you miss out on a huge part of the Want/Need system of life.
Would you trade personal satisfaction for wealth? That is exactly what the local State-Lotto confronts you with when you buy a ticket. Average Johnny is working a part time shift at the local library to pay for his school, his apartment, his car, and to have some extra cash to save for that new boomerang he wants so badly. Then Average Johnny goes to the store and buys a Lotto ticket. Hey what do you know, Average Johnny wins!!! Hooray!!! Now he can quit his job, quit school, buy a mansion and a Mercedes, and 10 of the boomerangs he was previously saving up for. He has everything he has ever wanted except one thing. Pride. No pride from when a kid comes into the library and learns how to use the Dewey Decimal System with Johnnys help, no pride from completing another year of college despite the cost and time it requires, not the pride of laying on his couch in his underwear in the apartment that he works so hard to pay for and furnish, not the pride of finally getting that boomerang that seemed untouchable. Now they are just objects. Not accomplishments. So no matter the size and value of your belongings, as long as they are accomplishments in which you worked and sacrificed for you are as rich as the richest man.
Love is a thing that all people need. People need to love and need to be loved. Its a great feeling to be in love. For a little while. At first its the greatest, then it gets comfortable, then old. Many people fall out of love when it reaches the old stage. Hence, a 55% divorce rate. The only reason people used to stay together and not divorce is because it wasnt allowed. Lots of things werent allowed. Women working, unwed pregnancies, even premarital sex. Now things have changed. Everyone is so liberal and independent that you feel repressed if you cant do everything on your own. People want to be self-sufficient. Do people really know what love is anymore? Love is totally unconditional. If you like someone, like them a lot even, its still completely different from loving someone. I think that when people reach a certain age or stage in their life they want to get married and follow the pre-fabricated path of life so they marry the person that they are in a relationship with at the time. I think that many people are not in love, they like each other sure, but as time passes on they realize that they do not want to be with this person forever and that there is someone else out there that has all the qualities they are looking for. So they search, and some find the perfect one, some end up settling for someone they like once again as the fear of growing old alone comes in to play. So I feel look your whole life if that what it takes to find a person you love. You will know because it will feel different than any other feeling you have felt before. You will not be thinking about what you are missing out on.
Sometimes I feel the need to pack-up and take off across the country. See what adventures are in store for me, what connections I make, what people I meet. Its a fantasy that I think all of us have, to start off new somewhere else. To have nothing dragging us down, nothing over our heads, and no past but what we want to share. I think that people are like giant balloons being tied to the ground by a bunch of hooks. Ready to take off and explore and go wherever the winds might take us but hooks such as family, friends, careers, and the fear of the uncertain keep us grounded. What could be the worst that could happen? You hate the climate? You cant find a job? Those are all remedial things in the true sense of an adventure. Can you, you as a person with the skills you have acquired thus far in life, survive? I like to think that I could answer yes. Some people that I know have the degrees and knowledge that would allow them to be successful in their profession in any part of the country, the question is do they have the skills to make friends, to adapt to a new environment, to be away from the people that they care about? I do not know the answer. Only that person truly knows whether they can survive. While we are young its easier to break those hooks because we have so much life left to live, so much time to go wherever the wind takes us. Remember that if you take the chance and fail you will not regret it and home will always be home.
If you could go back and do things all over again from say - elementary school, would you do things different? I wonder sometimes how many people would say no, and what kind of people those people are. There sure are things that I wouldve done different. But then where would I be now? There is no way to tell. You can imaginebut you never know what kind of loops life is going to throw you. Maybe if I did try out for the football team when I was younger I would be a paraplegic right now or maybe I would be playing for Notre Dame. You make tons of decisions throughout your life that its impossible not to want to go back and change a few of them. Or is it better to make bad decisions so you can learn from them if a similar situation occurs in the future? Im getting way to philosophical. Im not even sure what the hell that means.
Sometimes I dont think that I want to have children. Sometimes I think I do. I would like to have some kids to carry on my name and my genes. You have to think about the quality of life you can provide for your child though. Is it always going to want for things? I mean, will it have everything it needs, but not everything it wants? I pretty much had everything I wanted growing up - cars, dirt bikes, go-karts, clothes, etc. I had a great childhood. I would not want to bring someone into the world that I could not provide a reasonable amount of the wants for. Some people bring children into the world and they cannot even provide the needs food, clothes, and medicine, and its not always on purpose I understand that. A child should not be born into a ghetto where crime, drugs, guns, and violence are the major ingredients in its environment. Its what it learns, what it sees, and what it adapts to. That child is pretty much born without a chance. Its so sad to see a young infant so happy and full of life and the whole while it doesnt even know whats in store for it. Makes me very sad. It kind of reminds me of a puppy at a pound. Hes so happy to play and jump and goof around, but he doesnt know that if no one wants to look after him, hes dead. Puppy child. Im just going to raise puppies from the pound. I can give it anything it wants, dont have to get married, and it will always love me. Puppies are the answer to the world. Japan wants to go to war? Send it a few puppies. The world is saved.
I love technology. I am so excited to see what the world will bring me in the next decade. It is absolutely out of control. Computers, video games, even cars are so high tech that it seems like only a rocket scientist would be able to repair one. The internet is one of the worlds greatest creations to date. It is absolutely mind-blowing how much information is available at your fingertips. What I really think is great is how it connects people. Not just chat rooms and instant messengers, but any interest that you might have I guarantee you can find other people that share it on the Web. Anything! Soon cars will drive themselves, computers will think on their own, video games will be Virtual Reality in which you can feel and sense what is going on. If you think they dont have this already, you are in the dark. Cell phones are the latest craze, everywhere you go someone is using one. They only get smaller and more powerful. You can access the internet from them, send emails, get directions, etc. I think that it would be awesome if you could have maybe a credit card sized one with a real screen, maybe voice activatedwho knows? I just wish that everyone would hang the damn things up when they drive. Thats so irritating.
Well thats my two cents on a couple of issues. Its not facts and its not necessarily right, just my opinion and take it for just that. If you made it this far Im happy.
Ryan Dean
September 5, 2001
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