Fight For What You Deserve, Not What You Cannot Earn

Man, I just realized that I used to listen to some incredibly angry and depressing music. Like, wow. I was a fucked up person. Listening to this stuff again, and honestly, it still hits some deep dark place in my soul. Listening to "Don't Jump" by Tokio Hotel... still a tear-jerking experience. I still love listening to Evans Blue though, and Plumb. Gotta love Plumb. I have been listening to a wide variety of artists though.

My taste in music is everything from Luke Bryan, Lindsey Stirling, and Alana Grace to Hannah Peel, Beyoncé, and Lana Del Rey. Alternative rock, trance, R&B, metalcore, Christian rock (I don't understand the genre classification... I mean, non-Christians can listen to it, and well, it really doesn't sound that different from alternative rock. Brings up the question... is there a Catholic rock genre someplace? Maybe an Islam Rock genre? I don't get it) and I also listen to country music sometimes. 

It's never easy answering the question "What kind of music do you like?" I figure I may as well say, "I like good music, and music is good."

All music has it's moment. You cannot have a theme song for your life, there's too much in it to sum up in a song. Instead, you need a soundtrack for your life. Just like movies need soundtracks. I'm not particularly fond of Justin Bieber, but even his "That Should Be Me" song fits into my life sometimes. 

Music is a drug, a psychological elixir. It can bring you up, it can bring you down, and it can drive you crazy (in a good way... or in a reckless way, both being fun anyway). Listening to The Shins, Sarah Blasko, Artist vs Poet, and Change of Pace... completes me. There isn't a single time I've listened to "Runaway" (Artist vs Poet) without having longed to run away. Society is a fucking stressful piece of shit. I fucking hate it all sometimes. How can people live in this modern era of shallow/lifeless/unfulfilled lives? 

I just don't understand any of this, not anything. Being on the Internet all the time doesn't make me feel good, it makes me depressed and tired as fuck. There is nothing awesome about being tired. There is nothing cool about people working all their lives at some worthless job, getting nowhere, doing nothing. There is nothing fun about this stagnant soul-crushing routine people call life. Wake up, Work, Eat, Back to Sleep. What kind of life is that? What is pulling me down into all of this? School doesn't make me feel prepared for life, I hardly think it prepares me at all. An "A+" on some stupid paper didn't teach me to survive, it didn't give me any experience. Education is valuable, but education involves learning, and well, school doesn't involve learning. I'm not a silicon chip, I can't be programmed or standardized. Putting me through the system hasn't made me a better, more well-rounded person.

Fucking shit up has made me a better, more well-rounded person. Reading some Commandments (no offense) hasn't made me a more humble person. Pain has made me a more humble person. Standardized tests have not made me smarter. My (various and numerous) mistakes have made me smarter. Outlines and rules have not made me a better writer. Feeling and being passionate about my writing has made me a better writer. I have experienced the most joyous of emotions because I have experienced the lowest as well. You don't know solitude until you know loneliness. You don't know happiness until you know sadness. Wanting to live as much as I do did not come from my happiest memories, it came from my darkest, most suicidal moments. 

So, why don't we run away?

You don't know freedom until you know what it feels like without it.  But in the end, it's all up to you. There are people who have sold their house and things to live a life of travel. Sometimes they struggle to make ends meet, but I can guarantee you that some of those people could be no happier, no more fulfilled and full of life. These are people who ran after what they wanted, not what other people wanted. Sure, helping others is good. But even selflessness is selfishness. People help other people and it makes them feel better. You exchanged your help/services for a feeling. It was a trade, not a sacrifice. A sacrifice is giving something up. You LOSE something and gain NOTHING. 

I don't know about you, but I think a life of "sacrifice" is just another way of saying suicide. How can anybody be expected to survive if they give all and get nothing? It is a regressive attitude that cannot possibly end well. 

I've heard of religions in which the religion basically asks for everything that you have, house, cars, money, everything. You may as well give them your life if you're going to consent to that. A religion is a system of beliefs, it should be focused on mind, body, soul, spirit, whatever... not your money. Materialistic greed is NOT an example to be followed. It is not a worthy cause to devote your life to. It is not a worthy cause for you to die for. 

I always hear people tell me, "Well, this life doesn't matter, only the afterlife and heaven/hell matters." What? So, that's a good reason to waste your life? Did the existence of an afterlife automatically render life on Earth meaningless, useless, worthless? You should at least be motivated to be better for your own pleasure.

The problem is that people no longer fight for what they deserve. People only fight for what they don't earn.

So tell me, what are you fighting for?