Just Ken

Yes, our society puts so much value on how you look, what you can do, and what you can achieve in this life. We put so much pressure on ourselves to become somebody and the older we get the more anxious we are for not following the path our younger selves strived for. And then life happens so we start questioning our place in the world. There are so many twists and turns until we reach the point of existential crisis and our fear of the unfulfilled life. What is our purpose? 

Most of us want to be rich and famous. We want to be popular in order to earn money or we want to earn money in order to be popular. There’s always something that we want but cannot have. We have this insatiable appetite for something out of reach. We buy so many products to achieve that glass skin. We pay premium prices on gym memberships to have that perfect body. We even starve ourselves to fit our jeans. We pretend to like salad cause it’s healthy when in reality we just want a fucking burger. We almost deny ourselves life’s simple pleasures to keep up with society’s demands. So who we are really? What if being yourself isn’t up to the expectations of those around you? Should you change in order to conform to the standards?

We all want that 15 minutes of fame whether we admit it to ourselves or not. But not all of us are meant to be in the spotlight. Some of us are to remain in the background, somewhere behind the scenes hiding in the corner covered in darkness. Some of us are just meant to be ordinary and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s just how the world works, right? We can’t all be movie stars, some of us have to be assistants. 

To be honest, I don’t even think I am the main character in my own life and I don’t mind. But sometimes being who I am is still not enough in the eyes of others. I know I don’t have any ambitions of owning a company and becoming a CEO, I’m not smart like that nor do I have the skills to run a business. I can’t sing like 90% of Filipinos and my bones have become too stiff to dance. I’m not even a good writer even if I have a degree in journalism. But what I do know is how to take care of those around me. I know how to care about the people I love. It may not earn me tons of money but at least I know that when I die, one person will remember me for being kind.