Starting this Blog. And Restarting My Life.

The cubicle life.

The phase of life that most people dislike, but believe they must tolerate.

I’m no different; I dislike my job.

No, scratch that. I hate my job.

I hate the early morning commutes. The 9 hours a day I spend crunching numbers at my desk and feeling totally unenthusiastic about. The pointless meetings. The forced small talk. The mindless gossiping. The stifling inflexibilities. The late evening commutes back home, trapped in between a truckload of other sweaty and unhappy people.

The dread that starts mounting every single time Sunday evening rolls around. Knowing that the cycle repeats itself on Monday again is absolutely terrifying.

But I guess that’s the cubicle life.

Every day consists of the same thing. Sit in a cubicle. Go home. Cubicle. Home. Cubicle. Home. After a while, the days and weeks and months start blurring together.

I look back on my past year and ask myself, what have I done that I’m proud of?

My answer scares the hell out of me. Nothing.

I’ve done nothing. Except sit in a cubicle. Which is basically nothing.

Is this what it’s like to live? I can’t accept this – it’s driving me a little crazy.

But I guess that’s what the cubicle life does to some of us.

A cubicle worker. That’s all I am right now.

It wasn’t who I used to be. It wasn’t who I was meant to be. But a series of unfortunate events led me to this. (I’ll get into that another day.) Though I don’t regret the decisions I’ve made, I know the road ahead won’t be paved. And though I know my future life would be more than just this cubicle, I need the money right now, so I must accept that I have to be an obedient corporate drone for a little while longer.

But I don’t want to be a cubicle worker for the rest of my life. To me, that’s just not a life worth living.

Many of us sell our souls when we enter the cubicle. A few lucky ones would love their jobs, but the majority of us would dislike (or even hate) our jobs.

Day in, day out, we do the exact same thing. We push papers and crunch numbers for some large corporation. We spend 5 out of 7 days a week struggling to get out of bed. Loathing our commutes. Hating our office jobs. Daydreaming about things we would rather be doing. Lusting about places we would rather be at.

But instead, 5 out of 7 days a week, we live and breathe the cubicle life

For many of us, that’s all we are. Office slaves. Cubicle workers. Corporate drones.

We don’t like it. Not one bit. But we do it. Because we need whatever peanuts they pay us to survive.

But the defiant streak in me can’t accept that. I can’t accept being just another office worker.

I lose a significant chunk of my time to the cubicle life every single day. Each day that goes by, I feel empty. I do nothing meaningful. Nothing truly fulfilling or satisfying.

Then, one fine day a few months ago, I came across the world of blogging by chance. I learnt how blogging can change your life if you were willing to work hard for it. I learnt about the opportunities that blogging can open. It blew my mind.

So I decided to start a blog. I researched website hosts. I browsed blog themes. I designed my logo. I’m writing this post. I’m finally doing something that I want to do.

And it all makes me feel so alive.

I’ll be damned if I let another day slip by without doing something that makes my heart sing. One year from now, I want to be able to look back on my past year and actually have something to be proud of. Not just sitting in an office and pushing paper.

Starting this blog was a relatively easy decision.

I love writing. I used to write short stories in my free time, mostly about dates with my girlfriend. I never published any of them though, I only sent them to my girlfriend for her reading pleasure.

It didn’t take me writing many stories to realise that writing makes me feel alive. And when I do complete a piece, I would sit back and admire my handiwork. I feel fulfilled. Happy.

I also love personal finance and life improvement. I discovered the concept of “Financially Independent, Retire Early (FIRE)” a few months ago. Then I fell in love with the concept. I spent so much of my free time obsessively browsing personal finance blogs. I have tonnes of ideas percolating in my head.

So I started this blog to write about personal finance and life improvement. It just made absolute sense.

Ultimately, this is what it all boils down to.

I am working my hardest to save as much as possible right now. And over the next couple of years while I bust my ass at my cubicle, I will continue doing the same.

But when I quit my job, that stable income’s going to disappear altogether. And I’ll need money. We all need money to survive. We need a place to sleep. Food to eat. Water to drink. Medicine to cure ailments. It’s nearly impossible to live without any money.

I’m hoping that this blog will my key to a new life. Maybe I could even make some money from this (although that seems like an impossible dream right now). Or I could use this blog as proof of my writing abilities to start my freelance career. Or I could network with people in the same community that would open even more opportunities.

A possible key. To restarting my life.

What was that old saying again? If there’s something you don’t like about your life right now, go out and change it. Do something to change your current situation. Re-write your life’s story. Don’t sit around waiting for luck to come finding you. Don’t wait around hoping for some miracle to happen. Nothing’s going to fall into your lap unless you’re willing to work for it.

So I’m going to work for it. I’m going to go out in this big blogging world and try to make the best out of it. I’m going to grasp the opportunities that come my way with every fibre of my being.

And hopefully, in a few years’ time, I’d be free of my corporate chains.

I want to be unburdened by the constraints of the cubicle life. I want a taste of that freedom. I want to escape this damned cubicle life.

So I’m going to restart my life. I’m going to re-write my life’s story.

See you on the other side,
Liz