you can open all doors

By Asta

When I think about how people love forcing others to choose, compromise, pick a side, I also think of how difficult it must be for people to imagine others doing, being, feeling more than one thing. If you think about it, we all constantly have a 'this or that' attitude. "Should I have the orange or the apple?" , "Watch Marvel or DC?" , or the more common one, "Be an engineer or a doctor?"

Somehow, people don't often choose both the orange and the apple; and they don't bother to watch Marvel if they're so sure that DC is better any day. And of course, one cannot be a doctor as well as an engineer even though nowadays people are willing to study till their eyes bleed if it means they'll someday in the unforeseen, unguaranteed future, make the Big Bucks. But you know what? Fruits are good for you, eat them. And superheroes are superheroes regardless of who produces them and there's something interesting about all of them. A doctor isn't always a person who cuts up others or gives them pills, they're also healers of every kind and engineers are builders who make their thoughts a reality- in that case, you can be both.

And to be brutally honest, achieving society's version of success means you've to got be either Incredibly smart, Incredibly beautiful, Incredibly talented, Incredibly rich, Incredibly manipulative, or Incredibly saint-like. If you've got a bit of all, then you'll do good, but you'll never do great. Plus, we've already had an Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Meryl Streep, Jeff Bezos, My Father, and Mother Teresa. So if you can't do something new, then you'll be shoved off with a 'go figure'.

We shouldn't have to keep living in the crushing weight of always making black or white choices, because most of the time with a little perspective and courage and humor, one can decide to say Yes or No to both. There is always a middle ground with some unannounced grey area.

But enough of that, Gen Z doesn't like anything considered 'serious'. There is one last thing I'd like to say though. I know I said that we shouldn't have to make this or that choices all the time and that we can embrace or reject the entirety of options given to us... but unfortunately, I do believe that somethings just must receive a no as an answer, solely because if agreed to, they will open no future prospect of yeses so we might as well say no to them right away. I'll share the jest of it with you especially because they're very relevant during lockdown:

1. Say NO to playing your drum set like you need to ward off evil spirits. Your neighbors will make you stop anyway since there doesn't seem to be much understandable middle ground in blowing off their eardrums

2. Say NO to an endless Netflix binge, at least when it's longer than 3 seasons. It'll make you dumber than you already are for doing it

3. Say NO to a restless kid who always wants to do something. A taste of boredom is gift they'll come to appreciate later, probably when they have to fill out college applications

4. Say NO to dieting at the moment. You've literally been given a grand reason to be a couch potato, with no one looking at you but yourself

5. Say NO to succumbing to the illusion that your life will get easier after this because if you can't find comfort at home, with family, in pajamas, then I doubt you ever will.

Then again, there must be some unannounced grey area of reasons for you to say yes to all of these. Go find them.

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels