It's obvious to me something in my brain as of late has me evaluating my life and where I now stand in it. I think it may have all started when the Empty-Nest thing kicked in within the last two years. When the youngest kids graduated high school Theresa and I were left kinda looking at each other saying, "Now What?". And this upcoming week both girls will head back off to college.
I'm an "18 and Out" guy. You graduate high school, and you either go off to college, for me preferably a Community College where you learn a trade and get a license, or start working in a career. Yes, you should have an idea what you want to do by the time you're 18. Even if that changes you should have a direction you want to go. As far as a child coming back to the nest? Well of course, if they've had some catastrophic event or need a place to lay their head as they work their life plan. There's no doubt that gettin' going these days is harder, well at least more expensive, then it was when we got going. Well, maybe. I remember living in squalor with a bunch of guys in my first apartment in Newark at the age of 19. What we settled for back then is definitely not what todays youth think they should have to endure this days.
So couple empty-nesting with a re-evaluation of finances and health and I am left really asking myself, "What am I doing?", and collectively with Theresa, "What are we doing?". I can't help but always coming back to living in New Jersey, and the real estate taxes we pay, and for what? We just hit $18,000 per year, and while it's embarrassing, why would it be, to admit it, everyone else I know is over the $12,000 mark. If you owe your homestead outright then maybe it's palatable, but if you're still all mortgaged up then the monthly nut just keeps just going up. And then there's the cost of everything and I don't need to run it down here. I don't know what inflation really means and depending on who you talk to it's either good or bad right now, but everyday folks don't see it in their bank accounts.
And while costs go up everywhere and it's harder to live day to day a quick glance of the parking lots at the airports, restaurants, and tourist hot spots tells a different story. People still have to live and enjoy life or otherwise what's the sense of living. $200 quick dinners out and $10,000 vacations are just what it is these days. In a $10,000 vacation I mean a trip on a plane with a family of four, or like two days in Disney World.
I recently talked about getting hooked into social media and "Reels" and spending my valuable time looking at what other people are doing. It's not good. I think it can have a negative effect on one's mental health. Yes, it's nice to see how your friends and buds are doing in that one second snapshot of their lives, but does it lead to feelings of envy and jealousy? I think it can. "Look at how he's doing", "He's buying another boat or truck", "They're away again", "That's their house", "Their kids are doing so well". As they always say you never really know what's going behind closed doors and the day to day happenings in anyones life, no matter how much they put it out there.
That led me to drop the endless clicks on looking into other peoples doings and to pick up the remote the other night and look for a movie to watch. A few years back I watched "Afterlife" created by actor and comedian Ricky Gervais. I really like this guy and didn't even know him like others do because I've never watched an episode of "The Office" before. I guess that was his first plunge into super stardom. But I like Gervais, I've seen him hosting those stupid award shows, doing stand-up, and in this series doing some serious acting. If you haven't seen it then I recommend you watch it.
