(You Don’t Need) A Reason To Live
Lord knows how most of my screen time are spent scrolling through TikTok. Thanks to 2020, thanks to the pandemic, thanks to the life that feels like it’s on pause – and it hasn’t shown any signs to start moving forward very soon – here I am, wasting my precious youth on TikTok.
But today (it was around 2 AM) my TikTok experience was a little bit different, because I stumbled upon this video by Abraham Piper.
In this video of him talking to the camera while walking across the snowy road, he told the viewers that: we don’t need a reason to live.
Huh? Okay. Now he got my attention.
Jeez, the “for you page” on TikTok is truly a for you page, huh? In case you’re not familiar with TikTok (in which, um, how? How are you in 2021 and still not on TikTok?), the “for you page” is almost like the main page where they show you an endless amount of videos that match your preference and interest.
Please install TikTok now, it’s very important.
Anyways, so he said that we don’t need a reason to live.
“You don’t need a reason to live. Emphasis on the a,” he said.
Oh!
“You don’t need a reason to live. Have as many as you want! I wanna go get some art supplies this afternoon.”
And then he continued elaborating it by bringing up more examples.
His advice (or concept? theory?) might sounds too simple to answer such a grand, seemingly complex question, “what is my reason to live?”
But surprisingly, he was right (at least for me!). The answer turned out to be very obvious! We can have as many reasons as possible.
And they don’t have to be “meaningful”, or “noble” like reserving humanity or fixing the corrupt government…
It can be as mundane as living because you still got some homework to do. Or because you’re waiting for the season three of Sex Education (if this time Otis and Maeve still aren’t going to be together I’m suing).
After I watched the video, I wasn’t instantly becoming the most optimistic and cheerful person rightaway, but it helped me to start seeing my days a little bit less burdening (just a liiiiiitle, though! But it still matters!).
In the midst of a life that is completely uncertain, forcing myself to go “big” seem too much to bear. And because of that, I often trapped in this dark place called My Mindᵀᴹ, feeling down of not being able to achieve what I’m supposed to be achieving in the moment, and this usually leads me to neglect what’s in front of me.
The things that I have now.
Or, as what my favorite YouTuber, Lana Blakely, said,
“Like you’re not watering your plants at home because you’re busy dreaming about palm trees.”
I remember on October 9th 2019 I made this Instagram story.
And among the answers I got surrounding the topics of wealth, love, family, religion, and all of those massive goals these people have in mind – in which, I love them all. The energy was contagious! – there’s this one answer.
The person whose answer featured above showed us a short-term, simple reason to live. And maybe we all can start practicing it in the hope to lessen the burden we put inside our minds.
By this long-ass post obviously I’m not trying to tell you to not dream big at all, and to not step out of your comfort zone at all. I’m just saying that there are plenty of smaller, lighter reasons that come from ordinary things in life that can also help keeping us going.
And that’s okay too.
Alright then. I think the reason why I want to live right now is because I’m excited for today’s breakfast. And I’m looking forward to receive my freelancing paycheck really soon (it isn’t much though, but it’s okay!).
So, what’s your reason to live?
