We literally know nothing
We literally know nothing.
The other day I was thinking about what I was like at 16-18 years old. I would take those personality tests or whatever and fill out each bubble so confidently.
No, I am not creative.
Yes, I am a self starter.
Of course, I like to work with others.
No, I don’t like making decisions.
I really thought, I knew myself. And I really thought that I would be the same me… forever.
I’m laughing to myself while writing this because I know how ridiculous it was to believe that.
People always told high schoolers ‘you don’t know anything’ and high schoolers always thought they knew everything.
As much as I’d like for high schoolers to believe me, I know they just wouldn’t. Just like I didn’t.
So to throwback to my teenage days, I’ve decided to make a graph. To make it all make sense. As graphs do.
This is it. Doesn’t it take you back?
I can’t say much for what happens after you’re 30 (because thankfully I am not there yet hehe), but this is my guess and I think this has accurately represented my life thus far.
We learn from zero (which is absolutely amazing). Watching my little niece and nephew just learn english without knowing anything is a crazy miracle in itself.
We get a better sense of the world year by year. And somehow by high school, we feel like we’ve experienced so much life. And we have… relatively.
We learn that adults don’t always act like adults, relationships can come and go, our inner voices can be hard to deal with and a whole lot more. But we know enough to get by in the world.
At this point, it seems like our self evolution slows down. Our personality is fully formed. This is who we are going to be for the rest of our lives… right?
College is a whole different ball game. Being on your own, planting yourself into a whole new environment (maybe) and figuring out new adulting activities. We are right at the tip of the iceberg of realizing we have no idea who we are and we have no idea what we’re doing with our lives. Our first hint: What are you going to major in? Us: Umm.. how the hell are we supposed to know.
When we get out of college, we have even more experiences. More struggles, successes, fears, dreams. Friends we’re gonna love for a long time, friends we don’t keep in touch with as much anymore and new skills acquired like making our own doctor’s appointments.
Now enter… “the real world”. Dun dun dun…
Every college student’s nightmare. Every adult’s favorite question: are you ready?
And I gotta say, I was not prepared for the identity crisis.
It turns out 93.187% of people (super scientifically proven) still don’t know what they want to do with their life when they get out of college.
Not to bring Jack Harlow into this, but he was on a podcast recently talking about what kind of girl he was into and he brought up a very important point:
He’s really into sweethearts right now. Write it down.
Noooo Carly, It’s that last part!! Duhh. “And that’s right now, that’s who I am right now. Yeah. If you ask me when I’m 30, who knows?”.
At this point in time, Jack Harlow is 25 years old (ugh I hate being older than celebrities) and he has already embraced the fact that he’s constantly changing. That what he might want/need now, could be different than what he wants/needs in 5 years.
And the same could be said about all of us.
Each experience you have, enlightens you. That’s why one day you might think you want to go into finance and the next, you want to be a graphic designer.
As long as you choose to live a non-reclusive life, you will evolve. You will look back at other versions of yourself and be in shock at what you used to believe or who you used to be.
I used to think I wasn’t creative, I used to think that I would like a corporate business job since I was a student athlete and I used to think I would never eat onions.
But, as I turn 29, I embrace my creativity everyday, I know now I won’t work hard at a job that I don’t like and I can eat onions in soup/stew (finally!).
And in another 10 years, who knows what else I will find out.
So it’s okay that we literally know nothing. It should be a comfort that we’re not alone in feeling like we know less than we should. And we should feel humbled by that mere fact as well.
This world is a magical, tragic and beautiful place that we have no idea about. So many questions around how we got here, what else is out there and what happens next.
You don’t ever have to know your primary purpose in life. You should just live it… and live it fully. Be free to break your own mold you created for yourself. Do the things that seem out of character. Change without shame or fear of other people’s opinions. And most importantly, give other people the space to do it too.
