To my fellow fresh graduates, the time has come; the real world is making its presence felt, challenging our now seemingly delusional expectations of life after college. We're bored. Trying to find a job seems to be the only course of action right now. It's all part of the trajectory that society -- almost every society -- has laid out for us: Find a job, make money, start a family and with your kids growing up and finishing school the cycle repeats itself. As nice and stable as that may sound, it brings us to the root of our boredom encompassed in the ultimate existential question: Is that it?
We are burdened with "glorious" boredom. Yet, unlike that god of mischief, our goal isn't conquering the known world or subjugating an entire species; It is imagining a better world and freeing the same creatures, including ourselves, of the false idea that this is all there is to it. That this is the only world we will come to know -- unfortunately, us mere mortals cannot summon a horde of frenzied aliens from a portal in the sky to help us out. That would really help make things more exciting.
We are fresh from university -- the haven for diverse ideas. Yet, upon entering the real world, we become exposed to one dominant idea. The traditional path that we are expected to follow. The shift in environment is drastic; this is where the disillusionment kicks in. Expectations -- the endless possibilities that we once thought were laid before us -- do not meet reality. There are infinite possibilities, yes, but there is one -- that conventional course -- that seems to be followed by everyone around us, including most of our parents. And though these people may never explicitly ask you to follow the same path, they have pretty much led by example.
Our boredom arises not from a lack of stimuli, for in the digital age of attention-deficit discord, we have plenty of distractions. Our boredom springs from a lack of imagination, the ability to defy reality, and its dictates by going beyond it. This is extremely difficult. As Loki put it while the crowd knelt before him, subjugation is much simpler. He makes a compelling argument in saying it is "the unspoken truth that we crave for," because it is infinitely easier to follow that conventional path. Making money, getting married, raising kids who will make money, get married and raise kids, it honestly makes for a good story. But so does teaming up to save the world from destruction, refusing to bow down to countless vicious monsters and an all-powerful god.
It's been more than a month since I graduated. And though the lessons I learned are still with me, I cannot deny that day-by-day boredom hits me, chiseling away at the ideas I formed in college -- the notion I can choose my own path, that I can live the life I want. Inch-by-inch, my dreams are quietly shaped to fit everyone's expectations. In a way, reality acts more like fantasy, romanticizing the stable life as ideal. Yet, there is no glorifying boredom. No praise in conforming to what is expected of you. There is more truth in fantasy. There is more glory in a band of grown men -- and a women -- cloaked in ridiculously garish outfits using their equally absurd superpowers to carve their own path, to defy and vanquish a tyrant who once asked the whole world to kneel before him.