Randomness — the only constant
Did you ask that question? When someone offered you that amazing deal where you give up a period of your life to work towards something and in return, you are promised a lucrative future. That question being — “can you guarantee it?”.
Today, we are talking about randomness and the (major!) role it plays in our everyday lives that we very casually overlook. So let’s talk about the example I gave in the context of this mad race for college. You are in the 11th grade and you decide that you want to become an engineer — and what comes to your mind first but the best of the best. Now, these are not the only colleges, from which you can study and do great in life but let’s keep that debate for another time. Say you agree to go for it ! You agree to prepare for the most prestigious colleges. What does it entail? What comes next? A very rigorous process that can get super tedious at times.
Before you rush in to sign up for the whole race, pause. Let’s think this through. If you are dedicated to the cause and want to give it your all, it would require a huge time commitment among other things. That means giving up a lot of time that’s otherwise spent socializing, possibly even time you would’ve (might’ve?) given to sports or fitness.
Now, you might think all of it is going to be worth it when you end up getting into that dream school. But we are skipping a couple of steps here. One important thing the COVID pandemic has taught us is that we need to rely less on the future. Nothing is guaranteed. Randomness abounds.
You don’t know what mood your car will be on the D-day.
You don’t know how your health is going to be.
You don’t know… You get the idea. Do you really think all of the sacrifices would be worth it even if you don’t get in where you’re trying to go?
And that’s not to be pessimistic. I understand that I just went full last-episode-Light-Yagami-with-no-Death-Note dark but, it’s not the bleakness that we should harp on. We need to appreciate all that has gone right for us to be wherever we are and derive optimism from there. Remember that the smallest positive thing that happened to you had to overcome a thousand possible random obstacles which we didn’t even think of! Well by that logic, if all the pieces fell right into place before, there’s no reason it can’t happen again, right? Hmm… so all’s not lost.
TL;DR: A lot has gone just right for anything positive at all to happen to you in the past. There’s no reason all of that can’t be repeated. However, on the off-chance that randomness does decide to f**k up your plans, don’t rely on things going totally in your favor. Just go in with tempered expectations & compromise with your present just enough for your future self to not resent anything. Sounds easy, right? ;)
