Money Isn't Everything

Picture from WeHeartIt user @Tanay_Lenette

In today's society, we are taught from a young age that money makes the world go round. We are taught to forego our dreams if they will not bring us the money that the world leads us to desire. I may be young, but I've already learned a valuable life lesson: money isn't everything.

Money cannot buy happiness. Some people, when faced by this statement, simply laugh and say, "Money may not buy happiness, but I'd much rather cry in a Ferrari." This state of mind is the exact reason why people today value things more than they value people. We see the monetary value of the things we possess as having a greater meaning than the emotional connections we make. We don't know how to have healthy and lasting relationships because we're only capable of understanding something as being worthwhile if it comes with a price tag. This is a sad way to go through life.

We need to start appreciating the little things, because the little things are all that really matter in the end. We can possess all the money in the world and still be incredibly poor because we find that we have no one to share the life we've built with. Success should not be defined by the amount of money we have in the bank, but by the love that we've allowed ourselves to give.

Many people are quick to tell me that the path I've chosen in life is the wrong one. Many say that I'm wasting my talents by not pursuing a career in the medical or engineering fields. But I don't want to spend my whole life doing something I hate simply because that's where people say the money is. I was born to be a writer, and that's the path I'm going to follow until the very end of my life. Some may say that I need a backup plan, but choosing a backup plan feels, to me, like admitting defeat before I've even started my journey. I know that the road ahead may be a long one. There will come times when money is tight and I struggle to get by, but struggle is a luxury in life that I refuse to view as otherwise. I will not try to keep struggle from coming my way because it's inevitable. Instead, I will take it in stride and keep the lessons overcoming these obstacles teaches me close to heart,

If faced with the choice between a life of passion, love, and dreams, and a lonely life filled with all the desires that money could buy, I would choose the life of passion. Money isn't everything. Finding the one thing - whether it be a career, a hobby, or a person - that you are truly and fully passionate about pursuing is the one thing that gives life meaning.