Am I 'dying'? from: someone who needs philosophical help?

Question

i'm a high schooler who's about to go to college. I love having fun. Work is alright, but the idea of preparing through high school just to end up working your job for the better part of your entire life seems kind of daunting. The things I love about being a teen/kid are not having the big responsibilities, having freedom, and especially being able to do, think, and say things that only kids and teens can. Also, I've noticed this: where's the adult tennis tournaments? unless you're pro, they're all for young players! what about dressing the way you like to dress? if adults do it, then they look weird. ive run outta time, but what is your response to my situation?

Answer 1

You fear the unknown as do all of us when we transition from high school to the 'real world.' It's natural. My uncle is retired and still plays in professional tennis and loves it. My family periodically goes to the tournaments to cheer him on. I guess it depends on where you're located as to what sports are readily available. When you go off to college you can see what sports that college has to offer. Tennis could be one of them.

Answer 2

YOU ARE BEING BORN!  lets put it this way, if you are going to College than you probably weren't completely wasting your time in Highschool.

College is more fun than higschool, hands down.

Once you start working, it's not so bad if you get a good job, which means not wasting your time at college.  After work is all you man, you'll have money, freedom and time to do as you please!

Being in Highschool is fun, but it's a lazy irresponsible kind of fun that is great while you are a kid, but once you see what else is out there you will realize there are so many ways to have fun.

Trust!!!!!!! I'm 23, been working for a few months and just graduated University.

If you ever find yourself "dying" it's because you had an imbalance in life at some point and put all your eggs in having fun now, and didn't consider the future.  So long as you do well enough now to do BETTER later while still having fun now your life will only get better and better.

Answer 3

You don't need to see life that way.

I am 58 and don't fit in with most women my age.

I don't dress like them. Don't worry about stuff like they do.

I have a young spirit no matter what.

There is no way around becoming an adult. It is best to make each phase of your life the best you can make it.

There is NO reason to find one sort of job to do forever. Find your passion and go with that. Passions change.  You can have lots of variety through out your life span, if you choose to.

My life has been full of diversity. I can honestly look back and say, "I have lived an interesting life"

You have not run out of time.  You have just begun.

Answer 4

Sometimes I feel the same way...but it's a little thing called "life"

Answer 5

hey, i understand your predicament because ive been young once myself. now I'm 41 and i am still wishing to go back to the teen age years where we do the stuff we want to do,no obligations and responsibilities. just pure happy go lucky life.

but even though we wish these things we have to accept the fact that the world is turning and the years are passing by. while we can still do the things that we used to do , it is really awkward to see a 41 year old do stuffs teenage kids do. the point is we can't hold the years from rolling. we can remain young in our ways but the years continue to roll.  so we have to adjust to it as it rolls, our age also matures.

so go with the times kiddo. enjoy your status now and mature like your age. after all it would be boring to stay the same all the time. to be playing with our doll all the time . and it would be even more awkward to play with your doll with all your curves in place and all the manifestations of a perfect woman ready for mamahood.

wont it nice to  

Answer 6

Become a professional couch surfer.  

Answer 7

As some fridge magnet I once read said, "Doing something crazy averts permanent insanity." That being said, go out and do something goofy once in a while to keep your life from getting too hum-drum. Go bungee jumping or egg a house. Just keep it interesting.

Answer 8

You're in the birth canal for the next phase of your life.  I remember the times you speak of, and I look back on them fondly.  The biggest rewards and satisfactions of your life are yet to come.

Now, B R E A T H...and PUSH!

Answer 9

hey, you haven't quite run outta time yet. you can still party it up at college parties :) meet new people, learn new things, and eventually you'll be able to phase into an adult. It's all part of growing up i guess, although i wouldn't know much about that because i'm only 15. You've got about another 75 or so years till you have to worry about running out of time.

Answer 10

Well I might be able to help on the tennis one. What state do you live in?

Answer 11

your just afraid of the change and growing up but guess what it is totally normal , we all go through this and get out of it too ! hey I'm a adult and i dress the way i wanna dress  sure i think seeing grandma at the super marketing a mini skirt and tank top is DISTURBING but nothing wrong with it just keep it clean LOL h**l even i myself still go Jesus i just said I'm adult , i remember when i hit that stage i FREAKED but i got through it and so can you don't worry about others opinions , just because your 17 (i think), doesn't mean the day you turn 20 you have to totally change who you are and what you look like , Sure maybe tone it down a little IF you get a job where you have to dress up as in a suit n tie . !! but don't worry to much and always remember there is worse things that can be happening other then growing up  

Answer 12

there are always tournaments for adults that are not pros. adults have a different kind of freedom because it is true freedom but with true freedom comes the responsibility to use it correctly. adults wear what they want but what they want to wear changes a bit as you mature. you might go for more comfortable clothes than stylish ones that are annoying. when you start being an adult there are some downsides but so many more upsides. you are free from other people. if you want to just pack up and move no one can stop you.  

Answer 13

In my opinion in very stage of our life, there is the different kind of joy in it, there is something different to learn, etc.

Try to have part time job, different kind of part time job, find the joy of work. Really there is joy in working, when you can enjoy to work, you will not be daunted by the thought of it.

Same with responsibilities try to have some, learn to be humble in each responsibilities and find the joy in having one. Beside being adult doesn't mean you lose your freedom.

Answer 14

Welcome to hades.

Answer 15

I think you've got to enter a state of mentality of an adult.

Answer 16

As you grow into an adult, youll start a family and even though youll not be able to do what u want anymore, at least u know u can ive ur kids a good life, now knowing how a good life as a kid is. this should give u a little optimism for adultery. and besides even if all those doors close, new ones open. u have tons more freedom, you can marry, get animals, move anywhere u want. ur going into college so u have ur whole world in front of u.

