Like a typical millennial, I spend a lot of time on Facebook. Among the usual food videos, I saw a post saying that there is nothing wrong with putting your priorities (especially yourself) first before everyone else in your life. The next day however, I came upon a post saying the exact opposite, that your relationships are far more important than your grades, and that you should “live your life”. It’s probably a bad idea to look for life advice on social media, but those posts made me think about my priorities.
Personally, I do try to prioritize relationships as much or even more than my school work. I remember telling one of my friends before that “my grades won’t hug me when I need a friend”. However, I still give much importance to my academics, for I believe that I have been conditioned to put academics over everything ever since starting school (or maybe I’m just really a nerd). It never came to a point that I ditched class or abandoned my requirements.
The two posts that I’ve mentioned suggests that there are just two ways of living life. First is putting your relationships first before focusing on yourself, as with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and second is flipping the hierarchy by focusing on
self-actualization first. It seems as though social media has further encouraged the belief that there is a specific way of living life–that we could all fit into a mold of a life well lived.
Nowadays, I have observed that the latter is becoming more common. Since times are changing and becoming more difficult, the youth try to take every opportunity that they can, thus dedicating most of their time to school or work. However, even though the mentioned Facebook post implies that these people do not “live their lives”, they actually are. Millennials are surrounded by like-minded individuals who have similar goals–they don’t feel that they are missing out on a lot or that they are compromising quality time for work because they have a mutual understanding of their priorities.
After talking to some peers, I realized that I didn’t feel that I put my school work above everything else because they have similar priorities. It is easier to find time for gatherings than to miss a deadline. Nonetheless, when the time calls for it, we agreed that we would put down what we are doing or try to multitask both (which is not advisable, but that’s probably for another column). Finding a balance between the two is the way to go.
Indeed, living life isn’t just choosing between black and white. As mentioned, the key is balance–it’s fine to choose gray. When I read those two posts, I found it funny that both are saying that it is how life should be lived. But how could you live your life while being restricted to the “right” way of doing it?
I think the “right” way is not thinking of any way to do it. Priorities change over time, so there really isn’t a specific way of handling them. Moreover, it depends on the situations that you will face. Whether we choose one or the other, neither, or both, we should just live our lives and set our priorities in a way that is suitable for us–as long as it is legal and does not involve harming others. Cheesy as it may sound, follow your heart (and don’t let Facebook posts dictate what you should do with your life).
Speaking of life, nowadays, we waste a lot of it in lines and traffic. Relating this to what I’ve just discussed, I conclude with this: Life is like travelling in Manila; it’s very frustrating at times but whichever route you choose on Waze, you’ll get to where you need to be eventually.
