- Jiwoo Seo.
‘You Only Live Once,’ is a culture of the recent generation, a movement not to be too restricted by societal responsibility but pursue what one really wants to do. I mean, I love the intention of it, and I understand where it originated from. Everyone’s start line towards success is different, some even equipped with wealth and talent to make their way to a higher place. The days when effort and time guaranteed success has long been gone, and the people who are tired from it realizes that effort shouldn’t just be poured for bleak possibility of climbing higher up the ladder, but for their own selves too.
However, I feel like the initial intention of ‘enjoyment of life’ is somehow deteriorating, to the extent that some people think that if you do not enjoy your life, then you are not living your life properly. And one of those 'some people' was, unsurprisingly, me.
I regarded myself as a nerd. When my friends were travelling overseas I was tapping keyboards in my room, I never drank alcohol nor did I ever go partying, and didn’t really know how to put on makeup. I really appreciated the compliments regarding my effort and academic achievements, but, with low self-esteem, I often interpreted it as a humiliation of my nerdy boring life.
In retrospect, I think my perception of the nerdy self was quite skewed. Of course, there are countless people in the world, and there are always going to be people that seemingly is enjoying a more fulfilling life. But as the well-known quote – ‘do not compare your back-stage to everyone else’s front stage’ implies, the current phase in your life doesn’t define the quality of your life, and the standard should be set by myself, not by the society. Any trait of a person, including a hard-working nature, should not be overlooked by a dominating culture.
I was lucky to have met amazing people that helped my broaden my perspectives and a more accurate perception of myself. Me staying in the school lab for hours in Friday night doesn’t make me a friendless loser with nothing else to do, because I do it as I really genuinely enjoy lab experiments. I don’t have a wide social circle, but I’m with people that genuinely understand me and cares for me, and I try to do the same too. I prefer having deep life conversations with a few of my friends in a cat café, rather than big-scale social gatherings. My pursuit of life still is imperfect, but i am not improving by means of comparison and excessive self-criticism.
Whether it be YOLO, feminism, or even environment-friendly action, don’t let that be your ideology simply because you think it is dominant in the society and you think it is ‘right.’ (just to clarify, I am not saying it is wrong). You are you, and be yourself, do what you genuinely feel inclined to, what you feel is really right. Welp, sorry that I’ve walked a long circle to make my point, but I hope that you understand what I mean :D
‘You Only Live Once,’ is a culture of the recent generation, a movement not to be too restricted by societal responsibility but pursue what one really wants to do. I mean, I love the intention of it, and I understand where it originated from. Everyone’s start line towards success is different, some even equipped with wealth and talent to make their way to a higher place. The days when effort and time guaranteed success has long been gone, and the people who are tired from it realizes that effort shouldn’t just be poured for bleak possibility of climbing higher up the ladder, but for their own selves too.
However, I feel like the initial intention of ‘enjoyment of life’ is somehow deteriorating, to the extent that some people think that if you do not enjoy your life, then you are not living your life properly. And one of those 'some people' was, unsurprisingly, me.
I regarded myself as a nerd. When my friends were travelling overseas I was tapping keyboards in my room, I never drank alcohol nor did I ever go partying, and didn’t really know how to put on makeup. I really appreciated the compliments regarding my effort and academic achievements, but, with low self-esteem, I often interpreted it as a humiliation of my nerdy boring life.
In retrospect, I think my perception of the nerdy self was quite skewed. Of course, there are countless people in the world, and there are always going to be people that seemingly is enjoying a more fulfilling life. But as the well-known quote – ‘do not compare your back-stage to everyone else’s front stage’ implies, the current phase in your life doesn’t define the quality of your life, and the standard should be set by myself, not by the society. Any trait of a person, including a hard-working nature, should not be overlooked by a dominating culture.
I was lucky to have met amazing people that helped my broaden my perspectives and a more accurate perception of myself. Me staying in the school lab for hours in Friday night doesn’t make me a friendless loser with nothing else to do, because I do it as I really genuinely enjoy lab experiments. I don’t have a wide social circle, but I’m with people that genuinely understand me and cares for me, and I try to do the same too. I prefer having deep life conversations with a few of my friends in a cat café, rather than big-scale social gatherings. My pursuit of life still is imperfect, but i am not improving by means of comparison and excessive self-criticism.
Whether it be YOLO, feminism, or even environment-friendly action, don’t let that be your ideology simply because you think it is dominant in the society and you think it is ‘right.’ (just to clarify, I am not saying it is wrong). You are you, and be yourself, do what you genuinely feel inclined to, what you feel is really right. Welp, sorry that I’ve walked a long circle to make my point, but I hope that you understand what I mean :D