Chasing income

For most people, I get that a high, stable salary is important. Most middle aged adults have families, children, or dependencies to support. They have to think about other people and sacrifice a part of themselves for the sake of their families. Luckily, I’m not in one of those positions at the moment, and I don’t necessarily have any plans to be in the near future. Thus, I have some freedom and wiggleroom to decide what it is I truly want to do with my career and my life. Not having children opens the door to a myriad of creative options that was never before possible. It’s actually a really exciting decision if I think about it on a deep, critical level. 

In college, I had a tennis teammate tell me that the ultimate purpose of life is to get married and have children. That’s certainly something I had aspired to, but things started to get in the way of that plan when, for instance, I developed bipolar disorder in my early to mid twenties. Suddenly, having children was not really a viable option for me. I had to get creative and find other ways to get on with life, and I think pursuing something of lower salary but high on the passion scale became ultimately more feasible and practical. 

To that end, I don’t think starting a family is the only way to live a fullfilling life. I’ve already covered this in a previous post, so I’m not going to necessarily belabor this way of life any more than it needs to be. Yet, venturing away from the traditional option does present with its own challenges for sure. It’s really how you deal with all those challenges and take care of yourself and your vision for your future that really define your life without an immediate family and progeny. You really need to be a strong person to be able to branch away from the crowd.