Everyone’s life seems to be a dream that is destined to be lost. On this land, we live desperately and pursue what we want desperately, as if all this is the meaning of life. However, when we look back, all the pursuits are nothing more than an endless cycle. We run desperately, and the goal we pursue is always far ahead, but we ourselves have long been exhausted by reality.
I always feel that this world is too harsh on everyone. We live on this land and bear pressure from all sides. We are highly expected by our parents, defined as a certain role by society, and required by people to act according to certain rules, and these things ultimately constitute our lives. However, between these external expectations and responsibilities, we seem to have forgotten to ask ourselves, what is the meaning of life?
My life is very much like this pale land. Every inch of land once carried people’s expectations and dreams, but in the end it was broken and dried up by the wind of time. I spent my childhood on such a barren land. I remember that when I was a child, I often ran to the field at the head of the village, staring at the mountains in the distance, and fantasized about escaping from this land one day to find a brighter future. However, as time went by, I gradually discovered that this land does not allow anyone to escape easily. No matter how you struggle or fight, you can only live and die with it in the end.
I also tried to break free from the shackles of fate. I remember that when I was eighteen years old, I left the small village with full of passion and ideals and went to the city. I used to think that there would be a bigger world and more choices in the city, and I could find my own sky. However, after really entering the city, I realized that the so-called freedom is just another form of bondage. The city’s lights are brilliant, the crowds are bustling, and everything seems to be full of hope, but in fact, everyone is running for a living, and everything is controlled by money and desire. The prosperity of the city is just another more secret cage.
I lived in the city for several years and gradually learned how to adapt to this rhythm. I learned to work step by step, to establish formal relationships with people around me, and to deal with those hypocritical smiles. Gradually, like most people, I was overwhelmed by the trivialities and fatigue of life. Every day was repeated until one day, I suddenly realized that this kind of life was not what I wanted. It was not even my choice, but the shadow cast by fate on me, which was inevitable.
One day, I returned to the familiar little village. The long-lost intimacy and strangeness were intertwined, as if nothing had changed, but everything had changed. The village was still barren, and the field that once made me dream of escaping was still swaying in the wind. However, over the years, I am no longer the boy full of ideals and hopes. I stood on this land with an unspeakable fatigue, looking at the traces smoothed by the years, and suddenly understood a truth: people living in this world are destined to be unable to escape their past.
I know that I will not run away again. Everyone’s life is like an endless long-distance race, the end is always out of reach, and we can only go along this road. We are always pursuing something, pursuing happiness, pursuing success, pursuing things that seem to bring us meaning. However, all the pursuits are ultimately just getting lost again and again. We are all gradually losing ourselves in the endless rush, until finally, we no longer recognize ourselves.
I sat in that field, looking at the sun gradually setting in the distance, with an inexplicable emptiness in my heart. At that moment, I suddenly realized that perhaps people live in this world not to pursue those unattainable dreams, nor to live the way others expect, but to find a way to breathe in this barren land. Everything we do and everything we pursue will eventually be taken away by time, leaving only the traces of our struggles on this land.
What is the purpose of living a lifetime? This is an unanswerable question, or rather, the answer has long been transformed into bits and pieces of our lives with the passage of time. Every failure, every effort, every struggle, seems to have brought no change. We are like grains of sand, floating in the corner of this world with the wind and rain, and finally disappearing in endless time.
Perhaps the real answer is not in the outside world at all, but in our own hearts. In this pale land, all our joys and pains, all our gains and losses, are just a dream. The meaning we pursue is nothing more than an illusion in life, a passing cloud.