the good citizen

I guess you could say that there is so much that society requires from us. At any age really. From the day we are born, we are little students to become the next great ones of the world. All of us have a purpose in society, whether good or bad. Both equally important in my opinion.

I have now reached the point in my life where society needs me to become like all of the others. I need to become one of the workforce. The monotonous life. 9-5 workdays. Well, not entirely like that. I have just recently gotten a job at Fiddleheads, a small family owned coffee house in Thiensville, WI. Not the typical teenage job, that is to say, but still a small step into conformity. I wonder often if this would make me happy. Conforming into all that society, my parents and family included, expects of me. I'm a free spirited type. And so the answer is an obvious, no.

I think of all that is required of each adult in this wonderful, free, country that I live in:
To be a good law abiding citizen, To be a good citizen in general (which usually involves becoming one of the religious people), To pay taxes, To hold a job, To support a family, To become a senior citizen and steal the money from the young who actually need it, To follow trends (whatever these may be), To support the horrible decisions of our government, etc. This list could go on forever and as it may seem like most of these are common sense and okay things to do, the people who carry out these actions are the problem.

I don't want to become the typical adult in America. Especially not like my parents. I love them and respect them, but their expectations in life for me are to become somewhat of clones of them. And I will tell you that there is no way in hell that I will let my life revolve around the 3 things that theirs do... 1) god 2) money 3)putting on the 'fake face' that comes along with being a 'good citizen'

So my question, and dilemma, is not really about conformity, its just about what I really want to do with my life. Maybe I could be happy getting a regular job and becoming a regular joe. But the probability of that is slim to nothing. Therefore, I will have to come up with something much more spectacular. (I've always had a thing for a little bit of spunk). Maybe I'll just marry my Norwegian man and then live in the forest and become one with nature. That wouldn't really be changing the world in the way I'd hoped, but It'd be doing something I love with the one I love. Well thats the thing about regular jobs too, are they bearable because people who have them either have nobody to come home to at all so they fill their empty lives with this nothingness they call 'productive achievements,' or do they have someone they love to come home to? Well I prefer, of course, the latter. And if I do get stuck as one in the workforce, I will be sure that I am always coming home to the one I love. (If I become a housewife then I'll always be there... I'll write about my dream of being one some other time...)

But, yes, I have begun my dreadful journey into adulthood. Conformity. Working. Well, if can't be all that bad... can it?