Want Something Different

Yesterday, I turned 27. My dad emailed me a picture of a note that I gave him before leaving home for college in 2004. I had written, 3 things I wanted to do by 2014. I had forgotten about this note and glad that he found it while cleaning some old boxes. The 3 things were:

  1. Get a PhD.
  2.  Move back with parents.
  3. Do something different.

How times have changed since writing down this note! I told my dad, it was good that I did not get a philosophy doctorate and move back home. But the third one got me thinking, as I still use it from time to time. Honestly, what the 17-year-old me really meant was to do something cool. My motivations have since changed for better and here is the note for next 10 years “Want something different”.

I think it’s a natural progression from my earlier note. You do things because you want something out of them. But it’s very easy to just want filler things that mostly everyone else wants- sleek sports cars, picture perfect house, kitsch hobby, etc. Make no mistake, I want some of the same things. But over years, I realize these things in themselves are very ephemeral and the only fundamental constant in your life is yourself and the experiences that have built you. So, why want that will fade away, when you can want experiences. So, instead of learning to want things, learn to want experiences! That feeling of triumph when you idea succeeds, road trips that go awry but are fun in ways that can be only had with your best of friends, excitement of running on the beach as the tide catches up, experience of slowly building confidence to ride a beast of a motorcycle, obsessively writing a poem for days!

I am not trying to preach how to live life or calling to reject material things. This is more like, how to avoid mid-life crisis by learning to want material things, that will get you closer to states of mind, where you feel really alive.

One example,

Do something different – Stealing a kiss from an impossibly beautiful girl.
Want something different – Giving back a kiss to the girl you love.

Good times!