Into The Wild

Last night after I came home from my dull 9-5 job in an office, I sat down with my sister Jen, my sister's boyfriend John, and my boyfriend Evan to unwind by watching a movie. We selected "Into the Wild", a movie released in 2007 about a young man named Christopher McCandless who donated all of his money to charity, burned all of his ID, abandoned his worldly possessions, and departed on a journey of self-discovery.

"Into the Wild", directed by Sean Penn, is a true story that was very vividly portrayed by Emile Hirsch. The wildnerness scenes were beautiful, but what was even more inspiring was the philosophical nature of the film and the questions that it unequivocally raised in every viewer. Are we all consumed with consuming? Do we measure our own self-worth by the car in the driveway and the amount of money in the bank? Is there more to living than what meets the eye?

These days my life is very routine. Very mundane, repetitive, and dull. Despite attempting to add some excitement to it by volunteering, tutoring, hanging out with friends on the weekend, cooking, etcetera, I generally feel quite bored with my life. But I look at it moreso as a means to an end- if I can work full-time right now for (*gulp*) possibly an entire year, I may be able to save enough money to significantly contribute to my own graduate school education. That is the goal right now; but it is still very difficult to convince myself that I am doing what is best for me.

I'll admit it- I occasionally (okay, often) daydream about running away from it all- my job, my responsibilities... my life. Start up somewhere new, where no one knows my name. I don't know why I have these thoughts, but I do- I think that I am just truly very bored with my life. And to be honest, I don't see the possibility for having a real LIFE when you work 40 hours a week in a job that you don't like. Every night from 5-10 is not enough time to fulfill the needs that one's spirit has. I want to travel, I want to experience new things, I want to see nature. But how can I truly do these things when, for 40 hours of the week I am tyed to my desk staring at a computer screen? It is inhumane.

I don't mean to complain, that really was not the point of this post. I merely wanted to comment on the lifestyle of the typical North American working class person. I could never be satisfied with this life. I would rather be poor and a vagrant, seeing the world from the roots up, experiencing what there is to experience out there! Money really cannot buy you happiness. But it can buy you an education in a field that you are passionate about becoming involved in. So what can I do? As my brain slowly deteriorates into dust, I will sit at this computer for 8 hours every day, because there simply is not an alternative.

It's life, it's cruel, but it could be worse.

And hour by hour, I know that I'm working towards something MORE.

Not a journey into the wild, necessarily, but a journey into a career.