If you had asked me a few years ago what makes life meaningful, I would have told you: To marry the love of your life, nurture your kids together, and do the work that fulfils you.
None of those values has changed. Though for a long time I always saw death as an enemy of those things. However, I have started to see that death doesn’t necessarily threaten a meaningful life. It makes it.
Cultural provocateurs are the whetstone. And like the whetstone, they challenge not to destroy but to sharpen. Scraping away rust. Exposing dull edges. Asking the uncomfortable questions that the majority would rather avoid. Every society that has moved forward has needed people willing to do this.
When we look at Western countries, envy and anger often collide within us.
Envy because we wish we’d been born under winter snow, where quality of life is high, opportunities are bountiful, and systems actually work. And anger because we resent being here instead—in Africa, under the heat of the Sahara—where life feels backwards, a constant struggle to move forward, with uncertainty slowly draining hope out of us.
Still, many of us fail to be aware or maybe don’t see it relevant to remember that the West wasn’t always “Advanced” or enviable.
those who talk about their pain, who express their frustrations or ask for help are seen as weak, fragile, or lacking in character.
And so, many of us are socially compelled to zip our lips, even when our whole being is itching to scream.
Social media has become deeply intertwined with the human experience that opting out feels like social suicide. The pressure to show up doesn’t just feel cultural, but existential.
And for those of us looking to grow our brand or business, showing up is not enough – we need to grow. Yet, in trying to grow, we tend to follow the same playbook:
In the messy space of real life, values like loyalty to family, respect for elders, devotion to faith, ethnic solidarity, and communal responsibility sometimes conflict with moral codes like honesty, fairness, justice, stewardship, compassion, and respect for human dignity, and so the real struggle begins
What nobody told me then, what nobody might have told you now, is that the “designated time” when “success” is supposed to happen is arbitrary. And the anxiety that comes from these designated timelines destroys your peace and hampers your growth.
Yet, we run with these timelines. Society as a whole has invented two categories of individuals, early bloomers and late bloomers, to further solidify these arbitrary timelines. Both labels further intensify the issue with the timelines.
We perceive other countries as the proverbial promised lands: clean, safe and functional. Even the internet doesn’t fail to remind us each day of Tokyo’s cherry blossoms, Paris’ romantic cafes, and the Caribbean beaches, where the sand kisses your feet and the breeze wraps around bare skin.
And so, we dream. We wish. We plan to leave.
We often imagine life as a straight line. Do X, get Y, or go from point A to point B. But most of us already know, life doesn’t always work out like that.
In our treacherous yet beautiful reality, the path looks more like what mathematicians call a “random walk with drift.”. It is a messy, unpredictable journey influenced by detours: chaos, choices, failures, and fortunes.
As children, people told us our 20s would be our prime: full of beauty, clarity, and everything falling into place. Some even advised us against overindulging – enjoying it so much that we make mistakes. But for many of us, our 20s seem to be the most confusing and painful time of our lives.
