Should I Grind Or Live My Life?

Ye age-old question: should I work day in day out to make lotsa moolah, or do I buy those festival tickets? Do I purchase that flight or get rid of my shift for that party? Hmm. 🧐

My best friend watched her mum die from a brain aneurism. You're probably taken aback, I mean man, what a way to start this article. But that's how sudden life can be. One minute, my friend and her mum were laughing, the next, her mum fainted and never woke up. 

When I think about this question, weighing up working or living life, I think of my best friend. She said to me recently that so many people take life for granted. 

I'd taken life for granted. See, I have pretty big career dreams. My time at uni was spent planning how I'd "make it" in the industry. I'd pressure myself to network, to grind, to gain experience. 

The grind is of course admirable. But when I graduated uni last year and looked at myself in the mirror wearing the black cap and gown, I realised: sh*t. I'm so damn young. I don't have to have my whole career exactly mapped out just yet. In fact, am I even ready to dive into the world of 9-5 work? What do I really want to do?

I had been swept up in the notion that I needed to have bucket tonnes of money or insane success to be happy. I mean, we're taught to work hard. Work fast. Work overtime. Grind grind grind. Save save save. Find success. Climb the ladder. And I bought into it. Almost. On graduation day, I bought the cheapest one-way tickets I could find to Berlin. A bit of a 180-degree moment.

What was I gonna remember on my deathbed? Working 9-5? The commute to work? Overtime hours? 

Or would I remember dancing in a mosh? Walking around Europe? Pissing myself from laughing with mates?...

My best friend doesn't remember her mum by how much money she had, or her job. Instead, she tells stories of her trip to Morocco, of the time she met Mick Jagger, of the time she broke her leg whilst hanging off a balcony drunk, trying to impress a guy.

Money or memories? What's more important? I get it, sometimes, we really do need to grind. When I moved to Sydney for uni, broke as anything, I worked three jobs to pay rent. But even then, you best believe I'd take time off for trips away, parties, dinner nights and festivals.

My point here is: balance is your friend. The pendulum had swung far too left and all I could think about was career, career, career. Now, I'm travelling, just to let it swing right for a hot minute. 

Trust me, I still wanna send it in my career, but I also wanna live too.

My friend always says to me that time is precious. Work and money is obviously important, but memories are priceless.