Quote:
Originally Posted by dark_heart_x
I think the thing I'm trying to say is that we're not unique.
I think the real thing I'm trying to point out is that so many people say "I am diagnosed having bipolar. My life is ruined. I can never have a family/hold a job/I now have no purpose." When, in fact, that is totally not true.
But, perhaps you can't sit at a desk from 8-5 trying to reach goals, deal with office politics, making meetings, etc. etc. Because for example, me, my focus is all over the place. I'm incredibly creative. But, it comes and goes like a whirlwind. So, setting a deadline (I will have 5 chapters of my book done by mid-May,) often doesn't happen. Or, since I have to work because, you know, art doesn't really pay unles you're lucky, "I have to have this, this, and this project done by March 6th." That doesn't work out for me either. And so, what happens? I get in trouble. And, that's the nature of societies work world.
I'm a circle trying to fit into a square. Sure, I can sit in the square hole, but that doesn't mean I fill it in properly. However, there is no "alternate" type of jobs, except if you happen to be extremely lucky. So, I will be a circle in a square, and I know eventually that will cause me to lose my job, because squares don't understand that I'm a circle, and although I am a circle, that doesn't mean I'm less I'm just different and do things in a different way.
|
Well, for the people who choose to see it that way, if they're diagnosed with something, mental health or otherwise, then it will become true for them. As Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right." If someone chooses to believe that they have no purpose, no one will be able to give them purpose but themselves.
I'm a very realistic person, so I absolutely understand the needs and realities of having to work and survive, especially having been homeless and extremely poor at one point. But with that in mind, I also firmly believe that if one has a passion, one can follow it even in this world where it's unorthodox. Society's rules and norms are there, but the greatest minds have challenged it, and often changed it. I look up to entrepreneurs, inventors, artists and leaders for that exact reason.
I certainly cannot do a 9-5 job, so I initially became a cook, because I craved a job that was faced paced, exciting, and mildly nuts (cooks are all nuts...) until I came to the conclusion that the working world wasn't for me, and I refused to become another person stuck doing a job just because, and after a bit of soul searching, realized that I had the traits of an entrepreneur and really wanted something of my own, so now I'm own that path. I've seen artists, writers, other entrepreneurs do the same. Sometimes it requires sacrifice before you get there, but we can create our own paths, so why be forced to be stuck in a square as a circle?
This is one of my favourite quotes of all time, that has kept me going to this day -
“If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.”
-Charles Bukowski