But if I could simply justify why I had to sit here for 3+ hours with this tab open, doing nothing but staring at it, then perhaps I would've gotten a slightly better introduction written.
Beyond introductions however, let me jump straight into the action for you, dear reader.
Yesterday I attended my first college expo at a hotel here in Jordan. It was one of those expos where college representatives from colleges in the United States come to Jordan looking to offer scholarships and international admittance to Jordanian citizens. I wasn't looking for a scholarship or international admittance but I did go to hear about the programs they had to offer and get a head start on my college search.
I stayed and talked to representatives for about an hour and a half, seeing over two thirds of the tables in the conference room. On my way back home, my dad was driving and he asked me how long I intended on being in college for. I explained to him that I was going to take the basic 4 years in Undergrad majoring in Biology and then going on to Grad school and studying medicine for maximum 7 years. He asked me if I was completely committed to that and absolutely sure if I wanted to handle all that studying. I told him I've been sure about it since I was eight years old. He made a comment about how half of my life was going to be wasted in school.
Now, this isn't something that unexpected to hear from my father. Don't get me wrong, he completely encourages the idea of going to college and expanding my horizons and learning all that I can but all the while, he grew up travelling and living his life a lot more than I've been doing so far. He's simply concerned that I would regret my decision later on and he doesn't want me to regret the first half of my life, considering that you only get one shot at being young.
See, I've never taken things like that seriously before. It wasn't even something that he intended on me taking seriously. But his words just kept echoing around in my mind and they're still there and I still hear them and they're just going to drive me insane.
It's true that most people spend half of their lives preparing for work by going to school and building up their resume and then the other half of their lives is spent doing that work. What's left at the end?
If the basic life of an American is half school, half life, and at the end we make room for a little sickness and elderly fatigue, then what does it all amount to?
If you think about the population of the earth, it's a pretty big number. Billions of people. Every single one is believed to be an individual with their own personality and their own dreams and hopes and opinions and goals and values.
The statistics alone are enough to cripple the mind. Billions of people strive to be something in the world. Billions of people have an end goal that they probably will not reach. Billions of people slave over every single day to make a name for themselves. Billions of people put all their time and energy on this little blue and green pixel to be remembered. Billions of people want to be famous and have their name live on forever but the thing is is that when you have billions of people who all want the same thing, you're gonna inevitably have billions of disappointed people. It's all for nothing, really.
I mean, if put some thought into the idea, then you realize that everything your mortal soul does in this lifetime amounts to nothing.
Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to cure cancer or figure out a new math rule or invent something spectacularly awesome or achieve extraterrestrial travel. There are people who have done great things and we still remember them today. Nikola Tesla for example or if you want an even more popular example, Benjamin Franklin, the inventor of the patented light bulb. Franklin died over a hundred fifty years ago yet his name and achievements are still familiar to us.
I'm not saying that it's wrong to try to do something that will be remembered.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't work hard.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't try in general.
I'm only pondering the possibility that the human race will die out or be replaced with something else and every single thing we've come to create and discover or invent will be all for naught.
Because one day all of this might turn into dust.
And so why waste our time trying to succeed when at the end we're all still rats trying to win a race with no tangible prize.
Or maybe I should be thinking the complete opposite. Why shouldn't you try to make a difference since all we have is this one lifetime and nobody knows how long our species may survive. We should make the best of our time while we still have it, right?
We may never know.
That's probably the biggest challenge of life; accepting the fact that we simply may never know.
Beyond introductions however, let me jump straight into the action for you, dear reader.
Yesterday I attended my first college expo at a hotel here in Jordan. It was one of those expos where college representatives from colleges in the United States come to Jordan looking to offer scholarships and international admittance to Jordanian citizens. I wasn't looking for a scholarship or international admittance but I did go to hear about the programs they had to offer and get a head start on my college search.
I stayed and talked to representatives for about an hour and a half, seeing over two thirds of the tables in the conference room. On my way back home, my dad was driving and he asked me how long I intended on being in college for. I explained to him that I was going to take the basic 4 years in Undergrad majoring in Biology and then going on to Grad school and studying medicine for maximum 7 years. He asked me if I was completely committed to that and absolutely sure if I wanted to handle all that studying. I told him I've been sure about it since I was eight years old. He made a comment about how half of my life was going to be wasted in school.
Now, this isn't something that unexpected to hear from my father. Don't get me wrong, he completely encourages the idea of going to college and expanding my horizons and learning all that I can but all the while, he grew up travelling and living his life a lot more than I've been doing so far. He's simply concerned that I would regret my decision later on and he doesn't want me to regret the first half of my life, considering that you only get one shot at being young.
See, I've never taken things like that seriously before. It wasn't even something that he intended on me taking seriously. But his words just kept echoing around in my mind and they're still there and I still hear them and they're just going to drive me insane.
It's true that most people spend half of their lives preparing for work by going to school and building up their resume and then the other half of their lives is spent doing that work. What's left at the end?
If the basic life of an American is half school, half life, and at the end we make room for a little sickness and elderly fatigue, then what does it all amount to?
If you think about the population of the earth, it's a pretty big number. Billions of people. Every single one is believed to be an individual with their own personality and their own dreams and hopes and opinions and goals and values.
The statistics alone are enough to cripple the mind. Billions of people strive to be something in the world. Billions of people have an end goal that they probably will not reach. Billions of people slave over every single day to make a name for themselves. Billions of people put all their time and energy on this little blue and green pixel to be remembered. Billions of people want to be famous and have their name live on forever but the thing is is that when you have billions of people who all want the same thing, you're gonna inevitably have billions of disappointed people. It's all for nothing, really.
I mean, if put some thought into the idea, then you realize that everything your mortal soul does in this lifetime amounts to nothing.
Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to cure cancer or figure out a new math rule or invent something spectacularly awesome or achieve extraterrestrial travel. There are people who have done great things and we still remember them today. Nikola Tesla for example or if you want an even more popular example, Benjamin Franklin, the inventor of the patented light bulb. Franklin died over a hundred fifty years ago yet his name and achievements are still familiar to us.
I'm not saying that it's wrong to try to do something that will be remembered.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't work hard.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't try in general.
I'm only pondering the possibility that the human race will die out or be replaced with something else and every single thing we've come to create and discover or invent will be all for naught.
Because one day all of this might turn into dust.
And so why waste our time trying to succeed when at the end we're all still rats trying to win a race with no tangible prize.
Or maybe I should be thinking the complete opposite. Why shouldn't you try to make a difference since all we have is this one lifetime and nobody knows how long our species may survive. We should make the best of our time while we still have it, right?
We may never know.
That's probably the biggest challenge of life; accepting the fact that we simply may never know.
