Blissful Ignorance or Harsh Reality

Someone typed seven words into the void: blissful ignorance or harsh reality. That’s all it took.

An algorithm responded and pointed them to me, and suddenly, someone was staring down the same cliff I’ve stood at too many times to count.

You don’t arrive at those words by accident.

You arrive tired. Confused. Maybe a little desperate.

So if that’s you, if this is your breaking point or your awakening, then welcome. This article is for you.

Truth be told, I don’t know the answer to this dilemma myself, but I need to speak on it. It’s what brought you to me. That person wanted to hear my voice speak on this.

Something I’ve battled across what feels like countless lifetimes, only to arrive nowhere, carrying just as much heartache and uncertainty as when I first started.

The question always starts the same: Would I have been better off if I were unaware?
Knowing what I know now has always been the biggest problem.
I know too much. It makes me paranoid. It makes me hesitant. I stress too much sometimes. It’s what inevitably leaves me disappointed with so much in this world.

But what would I be without it?
Is there even such a thing?

It doesn’t feel like a choice I can make, but rather one that was made for me long before I ever thought I had that choice.

That being said — 
Since the choice was already made for me, and likely already made for you too, reader — 
We aren’t blissfully ignorant. Unfortunately.

Had we been, well, we wouldn’t be searching for the right answer.
It just never would’ve come to us.
I imagine that’s how it happens to those who are blissfully ignorant.

The reality is, even if I had been given the choice — 
And this is only with the benefit of hindsight — sure, maybe I might’ve chosen differently.
But at the crossroads of that choice, would’ve started a nagging thought in the back of my mind:

What might happen that I’m not sure about?
What harsh reality is upcoming that I don’t know about?
Do I need to prepare for it?
How much time do I have left until it happens?

So you see, even after I seemingly made the choice, I’d still eventually become too aware. From simply asking too many questions.

So, dear reader, it’s not a matter of choice.

It was only a matter of time.
It’s not this or that.
It’s now or later.

Because the truth is — 
There isn’t a choice.

Some are just born blissfully ignorant.
And others know that the only reality is that it’s harsh.