So Friday I had a nice time visiting the comic book store. Haggin Hall was able to send like 6 representatives to look at nerdy shit for an hour or so. It was a great time going with all my bros and just relaxing on a Friday afternoon. Although, it's been a long while since I'd last been to a comic book store and let me tell ya, I forgot how hard nerds are into their nerd stuff.
I feel bad for nerds; they get an awful reputation. Everything they love involves a broad, open-minded imagination mixed with the improvised mathematics to back up everything they create. When you sit there and think about it the stereotypical "nerd" is quite a genius, especially the nerd CEO's of these nerd organizations. Not only do they create a new universe which differ in economics, ethnics, physics, politics, and everything else in between; but they create new systems of math and logic to define the universe they just created. Not only does that take intelligence, that takes a lot of creativity, enterprise, and will-power.
And it's a lot of fun if you have spare time to look into it all. Unfortunately nerds are taboo in college culture and get the wrong end of the stick as far as social norms go. Of course the stereotypical nerds don't help their situation due to preventable problems like poor hygiene, social awkwardness, etc. (well mainly poor hygiene).
Unfortunately society has written rules which rank people by their passions. If your passions are sports, music (I mean rockstars, not fucking marching band), motorcycles, being a pilot, or something cool, you have a much better chance at being considered cool by your peers than someone who's passionate about, say, Magic the Gathering. And that's just how it is. Sorry nerds.
Changing topics here, I was thinking last night while I was stressed and not sleeping. I thought about maybe just going and buying a few lottery tickets, just to take some of the anxiety off my shoulders. I thought about it a little bit more, and a little bit more today. I came to the same conclusion I've made before. I believe winning the lottery will ruin my life.
What!? But hundreds of millions of dollars! I could by the yacht I really want (61' SeaRay Sundancer)! I could buy the Lamborghini I really want (Lamborghini Murcielago)! I could buy a house in each of the four corners and fly first class twice a week between them! But, I would still have to do everything I'm currently going through to achieve my primary objective of becoming an international airline pilot. Regardless of how much money I am given, I will always have to put in the work to do what I'm put here on Earth to do.So all the ROTC training that makes my life suck, all the hours of studying to get the GPA, all the early mornings and late nights, all the stress and anxiety, everything I'm doing to earn my wings will still be slapping me in the face everyday. Everything that sucks in my life will still be there, but everything that is pleasurable will be amplified by a power of 175,000,000. That will create a HUGE imbalance.
So if I won the lottery, I could afford a trip to LA with my girlfriend and top bro's over the weekend. We could leave Friday, spend Friday night and Saturday indulging in the LA culture and have a blast. I could do that every single weekend. But that would make the work I need to do Monday incredibly more painful. Spending money ruthlessly that I didn't earn would make waking up for PT and studying Calc 2 absolutely miserable!
My motivation would drop off the side of the chart, and I would have a lot of trouble keeping up with ROTC. I would more than likely drop out of the Air Force. And at that moment I ruin my chances of becoming an international airline pilot, and from my perspective my life will be ruined. I would never earn anything for the rest of my life. The euphoria (serotonin, dopamine, whatever) I used to keep at high levels due to my accomplishments would cease to exist. My confidence would drop and so would my happiness. Those two little neurons connected in my mind are the 95% of the weight that anchors me in reality keeping me moving forward. Without them I would be able to do nothing.
Because then I've lost most of my confidence and happiness, two aspects that make up my entire personality, and are yielded entirely by my accomplishments, I would likely lose contact with who I am. In search of happiness and confidence I'd spend more and more money and potentially reduce myself to drugs. There'd be nothing stopping me at that point, and it'd be the only thing to replace a sense of accomplishment in order to keep an elevated mindset and mood.
Drugs are addicting and without any self-discipline left I'd probably spiral out of control. Spending money on possessions or experiences would by then do absolutely nothing to my moral. My personal beliefs would probably change rapidly. My ability to make friends with humor and charisma would be a thing of the past, and most of my social skills would be forgotten. Within, ehh I'll give it between 5 and 10 years, I would likely be an entirely different person.
Perhaps by the time I'm 30 years old and an oxy addict, I'll remember what my life was like before winning 175,000,000 problems and realize that I'd likely be a successful and wealthy airline pilot by that point in my life. I'd probably (like most lottery winners) realize that I did not want to win the lottery.
However if I did when the lottery, I could of course realize my pending fate and decide to spend none of the money. I could invest all of it to grow and just decide to spend it later and give half of it to charity. But if I decide to not spend it anyway, why even buy a lottery ticket in the first place? I'm doing well enough without $175,000,000; thus I do believe I will not buy a lottery ticket anytime soon. It's not worth the risk of winning. Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment