Everybody's on a "journey"
I find myself increasingly marooned in a world where nobody simply goes to the shops or gets a promotion anymore. Instead, they embark upon a journey. This tiresome word has crept into our everyday vocabulary like a damp rot, turning the mundane realities of human existence into a series of poorly scripted epic poems. It's everywhere. You cannot switch on the television without some weeping contestant declaring that their ability to bake a slightly less soggy biscuit has been an emotional journey.
The true culprit behind this nonsense is our modern obsession with self-importance. We have become entirely incapable of accepting that life is largely made up of routine, minor mishaps, and rather dull stretches of waiting for things to happen. To admit that one is simply muddling through life is apparently too bleak a prospect to face. Therefore, we must elevate our daily trundles into grand, transformative odysseys. If you lose a bit of weight, you have not merely stopped eating so many pies. You have completed a profound health journey. If you manage to hold down a job for more than six months without insulting your employer, it's a career journey.
This linguistic inflation does something quite dangerous to our collective sanity. By treating every minor personal development as a spiritual quest, we lose all sense of perspective. It creates a ridiculous expectation that every moment of our lives must have a deeper narrative arc. We begin to view our flaws not as inconveniences or bad habits, but as dramatic hurdles placed in our path by destiny. It's an utterly exhausting way to live, and it strips away the vital coping mechanism of self-deprecating humour.
If everything is a journey, then presumably there must be a grand destination at the end of it. Yet the people who use this word most fervently never seem to arrive anywhere. They remain perpetually in transit, constantly discovering things about themselves that anyone with an ounce of common sense could have told them in five minutes.
Let us please call a halt to this therapeutic drivel. You have not been on a journey. You have merely had a bit of a rough patch, or perhaps you have finally learned how to manage your bank account.
Life is not a scenic voyage toward enlightenment. It is an unpredictable series of minor farces, administrative errors, and occasional moments of joy. We should all pack our bags, get out of the metaphor, and try walking on solid ground for a change.