Hear me out: you push through life, make memories, have fun, breakdown, get up, start over. Meanwhile, your friends and childhood friends are getting married, having children, buying properties, building careers, in short: living the perfect life curated by the society. But what do these standards mean? Who made them up? Who sat down one day and thought about all of this? Who makes the rules?

Those are the questions I often ask myself and others. It seems like everyone has a timeline and everyone is looking over their shoulder thinking what will people say if they don’t make it on time. Our parents and our grandparents had the same issue, but the idea of having a family was a number one for them. Hence the early marriages, sometimes even too early. And these kinds of expectations are passed down through generations and now my family expects the same from me because I’m slightly over 30 years of age. The other day my aunt asked me is there someone I like, is there someone who likes me. And I said “No, because I’m not interested” and she was quite surprised by my answer. What if my standards are different? What if I dream about living in a foreign country with my cat, doing what I love, reading books, writing, having my own little garden and a gloomy weather? What if I dream of travels and making the most out of this life that has been given to me?

I don’t dream of marriage, I don’t dream of having children, I don’t dream of having to accommodate someone in human form and meet their needs, make space in every way possible for someone. Does this make me a bad person? In someone’s eyes for sure. It makes me sound selfish, self-centred, you name it. But I’m not. I’d give flesh and blood for my loved ones, I love children, I love animals, I love good humans with all my heart. But do I want to dedicate my life to raising children of my own? No, I don’t. Do I want to go above and beyond for a partner even in a perfect scenario of requited love? Also, no. For whatever reason, even the idea of that exhausts me.

Now, you might say that I’m bitter, that due to my past experiences I completely closed myself off, but that is not the case, because I did consider opening myself up for new experiences, but in all honesty, I don’t think it’s worth it. I am very, very happy with where I am in life right now and I feel like having a different scenario would just make me execute my decisions differently. Because when you share your life with someone, you can’t just up and go, you need to take that person into equation and I just feel like a partnership would hold me back. And I might sound like a red flag/toxic guy who only likes to have fun but I’m a girl and no, I also think that “having fun” with someone is a waste of time and precious energy. Being intimate with someone represents the exchange of the energy, a sacred energy and it also means receiving the energy you might not want. This is easily disregarded nowadays, and it makes me think how little self-respect people have. “Oh, It’S NoT ThAt SeRiOuS” Yes, it is that serious. Just because you don’t appreciate and nurture your own energy, it doesn’t mean that everyone else should follow your example. And you can call me a judgmental bitch, but I have my own experience, and I can very legitimately say all these things because I am basing it on my own experience, not just by mere observation.

Also, who invented 9 to boring 5? This question is coming from someone who used to be a flight attendant and 8h would get me from the base to London one way and on my feet. Prove me wrong, but 9 to 5 is the killer of free will, free time, creative time, you name it. I firmly believe that humans were not designed for this kind of life. You spend majority of your day working, you barely have time for yourself, you run and chase time, you run errands and then the end of the day comes, and you are too worn out to enjoy your hobbies. Who invented this bs? I want to wake up gently on a random Thursday morning with no pressure or agenda to chase, I want to have my nice breakfast with cappuccino, I want to go for a walk to a market in my neighbourhood, come back home and play with my cat. I want to read my book, write some, enjoy a nice lunch with my friends, buy my mother the bag she always wanted without thinking of the price and I want to plan my next travel. This is what being rich means. Having a slow life, not worrying about expenses, being able to afford nice things and experiences for my loved ones, being able to help others. In my native language we have a saying that roughly translates to ” A giving hand never lacks ” and this is the whole point of being rich, at least in my opinion.

Just imagine if every rich person shared their money with everyone who needs help. It would be the best world we could imagine. Why does greed make us ugly?