What are you doing with your life?
The one thing we all appreciate when struggling to figure out our life’s path is when someone constantly asks if we’ve figured it out yet.
Criticism and cynicism can often puncture your self-confidence, leading you to question if your dreams are worth pursuing at all.
In “What Are You Doing with Your Life?”, bedroom-based singer-songwriter Rhyen talks about the pressures of growing up and the difficulties of pursuing your dreams in a world that does not support it.
The song opens with a guitar riff that sounds like a typical folk lick sped-up. Its swift alternating notes immediately engage the listener.
Rhyen’s gentle, mellow vocals evince a quiet desperation caused by the skepticism around him.
The pressure to grow up is drawing near,
the walls are closing in.
An anxious boy caught in the crowd,
perhaps I’m just not ready to fit in.
There is an anxiety that accompanies adulthood; the uncertainty of the future can hurry you into a career you don’t even like for a feeling of security.
But what if you’re a dreamer?
Sometimes I feel the weight
of the world in my mind,
but the patient dreamer weathers the storm.
They say what you’re doing is a waste of time.
The empty words pass through my head,
I’ll sail across the ocean instead.
The expectations of those around you are a weight you carry with you, gradually increasing as you age in your adulthood.
But if you’re a dreamer, the load you bear is lightened by doing what you’re passionate about. For them it’s a waste of time, but for you, there’s nothing else you’d rather do.
Rhyen’s persistent guitar riff alters a little here after the last line of the chorus. He plays the same riff with the addition of a few higher notes, giving it a more upbeat melody. It reflects Rhyen’s happiness in doing what he loves the most.
Maybe I’m a fool
throwing my body to the wolves,
but the open water is where I belong.
From the outside it’s bizarre,
willing to journey this far,
but regret can come to those who wait too long.
When you’re surrounded by pressure and cynicism, self-doubt can creep into your mind. It can feel like you’re taking a huge, unnecessary risk to pursue your passion in life.
But that’s where you belong.
Everything else seems mundane and trivial compared to what you love the most. And, if you succumb to the pressure around you and delay your dreams, you may end up with a mind full of what-ifs and a heart full of regret.
Fearing the danger I won’t make it to the end,
but the fall will help me understand
that maybe my ship was never meant to fly,
but I’d rather take the fall than never try.
One shortcoming of this song is the confusion of clichés and metaphors in the lyrics. For instance, here he uses “fall” as a symbol of failure, but he then transitions to a metaphor of his passion as a “ship”. The word “sinking” instead of “fall’ would have made his sentiment here more coherent.
Nonetheless, it’s evident that he believes in pursuing your dreams even if it ends in failure, rather than not trying at all.
They ask what you’re doing with your life.
The empty words pass through my head,
I’ll sail across the ocean instead.
When people ask the irritating, banal question “What are you doing with your life?”, they’re implying that you’re currently not doing anything of worth. As Rhyen suggests, when this happens, it’s best to shrug these words off and utilize their cynicism as a motivational tool. There may be times in your life where you’ll have no idea what you’re doing. You’ll feel like everyone else already has their whole life figured out, but that’s not always the case. It’s important to understand that most of us go through periods of uncertainty in life, and that’s ok.
Contrary to what everyone believes, the question “What are you doing with your life?” doesn’t need an answer.
As the internet once told me, you do you.
