Don’t get me wrong, money is a critical component of being a functional member of society. However, when a person is young and inexperienced, it’s easy to fixate one’s action based on how much money is being paid. For instance, in college, I didn’t have a great sense of money because I was not making any. The mere fact that I didn’t have experience with money opted me to pick professions and careers that inherently were very high paying without much consideration to the logistical components. This led to a lot of unhappiness and stress when things didn’t go according to plan–because I was setting my goals into the unrealistic stratosphere of making a boatload of money. Did I really need that much money in the first place? Probably not.
With a bit more maturity and experience, I’m starting to adjust my target. I think with age, we begin to realize that we really don’t need that much money to be functional members of society. With time, we begin to also understand what it is that we truly want, instead of what society, or our parents for that matter, projects onto us. I recently came upon the observation that, for most people, the beginning and ends of our lives are the happiest. I think that partly has to do with the fact that the middle area is filled with a discovery phase that entails a lot of discomfort and trying new things and backpedaling.
Overall, I think mature people don’t put money first. They chase something higher: love, an ideal, purpose, passion, prestige. Whatever that may be, mature people aim for something that transcends money. I think it’s also important to consider that many young people fall into the trap of chasing money. I think this is a rather common occurrence that comes with inexperience with life.
The Ivory Tower 
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