Answer 17

You are a teenager who enjoys being a teenager - good for you.  Also, quite logical.  When you are young you enjoy what young people enjoy.  Believe it or not (as a teen I am sure you will find it terrifically hard to believe) but as you get older you will crave the pleasures you now enjoy less and less and will find satisfaction in new and different ways.  

Look around you and notice the adults who never seem to have left high school behind. I think that you will find that you don't want to be like them.  They are creepy not cool.  You sound cool therefore I doubt you will end up like them. You will mature and change and grow.  Don't worry about it - I promise it will be only slightly painful.

Go ahead and enjoy yourself now but just in case I am right and you do mature and start wanting things like a fulfilling career and such - don't s***w up your education; it just may come in handy.

p.s.  if you are really into sports and such maybe a cool job like tennis coach or white-water rafting guide may be more exciting than daunting    you can always major in exercise science when you get to college

Answer 18

One of the greatest forms of misery, second only to the anxiety and fear of death, is nostalgia.

When you pass this novel and calm phase of youth and enter adulthood, you will live every day  tormented by the insidiuos agent of nostalgia. And whenever there occurs a moment where you forget the past, you will be tormented by the angst that is produced from the prospect of fate (death).

My advice (Disclaimer: this is not original thought):

the past is dead and gone. The future state of things lies in speculation, which lies in imagination.

Make the best of the present. If you cannot do so, you will live in torment.

Remember, you are only 1 day old for the rest of your life, and then you die. The cumulation of X years that you have been alive, now only exist in your memory.

If this advice seems harsh or alien, just get a girl/boyfriend and you will delight in the responsibilty of managing a relationship--and therefore accustom yourself to responsibilty.

Answer 19

My response to your 'situation' is:

0. About having 'run outta of time':

    You've not. Time is on your side.

1. About dressing the way you like to dress:

    What makes you think that ten years from now you won't be?!

    What makes you think that adults don't?!

2. About adult tennis tournaments:

    There are lots of them.

    You're just not interested

    (and why should you be?).

3. About being able to do/think/say things that only teens and kids can say/think/do:

    What makes you think adults can't?

    Lots of adults do.

    The greatest minds do, and always have.

    I hope you never forget how.

4. That you love having freedom is only natural;

    and don't worry, the responsibilities will never get bigger than

    the freedoms.

5. That you love being a teen/kid is plain GREAT.

6. You say you are "a high schooler who's about to go to college"

Are you a high school graduate about to matriculate, or are you still in high school?

If you are still in high school, then coming to the realization that it doesn't last forever is a good thing.

Make the most of it: study hard; play hard; do your homework (all of it!); and, finally, do not (repeat, NOT) try nicotine in any form whatsoever. Most nicotine addicts get hooked at your age. Hopefully you do not already know that it takes NO time to become addicted. Alcohol is a bit more complicated: if you like it, a lot (or it likes you), then stay away from it. If your friends pressure you to drink, then get new friends. (It's an old movie (1962) but a good one: 'Days of Wine and Roses'.)

If you are entering university next month, by all means: don't overload yourself; become a regular at your advisor's office--don't wait to be invited; take courses that will MORE than satisfy basic requirements. You never know, you might discover something WONDERFUL and NEW.

7. If you find daunting the idea of preparing throughout high school and college just to end up working a job the balance of your life, then don't do it. Prepare for something else: musician; professional athlete; lawyer; dentist; psychiatrist; politician; actor; comedian; teacher; astronaut (it is interesting that most people, including me, haven't the slightest idea what one has to do to become an astronaut); if you'd like something closer to earth, why not be a pilot or a ship's captain, deep-sea diver or marine biologist; what about geneticist or physicist or chemist or mathematician or philosopher or journalist or novelist or science-fiction writer or historian or computer scientist. Or go into business for yourself. Do you like to cook?--become a chef (California Culinary Academy - www.baychef.com). Just think, the above list has left out almost everything!

Or are you afraid that no matter how hard you try not to, you'll and end up working a job you hate just to keep from starving? Well, I wish I could say that's not a possibility, but I can't. Still, the better prepared you are to enjoy your life, the better your chances at success and the more likely "working a job" will prove to be only a temporary setback.

Finally:

8. Are you 'dying'?

Probably not, just now.

One day, for sure.

In between is always a little (and sometimes a lot) of both:

"Those not busy being born are busy dying" ~ Bob Dylan

PERIOD.

Answer 20

...i doubt it, philosophy is all talk and opinions...

Answer 21

You'll find yourself slowly moving past that stage of dressing outlandishly.  Adults have fun as much as teens do, but perhaps it is a little more subdued.  When you find the career that calls you it won't seem so daunting, even if you don't there are a lot of jobs out there that are fun and interesting.  You have different freedoms as an adult, but yes your responsibilities are greater, but with new freedoms come new responsibilities.  Adults do have things like tennis tournaments, but its the young who can compete the hardest, just how it goes with the human body.

Answer 22

Harry, you won't know the truth about it until you get there. You will change as surely as the rest of your experiences will change, and your knowledge and understanding of the world grows deeper and broader. You aren't dying any more or less than anyone else is, eventually. You are changing, that's all. Don't be scared or perturbed by it. You will very likely find yourself liking, enjoying and appreciating more things than you ever dreamed possible as you continue your journey. You don't need to abandon what you like to enter the new part of your life--you'll keep what you want, and decide later what's of real importance to you.

Answer 23

Welcome to the walking dead! No, just kidding here. A great piece of advice I recieved once upon a time was (if you can do for a living what you would do on your own already than it is no longer work.) So concentrate on what you love or strongly like to do and try to find a way to make it into a job that you will love and technically never work a day in your life!