The Trophy is Worthless

the journey matters more than the destination

As someone who is currently going through the 'where will I end up' phase and still doing only the bare minimum to stay afloat, I've spent a lot of time thinking about why we go through all that we do. Why do we 'have' to do them all?

I think we know deep down that it is because we want to be happy.

'I'll be happy when I get into a good college.'

'I'll be happy when I get a good job.'

'I'll be happy when I'm rich and have a lot of friends.'

And these do make us happy, but they also teach us to only look forward to the end, when we get to collect the reward, and not to actually enjoy the game.

Let's look at it from a different angle. I've seen countless reels where people are asked 'would you rather be infinitely rich but sad or poor but happy?' and I've also seen countless instances where they choose the money. Take a step back and think about why it is so. We associate money with happiness, and it is valid. We think being rich will keep us happy, and it is definitely possible, but when a direct opportunity is given to us to be happy, why don't we pick that? Isn't that our end goal anyways?

Maybe we instinctively try to make the journey that is our life more interesting because we consider happiness to be an end goal.

'Life is a game' is a phrase we have all seen. Every time we are faced with a difficulty, looking at it like a challenge makes it much easier to handle. An obstacle in a game doesn't depress us; we know it's the point of playing and figure out ways to get ahead of it.

Every single thing we do is something that will come in handy later. Learning and developing skills are like collecting gold coins and mystery boxes that enable us to upgrade our avatar. Taking a break is like giving time for the health bar to refill, failure is a life lost, not the game ending.

We never get mad at a game because level 5 is harder than level 1. We are aware that we made it that far only by beating the previous levels and that we deserve to be there. We know some people are playing ad-free, but we also know that they paid for it. Even more importantly, we know it's possible for us to make it there too.

Someone else might have ten things we don't have. They might be smarter, richer, more talented, more confident, more attractive, more connected.

And we can waste half our game staring at their inventory, while what we should be doing is working on upgrading ours. The worst thing we can do in a racing game is to stop to look at the scoreboard.

We don't need all the power-ups to win anyways.

Life isn't meant to be easy. No one wants to play a game that doesn't pose a challenge. The thrill is making it up the leaderboard, beating our own high score over and over, challenging ourselves, and most importantly finding says to do so in way we enjoy.

Most games that we play don't offer any real rewards. The end of a level only opens up the next one. When all the levels are done and there's nothing left, all we get is a 'Congrats!' message, an image of a trophy, and virtual confetti.

Those were definitely not the reasons for which we played the game.

If we wouldn't play a game solely for the trophy we're given when we're done, why do we treat our actual lives as though the only valuable part is whatever happens at the end?

And similarly, we don't live just to get into the perfect college, land the perfect job, plan the perfect retirement. The real game is somehow finding a way to enjoy organic chemistry and freaking out over job interviews. It's making and losing friendships along the way and understanding people around us. It is exploring as much of the world as it has to offer.

The most spiral-inducing question one could ask themselves is 'why are we alive?', and I don't know how life is supposed to work either, but I know this is how I want to look at mine.

The game doesn't end until the battery dies.