To Hell With Happy Endings, You Are Here For The Story
Set your goals, have hopes, and keep the endgame always in your sights, but recognise and understand that life isn’t about the destination, but the long journey there.
By Beau Taplin
It’s only human nature to daydream of the future, particularly when the present is difficult or dull, to imagine every detail until the fantasy is so real it can almost be felt and touched. All of us pine for the days when our effort and dedication will finally pay off and we at last find the happiness we believe we deserve. For some of us, that could be a little house by the hills with someone we love, and for others, monetary wealth or the career we’ve always wanted.
Whatever the case, the fact of the matter is it’s all a facade, a fiction—a lie we tell ourselves to distract us from the confronting reality that the present is all we really have and we are not making the most of it. The truth is, in the real world, there are no happy endings.
Even if you obtain absolutely everything you’ve ever desired, you’ll still face occasional moments of difficulty and doubt, you’ll still find yourself struggling from time to time. That’s the human condition, that’s a life.
You mustn’t believe what you read or see in the movies, a real life doesn’t wrap itself up tightly in a neat little bow. The end won’t come with a credit roll, a Go West song, and you strolling off into the sunset. There’ll always be something else, another pursuit, or absence you’ll feel the need to fill. Let that empower not dishearten you.
Set your goals, have hopes, and keep the endgame always in your sights, but recognise and understand that life isn’t about the destination, but the long journey there. That every path you navigate and obstacle you overcome is what makes your time here worth something. That in the end, they’ll be what really matters.
You are here and alive in this magnificent universe, with only one chance to make it count. To hell with happy endings, you are here for the story. I hope you make yours a wonderful one.