College & Life

So, I hear college-age people talk all the time about relationships, life goals, dreams jobs, etc. I have, along with these people, often felt like if I don't find my future spouse, if I don't visit another country, if I don't do whatever RIGHT NOW, then I will never get a chance once I'm out of college. We often think that if we don't immediately find out what we're supposed to be doing with our lives and start living it, something is wrong. Nowadays, I've been wondering why we think like this. None of these ideas are true. I think the problem is that we lack patience. We think the here and now is the only time we've got. In a sense, this is true; you never know when your end will come. However, these ideas reveal the mindset we have that there is no life after college. I think this discontentment and lack of patience comes right from consumerism. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." We have subjected ourselves to this system of buying and constantly needing more in such a way that we haven't even realized the longer-ranging effects it's had on the way we think, even if we don't constantly buy or want new physical items. It's gone beyond that. We're no longer content to wait on key life moments; we want everything for our lives right now. That's irresponsible and foolish. We think we're ready for it all right now, when there's a reason we don't have it yet: we're still being prepared. If you can't be responsible and content with what you have right now, then why do you think you will be responsible and content once you have all these "things?" If you're reading this, I'm going to guess you have already gone beyond the basic human "wants" in life. You probably have a roof over your head almost everywhere you go, access to more than one set of clothes and the means with which to clean them, food which is easily accessible and in such abundance that you can have more than one meal every day, plenty of clean water, and friends or family to share these things with. That's more than what a lot of people in the world have. Yet you probably want more, right? That's consumerism: wanting more than what is necessary. In short, consumerism really is just greed, which is thinking you deserve more than what you have. Greed, then, boils down to pride. Consumerism is pride, the most basic and all-encompassing of human sins, which everyone has in some form or another, including myself.

Brothers and sisters, let's live our lives in humility and contentment, not seeking our own benefit above others', but putting others' needs above our own. Let's live with patience in our time of preparation, not seeking to have its fulfillment before the proper moment.

Peace.