My personal observation about life.

In ancient India there were 3 important stages in the life of a person,Brramhacharya, Grihastha and Vanaprasthashram.Bramhachary was the education part where the young acolyte was sent to live,study and work in the ashram of the Guru,which was known as the Gurukul.He was given free lodging and boarding and was taught by the Master on all aspects of life.After obtaining adulthood and coming to the end of his studies he went to his home, got married and started providing for his family.All this went on till his children grew up,became independant and started leading their own lives. The parents who had grown old then went into Vanaprasthasram,ie started leading a retired life.Unlike the present day norm, parents cut off all ties with their children,retired to ashrams or hermitages which were run by sages and lead a life of contemplation and meditation.Their needs were taken care of by the the sage and his disciples and in return they contributed to the welfare of the hermitage by doing whatever work they could.Today with so much stress and strain people hardly get any time for themselves and on retirement they spend their time in going to the doctor,taking medicines and expecting their children to take care of them in their old age.In ancient times life was hard but it was simple and extremely fulfilling.

Everything you said is right. Life is boring actually. It all depends in our luck whether we'll be able to enjoy life after retirement from our profession. Sometimes some people don't enjoy life when they get to that age.

What i think is that if you find joy in whatever you do you enjoy your whole life. Now i know a lot of us are stuck with things that they don't like cause of various reason and they don't have a choice. So we should work from the start to find something that we love to do and not just have to do. If we do that we wont feel like the only time for enjoyment is after retirement!

so you feel that there is no enjoyment in life until retirement. What a boring life. I had a profession I would choose one I enjoyed. I would chose one that I would make enough at that I could enjoy an occasional vacation. If life wasn't enjoyable when I had a family and children then life is nothing.

I definitely choose not to think about things that way. The reason that I choose not to think about life as having the only time to really enjoy your life being after retirement is because I think that there are things during each chapter of our lives that are enjoyable for us. Take the last year of my life, for example. It has been very stressful, but I still find enjoyment with spending time with my friends and also spending time with my children. If I couldn't have enjoyment in my life at this period in time, then I really don't think that there would be any point in having children or friends.

I'm glad that you observed your life as time goes. We never see it again instead we have to make a change those remaining that we have. The mistakes we made we shouldn't do it all over again so that we gain insights.As this life continues so are we, we are driven by our desire to establish something before we die. Although life is very limited its not forever. We make the most of it. We make sure we spend some quality time of our love one and we make sure we have open communication to our Almighty God because he is our savior and our redeemer.

If life begins in college, and then when you get a job and a spouse, then I am not living! I didn't go to college. I Will never marry and I Never , Ever wanted children. so I guess I'm already " retired" ?

I think you have the ladder of life pretty well described. The problems we are facing now are that the rungs on that ladder have become sadly out of place. Schooling has becoem much longer and if often intrupted by the security of being supported not extending as long as it should, this causes a person to have to find a way to replace that support. Jobs that fully support you are often only available to those who have already completed schooling, causing others to not only work part time but often more than one job, just to feed and house themselves. This means that schooling comes much later if at all. Marriage and family are also often put further along the age line, either that or much to early. Causing further upset of life's road. Do to the fact that many life's event come later, retirement is also delayed. Often in these times Grandparents find themselves in the role of parents for the second time. One thing you must prepare for in life is the fact that because life goes it's own way ruled by many different factors, there is no way to prepare. Just go with the flow.

There is only two basic areas of life. First is the time we were born and second is the time when we die. But you know what matters? It is how we live between those times. Life is a mystery. You maybe given those assumptions but you can change it if you want it to. You can relax whenever you wanted to. Its a mystery

in my opinion, happiness and health are the most important things of the world. during the study life we didn't have much time to have fun but study hard to get the chance to the college. now i'm totally in charge of myself, so i can do everything i want. during the free time, i read a lot and do some exercise. although i'm single but i have several good friends, so i'm not lonely, and i don't know why we need married.

Wow that's just great, what if you get all sort of illnesses due to working so hard. then by the time you retire, you're either at the hospital or at home in a wheelchair. I guess we have to learn how to set our priorities, it may be the anthem of someone suffering from OCD, but focusing on what will work for you will give you much time to spend for leisure. For instance, working all your life and being an employee will not help you pay your debts. There's probability that half of your retirement pay wiill be spent for this alone. Securing your future by having a reliable insurance plan will solved this problem. Investing in a business will give you a chance to manage and lead a well functioning unit, then you have an option to leave your job. When it comes to getting married, settling down and having kids. You have to have a partner committed to take on or share the responsibility. This is the only way on how to make a relationship work in the first place. And lastly put God in the center of it all and cast your burdens upon him. Then surely everything will work for you.

Hi DoctorDidi.. I have read through your post. I feel I agree with you on certain things & disagree on others. A life of a college student would be the time to develop your friendship network. Generally, it works that way. So, it would be the one where your social life actually begins. Studying will only get you so far in life. I feel that handling a part-time job as well as studying for one's exams, doing assignments etc really develops one as an individual. This allows the student to develop socially & personally. My point is after college, one cannot really spend too much time socializing as one is going to be bogged down with things like - searching for a self fulfilling career, earning & saving money, searching for the perfect life partner, providing for one's family & just building up oneself professionally as well as personally. All of these activities require a lot of energy & a lot of money as well. So, that phase of one's life is pretty stressful, I feel. My life has unfolded on these lines somewhat. But then later, if one can really manage one's time & resources & has a very supporting/loving spouse, this period of life could be very relaxing & "settled"... If these vital things (time, resources, supporting/loving spouse) are missing in one's life then, this period of life could as well be very stressful causing health problems right from one's 20's... Once a person reaches one's old age, there are other stresses that crop up related to one's health, well-being, personal safety & security as we know that we are going to be left to fend for ourselves. Nowadays, kids don't even care about their aged parents. They consider them burdens... In this scenario, one is left to fend for oneself... Of course, exceptions do exist....

We have the same insight. Sometime in my life, I have thought about this. I think it is indeed the natural cycle that we humans have to go through. What keeps bugging me though is the inevitability of the matter. Is it really unavoidable or can we make our choices about it? Are there options? Everyone almost does, but can we make a difference in our lives?

I feel the same. I didn't even have my teenage free time, because my parents expected just too much from me (there's a still-going health problem of mine which I'm pretty sure stems from that era). That's why I had to take a break from university-I mean, I have a job, so it's not like having a one-year siesta, but I have so much more time for myself.