Children

Suddenly, I understand why people have children. It is a psychological need for change. You grow up, you get married, and everything in your life stops changing. Before you had school, and you would look forward to the day you got out of school and into a job in the real world. Before, you had short-lived relationships or were single, on and off. But all of a sudden, everything stops changing. Life becomes routine.

So then you look for change. You start seeking something to look forward to, something exciting, interesting, something different. Then you take the only logical next step as dictated by society, you have children. At that point, you not only have someone to love you and to love, unconditionally, but you also have another life in yours, someone who you will watch changing over the next 18 years at least, and even after that although to a lesser extent. It brings diversity into a life that has begun to be routine.

It all makes sense. Our lives become seemingly pointless. Children give us something, or rather someone, to live for. So in time, no matter how successful I may or may not be, I will probably end up succumbing to the standard. I will find myself in a content, but not exciting marriage, and decide to have children, merely because it is the logical step and there is nowhere further for me to go in my life. Perhaps I envy those who can spend their entire lives and be content, always finding excitement for themselves, in the good company of friends. Alas, I am not one of them. I long for love and intimacy, and at the same time find myself sorrowful and simply bored when life stops changing. A life of normalcy, although not ideal, may be perhaps the best possible option for me, sad as that may be.