Hathaway
Someday, We'll All Be Free
It's funny how we look at the late 40 and 50-year-olds and call them middle aged. No. If you are in your 50's, you have roughly 20 years of life left on average. For American men, the average life expectancy is 74 years, and that number is steadily decreasing. Half of 74 is 37. By the time you are in your mid to late 30's, you have lived half of your life. I am in my early 30's still but I feel like I have lived the life of someone who is some 10 years older than me.
I have lived two lives. My second one began when I turned 27 and my reality came crashing down. It forced me to make some hard decisions. My thinking changed. My attitude changed. My outlook on the world changed. My outlook on my marriage and my children changed. My goals changed. My ambitions changed. I essentially became a new human being for better or worse.
Now I realize that time is the only valuable resource I have. And I have wasted so much of it. I'll never get it back. The more I age, time moves so much faster. I feel like I just blinked and we're already 3 months into the year. The days are still 24 hours long but I feel like I am constantly racing against time trying to accomplish so much in one day. Work, being a husband, raising children, catering to the needs of my family and household and barely having the time to cater to my own wants and needs.
I work like a slave. I am always physically tired. I work harder than most of my coworkers because my goal is to advance higher in the business of which I am employed. As a Black man, I have to work harder and do more to be recognized among the younger white men in which I compete. So I am always the 1st one in the building.
I am greeted by my alarm at 4AM every morning. I am out the house by 4:20AM. I open the store. I set up. Its tough labor. I do more work before 6am than most do in an entire 8 hour shift. By the time the other workers start showing up at 5AM, I am already in a sweat. I work 45 hours a week. Some days, I work 6 days a week for the extra OT. We are closed on Sundays. I do not complain about it. I have to break my back to get where I want to go because, by this time 30 years from now on Feb, 26 2053, I could already be dead. And besides my progeny, my sons, I have nothing to show for this life thus far. The poor decisions of my past dictate how I must live today.
This life is my curse for not following my heart when I knew I should've back in my early 20's. So I carry this burden and my shoulders and mind ache because of it.
To you 20 something year old guys on here, heed my tale of caution, pain and regret. Allow your ambition to dominate your life. Travel the planet. Escape the town or city in which you were conceived and reared. Experience different cultures. Learn from your elders. Learn from people of other ethnicities. Don't always inquire how someone you idolized became successful. Inquire about their failures and how they overcame those instead. Successes are not what builds a man's character, but his failures and how he overcame them does.
I tell the young guys I work with all the time; don't get trapped working here. If you are young, single and childless, find your passion and get lost in developing your craft in it. Learn to monetize it.
Don't be like me. Stuck with the mistakes of my past hovering above my head every day of my life like a black cloud of despair. Desperately trying to overcompensate for bad decisions. Trying to raise sons and be a husband while battling heavy emotions of loss, regret and unaccomplishment. Hiding those feelings for the sake of your family. Knowing you were meant for more but squandered it away not listening to your instincts; your intuition.
Take advantage of your time. One day, you'll look up and see that you're 30 something and have nothing of merit to show for it.
I have lived two lives. My second one began when I turned 27 and my reality came crashing down. It forced me to make some hard decisions. My thinking changed. My attitude changed. My outlook on the world changed. My outlook on my marriage and my children changed. My goals changed. My ambitions changed. I essentially became a new human being for better or worse.
Now I realize that time is the only valuable resource I have. And I have wasted so much of it. I'll never get it back. The more I age, time moves so much faster. I feel like I just blinked and we're already 3 months into the year. The days are still 24 hours long but I feel like I am constantly racing against time trying to accomplish so much in one day. Work, being a husband, raising children, catering to the needs of my family and household and barely having the time to cater to my own wants and needs.
I work like a slave. I am always physically tired. I work harder than most of my coworkers because my goal is to advance higher in the business of which I am employed. As a Black man, I have to work harder and do more to be recognized among the younger white men in which I compete. So I am always the 1st one in the building.
I am greeted by my alarm at 4AM every morning. I am out the house by 4:20AM. I open the store. I set up. Its tough labor. I do more work before 6am than most do in an entire 8 hour shift. By the time the other workers start showing up at 5AM, I am already in a sweat. I work 45 hours a week. Some days, I work 6 days a week for the extra OT. We are closed on Sundays. I do not complain about it. I have to break my back to get where I want to go because, by this time 30 years from now on Feb, 26 2053, I could already be dead. And besides my progeny, my sons, I have nothing to show for this life thus far. The poor decisions of my past dictate how I must live today.
This life is my curse for not following my heart when I knew I should've back in my early 20's. So I carry this burden and my shoulders and mind ache because of it.
To you 20 something year old guys on here, heed my tale of caution, pain and regret. Allow your ambition to dominate your life. Travel the planet. Escape the town or city in which you were conceived and reared. Experience different cultures. Learn from your elders. Learn from people of other ethnicities. Don't always inquire how someone you idolized became successful. Inquire about their failures and how they overcame those instead. Successes are not what builds a man's character, but his failures and how he overcame them does.
I tell the young guys I work with all the time; don't get trapped working here. If you are young, single and childless, find your passion and get lost in developing your craft in it. Learn to monetize it.
Don't be like me. Stuck with the mistakes of my past hovering above my head every day of my life like a black cloud of despair. Desperately trying to overcompensate for bad decisions. Trying to raise sons and be a husband while battling heavy emotions of loss, regret and unaccomplishment. Hiding those feelings for the sake of your family. Knowing you were meant for more but squandered it away not listening to your instincts; your intuition.
Take advantage of your time. One day, you'll look up and see that you're 30 something and have nothing of merit to show for it.
Last edited:
