Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?

Isn’t it a bittersweet situation, how we leave the accommodating environment of amniotic fluid to be ushered into this world? On one side, as babies in the uterus we love this home, because all we have to do is occupy space and everything we need is provided. No shedding of tears, no hunger, and no bacteria to colonise parts of our bodies. On the other side, we’re phased with a desire for an adventure into what the world outside the womb has to offer us. All the tender love and care; the quest to use our lungs for breathing fresh air; the craving to use our taste buds to munch on delicious meals, and the pursuit of happiness.

In approximately nine months we’re born onto the earth. Inasmuch as there’s a plethora of welcome signals, messages, and emotions, we cry. We’re highly pampered, well-fed with either breast milk, baby formula or both, after some time well-prepared foods, then we start schooling. From then on, we’re occupied with school activities like waking up early and preparing to make it on time so we don’t get penalised. We sit in classes which we may like or not, and come home to a pile of homework to complete. Then we rinse and repeat until a tertiary or high school stage where we’d be deemed knowledgeable and skilled enough to be employed.

If we’re graced, lucky, privileged or we’re very up to the task, we get employed. At that point in life, our mental and physical surroundings shout independence at us. So we detach ourselves and settle alone. Facing reality, chances are most of us wouldn’t get well-paying jobs, but we have to achieve financial independence or freedom regardless. Hence the financial experts advice we get multiple and passive streams of income. To start a business, we need to acquire multiple skills, which involve negotiation, closing sales, acquiring leads, modern marketing, influencing people, management, financial education, customer service, networking, leadership, communication, planning, problem-solving, and a few others.

Upon getting our monthly salary or wages, we’re advised to save at least 10% of it, maintain an emergency fund of three to six months of our total estimated expenses, invest in ourselves by buying books, courses, etc., max out our pension savings, invest in a secondary business or the romanticized “side hustle” or even the stock market, and if we’re Christian, tithe at least 10% of our earnings. Each breath on this earth is so costly. We pay for rent or mortgage, or we invest in a housing project, pay utility bills, spend on transportation, food and groceries, clothes, and the list goes on. I don’t know your opinion, but that’s a lot of sweat and blood.

Even if you sort all these out, life in itself brings so much suffering. It doesn’t really spare anyone; rich or poor. We can’t attain our needs; we don’t pass our exams; we’re not able to graduate; we receive a chain of rejection emails. Sadness, anxiety, and depression creep on us when we didn’t ask for it. Sicknesses befall us. Almost every activity we engage ourselves in is stressful – from schooling to working. We come home with tired bodies left with little time and energy to engage our loved ones in real conversation and things that make us genuinely happy. People are jealous of us, the devil is out to get us, and the answers to our prayers get delayed.

Amidst all these, all I ask myself is, is the juice worth the squeeze? Is it worth it to go through all this struggle? What is the reward we gain for putting up with all the above mentioned and giving ourselves hope to strive for more? What is the end goal?

These days we hear a lot of talk about purpose, which I personally buy into, but is the result of our work which is linked to the purpose really tangible? We establish things and pat ourselves on the back only to die and leave it all in the blink of an eye. The inheritors of these things may decide to discontinue our life’s work or mismanage it. We have technology and continue to create more. It’s insensible to deny that it solves our problems, but it also creates bigger problems that burden us. Generations come and generations go, but the earth really never changes. Our ancestors and predecessors went through a lot to give us the life we enjoy now, yet we have to face life struggles head-on.

I don’t know how many of us can relate, but I know sometimes deep within us, we wish we were not born. Suicide is not an option to consider, so we wake up and accept what life throws at us. If we were given the option to choose a reincarnation or rebirth, most of us would reject it. Sometimes when we think of all these we lose the interest in giving birth, because we wouldn’t wish our struggles on our worst enemies.

I’m not implying we should give up on our individual pursuits, but I have only one question which I want you to help me to answer – is the juice worth the squeeze?