Responsibility...or the lack thereof

“It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.”

Responsibility bothers me.  Not the actual act of being responsible, but the fact that I look at other people who are older than me, or who should be taking on more responsibility than me, and they are refusing to do it.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about the people that try really hard and are making an effort even though sometimes it seems like they’re not– no, I’m talking about the people that should be responsible, that have every reason to be responsible for their life, or for perhaps someone else’s life.  I’m saying that the people who slack off and use compassionate people need a wakeup call.  Take control of your own life!  Don’t expect other people to always take care of you, because life can’t always be that way.  Don’t hide behind whatever you say you believe and insist that it means you are supposed to be taken care of by someone else for the rest of time.  Sometimes the most grown up thing you can do is admit that you alone are responsible for your own life and take control.  Don’t think that you’re not smart enough to continue your education.  Don’t think that you can’t use your talents to help you move along in life.   Don’t assume that you should wait around doing nothing until something happens in your personal life.  It’s up to you to take control and make yourself more accomplished and more well equipped to live your life fully. 

One of the things that I see happening all the time is people who take advantage of others.  Sometimes they take advantage because they literally can’t help themselves, sometimes they take advantage because they’re too lazy to take care of themselves, and sometimes they take advantage because they’re scared of the unknown.  There are many different reasons for why it happens, but I get the most frustrated when I see people who are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves and yet they continue to abuse the people who care for them and give them everything possible.  People like that don’t realize how lucky they are – they don’t appreciate the people bending over backwards to make life comfortable.  And if you don’t appreciate it, if you don’t use the opportunity to enrich your life while being taken care of, if you don’t put effort into helping those helping you…then maybe you don’t deserve the help in the first place.

Be responsible for your life.  Don’t forget to appreciate and thank those who help you while you might not be at your best time of life.  We’re not born perfect, all knowing and capable of landing a high-profile career at age 18, so don’t think that you don’t have to work for anything in life.  You do have to work; you should have to work (if you don’t work, you won’t eat…right?).  If you sit around being lazy and making excuses for why you can’t do things, I hope someone gives you a big wakeup call.  There’s no excuse for laziness, especially when it comes to education and to bettering yourself.  There’s no reason why you shouldn’t work on your education, your knowledge, or create a career for yourself even if you’re waiting for something bigger to happen to you.  Big and great things don’t – and won’t – happen to you if you don’t try to make yourself into a more well-rounded, responsible person.  Be responsible for your own life, because there won’t always be someone else to be responsible for you.  And what’s going to happen when those people taking care of you are gone?  You’re going to regret the fact that you didn’t try to help yourself while they were helping you.