The Struggles of Life

My young nephew paid me a visit the other day. He lives in San Diego and is going to school there. He is 22 years old and at the age where he still sees the world through his young "rose colored glasses" which is not all bad but not all good either.  He said to me that once he graduates, which at the rate he is going will not be until he is 30, that he doesn't want to live in California because it is too expensive and he doesn't want to struggle. Well, I don't think that anyone wants to struggle if given the opportunity to choose. I told him that everyone struggles from time to time and the struggles in life are different as you get older. Successful people struggle too for their success they go through some things too it is not like they come out of the womb rich and successful (unless you come from old money) lol but my point to him was that not to think that if you move out of California that is going to solve all your problems and you will never struggle  and never want for anything because you are out of high priced Cali. I do agree with him that this is an expensive place to live especially in the bay area and other parts of the state. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that rents would be more then a house note, like two or three times more then some people's house note.  I knew that food was bound to go up because it always does and gas too goes up and down. I did agree with him that a tiny apartment should not cost $3k to rent plus another 7k just to get in the place with the deposits and all the other fees that they can think of. Not too mention the perfect credit score they are expecting to boot. I remember back in the 70's when my parents were renting apartments and houses it was simple and the times were simple. We struggled back then too sometimes as a family. My dad got laid off a few jobs and we had to struggle to make ends meet, or my parents did, a few times we had to go to the church and get food for the week and take loans from relatives to pay the rent and the bills. My dad had his car repossessed and when he did find a job he had to walk to work and take the bus. But, we survived and got stronger because of that struggle and many other struggles that we had to go through.

I told him struggling is not necessarily a bad thing. It makes you stronger and wiser in most cases. And in life things beyond your control happen and the life that you day dreamed about at 20 might not be the same life you will be living at 40, I hope that his struggles are few and far in between  and that in the end when all is said and done he has lived the life he wanted and got everything that he needed out of life.