Society, you’re a crazy breed. Hope you’re not lonely, without me.
Like many of you reading this blog, I was born and raised in the city. Sure, I’ve lived in a few different cities over the years – but they’re all the same in the end.
One of the reasons why I left Windsor in the first place was to escape city life. Again, nothing against Windsor – in fact, I love that city and the people who live there. It’s the way of life in general that was getting me down.
It felt like my only options while I was living in the city was to either get a meaningless job (even those are hard to come by nowadays) or go back to school. If you’ve read my last post, you know how school turned out for me.
The last thing I wanted to do was get back into career mode. This might sound like crazy talk to some of you, especially those of you who are desperately in search of work. The sad truth is many of you are currently in this position.
Society tells us the meaning of life is to go to school, get a job, make money and spend the rest of our lives shopping until we die. I don’t want to live that life. I’ve never wanted that life. I don’t want to waste my time running the rat-race enslaved by the 1%. It’s just not for me. (If you’re unfamiliar with the term 1% : Step 1 – Get the net. Step 2 – Google “Occupy Movement”).
Trust me. I’ve been there, done that. Long before I decided to give school another shot, I left a solid career where I made a very decent amount of money. I left it for various reasons, but mainly because my quality of life was suffering. I was selling most of my precious time to the corporation where I was quickly working my way up the latter. There was no time for adventure and no time for fun. It seemed like the only thing I had time for was stressing over my job. In the long run, it didn’t matter how much money I was making. Truth be told, I wasn’t happy. Then, it hit me. Job. That‘s all it was. Something I did to make money so I could survive. I was surviving alright, but I sure wasn’t living.
In order to survive in the city, you have to have a job. City living is expensive, so you have to sell a lot of your time to live comfortably. You have to sell even more of your time if you’re interested in collecting all the latest gadgets or surrounding yourself with material pleasures, whatever those may be. Pick your poison. It’s all the same.
There are things in life that are much more important than your possessions. This is something that is often not learned until it is too late. I don’t want to be an old woman on my death bed wishing I had lived my life to the fullest. Wishing I didn’t spend all my time working, wishing I had spent my time on earth living instead, following my dreams and taking risks. So, I’ve made my choice. I won’t be that old woman. I’ve left society behind in pursuit of a meaningful and truly fulfilling existence.
A good friend once made this observation while he was visiting me in my new home. He said,“City life is for the pursuit of money. Yurt life is for the pursuit of happiness.” How right you are my friend.
Stay tuned for my next blog on what yurt living is all about. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Universal love to you all.
P.S. Happy Birthday Mom :) xo
Interesting post Alishia. I have to agree somewhat with some of the things you are saying, however I sense that you simply have a lot of built-up frustration with the way our societies work (and how broken/corrupt they are). So do I, and so do a lot of other people :)
However I just wanted to throw this idea out there: I know city life in a society can be very demanding and at times just unrewarding. However I truly believe running away from your problems to live a life detached from society is both selfish and unsustainable. You need society to survive. Everything in this world is connected, we all breathe the same air and require the same energy and nutrition to survive. It has been noted (for example, in ‘No Impact Man’) that one of the most unsustainable things somebody can do, is attempt to be completely self-sustainable. It just doesn’t work.
Instead of leaving your problems for a supposed ‘better life’, have you ever had the thought that maybe you could channel that frustration and pent up energy you have, into doing some good for your community/society? Maybe get into volunteering, get involved with your community and local politics, understand what changes you are capable of achieving. To me, making the decision to leave society seems rather selfish, as you are acknowledging there are many problems that need to be fixed within our societies, but in the same breath you are making the conscious decision to leave all of the change that is needed (and thus, the burden) upon the rest of societies shoulders.
I truly hope I did not come off as rude – I understand calling people selfish can easily be seen as an insult. I want to make it clear that I am in no way judging your life decisions – they are yours, and I think no less of you (and hope nobody else does) for wanting to secede from society. I think we all get that feeling, and yes, some of us like you decide to act upon it. I just wanted to show you a different way of looking at this situation.
Hi Graham. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. You have some very good points and I am always open to viewing life from different perspectives. In fact, your thoughts have inspired me to elaborate just a little bit further in an upcoming post I will put up this evening. For now, I would love it if you’d take the time to view this one here: http://wp.me/p1nFgS-4s :) Take care!
Your point would only be valid if society treated the planet with respect. To call this person selfish because she wants to leave a world of greed, hate, and destruction is rude. At least to me. “Everything in this world is connected, we all breathe the same air and require the same energy and nutrition to survive” I agree with that, but I don’t agree with society because it is built up of wants, not needs. We don’t need houses, or electricity to survive and to say we do is naive. You are just comfortable in your bed. Ignorance really is bliss! =) You can live in a world that isn’t run by governments, bankers, war, and oil. To say that this is the only way it could would and should be just shows that you are easily brainwashed. Everything we need for survival comes from this planet, and the sun. NOT SOCIETY.
So, you are still living in a society, just one that better suits your idea of a meaningful lifestyle. I think that is the point somewhat lost here. I understand what you are saying, because I know you. I know what you have done in your 27 years of life because I have lived it with you, through your words. This is just another chapter and I can’t wait to read more about it. Thank you for sharing your journey with us.
Leaving Society behind is impossible but not for the reasons you might think. Leaving society behind is impossible because the term society in and of itself is so broad a term. What would you call it if a bunch of people who thought as Alishia did all gathered together in one area to make a go of this style of living nothing if not a society. So that being said what I think would resonate more in the minds of the masses would be if you used the term “Self Sufficient,Self Governing,Non- Traditional Community” because in truth society will follow if you try to leave there will always be like minded individuals in this world remember “No man or (woman) is an island onto himself).I say this because I firmly believe that as time progresses and our way of living continues down its path there are bound to be more and more people who want to live as you do ,myself included, but then I asked myself if others wanted to join or participate would you run from them too? The answer is no. You couldn’t you would be running your whole life. It isn’t society you want to escape.It’s the kind of society we have built you want to escape.I agree charging people for heat food gas clothes and a place to live is deplorable you might as well start charging people for the air we breath since we need that to live just as much as the other stuff.I also agree that no one needs two houses a mansion and an 8 car garage.These are things people want and thats what your running from, “the wants”.I think you’ll find that even removed from society that the needs will follow you anywhere and that includes social interaction the root word of society.So in that since your quest is futile not because we “need society” like another suggested but because of the irrefutable fact that you I and everyone else is society and in my 36 years of living its one thing I’ve learned and its that you can’t run from yourself and it doesn’t make any since to go anywhere else if your just gonna carry you with you.I think your time on this planet would be better spent if instead of separating yourself from society you gather like minded individuals and forge a new one with in the old one until it encompasses the old one only then will you have the freedom you seek and thats by helping others to achieve it as well.But good luck i’ll be joining you if I fail to show enough people the error of our societies ways I won’t have a choice for who can appreciate the shadows on the cave wall after stepping out of the cave and seeing the sun in person for the first time