"I just wish I knew what the future looked like, even just a glimpse of it."
You can relate.
At least on some level, I'm positive you can relate.
No one knows where they'll be 10 years from now, or a year from now, or even a week from now. Sure, everyone's got their hopes and plans and dreams, but things change and stuff gets in the way, so there's no way of really knowing what your future looks like (and if you can't relate to this, then you're living in another world that I'm not aware of and am pretty sure isn't actually real).
Any time there's an upcoming event or change in your life and you get that anxious feeling of not knowing what's coming, you wish for even just a glimpse, a little bit of comfort of knowing what's coming.
But what would that really accomplish?
Think back to a time in your life that was absolutely horrendous. Maybe embarrassing, maybe devastating, maybe you thought it was the end of the world. Say you knew about that exact event coming in your future. You know it's gonna be rough. So do you decide to avoid it, or go through it anyway? Without hindsight, you can't know what will come from the aftermath of this event or period of time in your life, so what do you do? You could grow from this. You could come out better and stronger on the other side. You could even appreciate this event later in life. But this is before it happens, so you don't know if any of that will be true. Would you go along with it anyway, or run away out of fear of what's coming?
How about a wonderful experience? If you know it's gonna be awesome, you're probably super excited about it. That mode of being super pumped up, bouncing-off-the-walls excited for what's coming, and you know how great it's gonna be. Will it actually be as great in real life if you already know it's coming? Will you be able to appreciate it in the moment the same way if you already knew it was coming? Sometimes, this is how life actually goes. You expect something to happen, so you build up anticipation for it, even though there's no guarantee things will go the way they do in your head. And then, if they don't meet your expectations, you're not excited about it. You're often disappointed instead.
And what about for the things you can't predict? If you already know something unpredictably amazing is coming, are you going to appreciate it as much as you would if you didn't know about it ahead of time? The surprising things in life can be the most wonderful, most memorable times of our lives. If we already know what's coming, we miss out on that anticipation and enjoyment of the experience itself. But when we get surprised with something wonderful that we weren't expecting, it often means more than if we knew it was coming. Think about Christmas presents. Is a kid more excited about their gifts if they didn't know what they were getting, or if they peeked under the wrapping paper ahead of time? The reactions are priceless for the former, but are often of fake shock in the latter.
That brings me to my next thought: if we knew something about our future was coming that we otherwise wouldn't have known, would we react the same way? Or would we have to fake it because we already knew it was happening? The whole pretending to respond as though you didn't know something was happening thing... it doesn't sound like a very fun way to go about your life. Or, at least in my opinion (take it or leave it).
I'm starting to take comfort in the fact that I don't know what the future holds, or even what each day will bring. The unpredictability of life brings, or can bring, satisfaction and joy when unexpected things happen. It may not always be pleasant, and sometimes we wish we'd have had a heads-up before hand, but we often learn more from the experience anyway. Experiences teach us and help us grow and become better, stronger versions of ourselves. So if we already knew exactly what was gonna happen and where we were gonna end up, we might not appreciate the journey to get there as much and could miss out on some awesome growth opportunities along the way.
For instance, let's say you knew exactly who you were gonna marry before you even met them. Okay, some cultures actually have this with arranged marriages, but I'm talking the American, "fall in love" kind of relationship here. If you knew you were gonna marry this person, possibly even better you ever meet them, would you still agree to other potential relationships along the way, or would you turn everyone down because they're not the person you know you're gonna be with? If you turn everyone else away, you could be missing out on some amazing experiences and growth that would otherwise shape you into the person you want to be, or at the person you would be by the time you actually start a relationship with your life partner.
You can think about this in regards to any experience really. You learn a lot from the journeys you go on to get to the destinations, so knowing the destination could turn you away from the opportunities for growth along the journey (as evidenced by the previous example).
So, keeping all this in mind... do you really want to know what the future holds? Maybe you do. Maybe you still do, but also appreciate the fact that you don't get to know (that's where I am). Or maybe you really just don't care either way or actually don't want to know (in which case, I find it hard to believe you're not lying to me, yourself, and others, but that depends on personal situations and is also not relevant here).
So, I'm just gonna be over here: wishing I knew what the future held while also taking joy in the mystery of the unknown and the ignorance of not knowing it. Hopefully you'll fine some sort of comfort in this too (but if you don't, I'll storm into your house and steal your cheese! I mean... I won't take it personally, because your life, your worldview).
And I'll leave you with this quote from my favorite TV show of all time, Babylon 5 (S1E6): "I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the universe. That we have not yet explained everything." Same goes for the future y'all. Same goes for the future...
Also, a p.s. for ya if you care: Knowing the future holds too many parallels with time travel in my opinion, and that's so confusing and trippy that we're not going there right now.
You can relate.
At least on some level, I'm positive you can relate.
No one knows where they'll be 10 years from now, or a year from now, or even a week from now. Sure, everyone's got their hopes and plans and dreams, but things change and stuff gets in the way, so there's no way of really knowing what your future looks like (and if you can't relate to this, then you're living in another world that I'm not aware of and am pretty sure isn't actually real).
Any time there's an upcoming event or change in your life and you get that anxious feeling of not knowing what's coming, you wish for even just a glimpse, a little bit of comfort of knowing what's coming.
But what would that really accomplish?
Think back to a time in your life that was absolutely horrendous. Maybe embarrassing, maybe devastating, maybe you thought it was the end of the world. Say you knew about that exact event coming in your future. You know it's gonna be rough. So do you decide to avoid it, or go through it anyway? Without hindsight, you can't know what will come from the aftermath of this event or period of time in your life, so what do you do? You could grow from this. You could come out better and stronger on the other side. You could even appreciate this event later in life. But this is before it happens, so you don't know if any of that will be true. Would you go along with it anyway, or run away out of fear of what's coming?
How about a wonderful experience? If you know it's gonna be awesome, you're probably super excited about it. That mode of being super pumped up, bouncing-off-the-walls excited for what's coming, and you know how great it's gonna be. Will it actually be as great in real life if you already know it's coming? Will you be able to appreciate it in the moment the same way if you already knew it was coming? Sometimes, this is how life actually goes. You expect something to happen, so you build up anticipation for it, even though there's no guarantee things will go the way they do in your head. And then, if they don't meet your expectations, you're not excited about it. You're often disappointed instead.
And what about for the things you can't predict? If you already know something unpredictably amazing is coming, are you going to appreciate it as much as you would if you didn't know about it ahead of time? The surprising things in life can be the most wonderful, most memorable times of our lives. If we already know what's coming, we miss out on that anticipation and enjoyment of the experience itself. But when we get surprised with something wonderful that we weren't expecting, it often means more than if we knew it was coming. Think about Christmas presents. Is a kid more excited about their gifts if they didn't know what they were getting, or if they peeked under the wrapping paper ahead of time? The reactions are priceless for the former, but are often of fake shock in the latter.
That brings me to my next thought: if we knew something about our future was coming that we otherwise wouldn't have known, would we react the same way? Or would we have to fake it because we already knew it was happening? The whole pretending to respond as though you didn't know something was happening thing... it doesn't sound like a very fun way to go about your life. Or, at least in my opinion (take it or leave it).
I'm starting to take comfort in the fact that I don't know what the future holds, or even what each day will bring. The unpredictability of life brings, or can bring, satisfaction and joy when unexpected things happen. It may not always be pleasant, and sometimes we wish we'd have had a heads-up before hand, but we often learn more from the experience anyway. Experiences teach us and help us grow and become better, stronger versions of ourselves. So if we already knew exactly what was gonna happen and where we were gonna end up, we might not appreciate the journey to get there as much and could miss out on some awesome growth opportunities along the way.
For instance, let's say you knew exactly who you were gonna marry before you even met them. Okay, some cultures actually have this with arranged marriages, but I'm talking the American, "fall in love" kind of relationship here. If you knew you were gonna marry this person, possibly even better you ever meet them, would you still agree to other potential relationships along the way, or would you turn everyone down because they're not the person you know you're gonna be with? If you turn everyone else away, you could be missing out on some amazing experiences and growth that would otherwise shape you into the person you want to be, or at the person you would be by the time you actually start a relationship with your life partner.
You can think about this in regards to any experience really. You learn a lot from the journeys you go on to get to the destinations, so knowing the destination could turn you away from the opportunities for growth along the journey (as evidenced by the previous example).
So, keeping all this in mind... do you really want to know what the future holds? Maybe you do. Maybe you still do, but also appreciate the fact that you don't get to know (that's where I am). Or maybe you really just don't care either way or actually don't want to know (in which case, I find it hard to believe you're not lying to me, yourself, and others, but that depends on personal situations and is also not relevant here).
So, I'm just gonna be over here: wishing I knew what the future held while also taking joy in the mystery of the unknown and the ignorance of not knowing it. Hopefully you'll fine some sort of comfort in this too (but if you don't, I'll storm into your house and steal your cheese! I mean... I won't take it personally, because your life, your worldview).
And I'll leave you with this quote from my favorite TV show of all time, Babylon 5 (S1E6): "I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the universe. That we have not yet explained everything." Same goes for the future y'all. Same goes for the future...
Also, a p.s. for ya if you care: Knowing the future holds too many parallels with time travel in my opinion, and that's so confusing and trippy that we're not going there right now.
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