Back on Youtube

They say your teens are when you try to fit in and your 20's is your decade of self-discovery. I'm almost 7/10's of the way there and... I'm not really sure if I'm any closer to "finding myself," than I was 2 years ago. Ok, that's a lie. I've learned a lot about myself the last two years, and what makes me truly happy, but at the same time, there are certain aspects of what I want for my future I'm still unsure about. 

Part of that reason is because, I feel like in your 20's, you have two choices. You can either do everything that society says you should do: go to school, get a full-time job, settle down, have kids (the end). Or... you can step outside the comforts of the norm, and explore the world in a way that you wouldn't be able to do, if you played it safe. I for one, gravitate towards the latter, not that there's anything wrong with the former.

Can you have both? Right now, probably not. In the future, maybe. Who knows? I just don't want to wake up one day to find that, while I have everything society says should make me happy, that I've lost my opportunity to experience the world in ways that few people have.  Jon Kabat Zinn once said, "You want to know how your life is going to turn out? Look around you. It's already happening & this is what it's turned out to be." You only have one life. If there's a life you desire, go for it & do it now. It won't happen overnight, but that's part of the adventure. 

I've finished school, gotten the stable (yet flexible) job. Now I'm ready finance my explorations of the world, and while I'm at it, I'm ready to come back to Youtube & share it with my views. Let the next chapter of my life begin. Come join me. -JN

“I’d like to repeat the advice that I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very base core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” - Chris McCandless