Don’t be a background character
You may believe that the existence of life, blood, and a pounding heart in your body define you as living. In literal terms, this is very true. But what boring lives we all live. Living should not simply be going through a routine, but rather living life to the fullest, no matter what society dictates you do.
It alarms me that a life can be summarized into a mere paragraph, and seem so simple. You wake up, go to school, converse with your friends, make a few jokes here and there, go home, finish homework, engage in forms of media, sleep, and repeat. Occasionally you have outings, where you’ll do something fun and generally unimportant. After you graduate, you go to a university, get a degree, obtain a career, eventually fall in a possibly temporary love, marry, have or adopt children, divorce if said love had only been fleeting, finish raising your child/children, continue with your job, and then retire once necessary. You may or may not still be with your spouse at this time, and after retirement you’ll waste away your days gardening or watching soap operas and ultimately die. After one or two generations your name will be forgotten. Never having done anything special, never getting the chance to make an impact. And this is probably one of the most awful thoughts to reach the human mind.
How can anyone feel utter happiness living a life like that? Simply take a look at your parents. Are they content? In most cases, yes. But are they gushing with excitement, adoring everything about being alive? Probably not.
Without doing anything, a life could seem worthless. I suppose this is why people indulge in media. We watch certain shows, read certain books, or play certain games to live the lives we cannot achieve ourselves. The worst thing about stories is that you experience unreal characters with limitless resolve and high morals. Although it is (most likely) definitely impossible to develop magical powers and fight profound world wars with supernatural involvement, it certainly is possible to waste your days away pretending you’re some powerful hero in cheap video games or library books. What fans of these stories don’t realize is that they are far more similar to the civilians in the background of these stories instead of the main characters they pretend to be.
Some might even live entire lives without realizing what a joy it is to live, with their office jobs and dumb cubicles and repetitive coffee machines. However, an escape to this common issue is not impossible. To rise out of the depths of unimportance would involve becoming a protagonist of the world, and making yourself unforgettable. Without exceeding the normal expectations of society, one might never feel alive. This is not a realization one should fret upon. The escape to this seemingly inevitable fate would be to rise above all simplicity and strive to be content with higher goals. Do not settle with menial jobs or low positions and create a powerful place for yourself in the world. Do so and perhaps you will rise to become a protagonist, rather than a background character.
