WHITE COLLAR DOMESTICATION

Another day of staring blankly at your monitor. You pretend to give a shit about your trivial and pointless job, smiling for peers and higher ups as they make eye contact. As you fidget in your squeaky rolling chair and tuning out the pointless chatter around you, your mind drifts. The thought that you will be doing this for a third of your adult life fills your mouth with a sour taste. You sip your cheap coffee to wash it away and to help you from passing out on your keyboard from monotony. Go ahead and check that clock again. Eventually you will be released from your vocational tomb so you can spend your paltry paycheck. But with every button pushed, e-mail sent and click of the mouse you get a little bit more defeated. You know life is passing by and your dreams are dying.

How does a commoner break free and escape the almighty dollars firm grasp on their throat?

Skill
Use whatever talent you have and go for the big time. Act, sing, dance, paint, fight, whatever. It's dog eat dog, hard as hell, absorbs your life and the odds are against you. A butt ton of other people are trying to do that exact same thing right now and probably have a head start. Plus the masses are fickle and will tire of you so you really have to make your scrap of fame count.

Invent
Come up with a new idea or enhance an existing concept and bring it to life. Be it a world changing device that will revolutionize our society as we know it or the next big waste of money. Patent it and make your mark.

Hustle
Try to tame the stock market. Sell real-estate, pan handle guns to old ladies or even smuggle and sell drugs. Claw, undermine, bullshit and rat your way out. Your morals and values will take a beating but who listens to their conscience anyways.

Luck
You play the idiot tax and pray that your numbers will line up. The chance of hitting a lucky lottery ticket are incredibly slim. But if you have hope and a dollar then keep on plugging in those birthday numbers or scratching away at those little silver shapes. Or you could just head for the casino. Psh.

Settle
Find a job that you actually like and succumb to the machine in your own way. Something that either fits your personality and desires or that makes you happy. Love animals? Be a vet or groomer. Love food? Go be a chef or food critic. Love video games? Go be a interactive designer or tester. You might counter that you already enjoy what you do for a living. Question is though, do you actually like your job or have you just been doing it so long that it's routine and easy.

Age
The only option that is inevitable and doesn't factor in chance. Time won't detour from it's slow yet relentless assault on your rotting tissues. Your mind and body will be the deciding factor on when you are done tediously slaving away. When you are either too feeble or physically broken enough to work, you are discarded. But before you're cast aside you can save money, pay off debts and be frugal. Play it right and don't buy dumb shit you don't need.

So which is best? How the hell should I know?! I still work a white collar job and live from paycheck to paycheck. But even if I never wrestle loose, I hope you make it out of the box. One of us needs to truly live. Just be sure and send me a post card from Zihuatanejo.