The other day I was listening to the joe rogan podcast (which you should definitely check out if you haven’t) and they brought up a quote by Alan Watts:

We’ve got a system of schooling which gives a completely different impression.

It’s all graded—and what we do is we put the child into the corridor of this grade system, with a kind of “c’mon kitty kitty kitty…”. And yeah, you go to kindergarten, and that’s a great thing, because when you finish that, you’ll get into first grade. And then c’mon, first grade leads to second grade, and so on… And then you get out of grade school you go to high school—and it’s revving up, the thing is coming… Then you’re going to go to college, and by jove then you get into graduate school, and when you’re through with graduate school, you’ll go out to join the world. And then you get into some racket where you’re selling insurance. And they’ve got that quota to make. And you’re going to make that.

And all the time, this thing is coming, it’s coming, it’s coming—that great thing, the success you’re working for. Then when you wake up one day about forty years old, you say “My God! I’ve arrived! I’m there!” And you don’t feel very different from what you always felt. And there’s a slight letdown, because you feel there’s a hoax. And there was a hoax.

A dreadful hoax.

It struck me how true this quote really is. I can absolutely attest to the fact that when I was younger I would always look forward to what was next, high school, my new IT job, an internship in California, moving to San Francisco. I can’t say that I haven’t enjoyed the ride along the way, I absolutely have.

This kind of lifestyle can manifest itself in the simplest of ways. Aren’t we always so excited just to get to the weekend? It is good to remind ourselves that every day should be cherished, regardless of where you are at in life. Love yourself, love your family, love your friends.

Here’s the source of the quote illustrated with a video created by Matt Parker and Trey Stone.