Several key moments and processes benchmark your life. From the time you are born, your parents monitor you to make sure you hit the proper milestones at the appropriate times. You speak your first words, take your first steps, become potty trained, and enter the high society of preschool. Somewhere along the line, you realize you are different from other people. Maybe someone has more friends than you do or is better at reading than you are. Regardless of what it is, at some point in time, you begin to compare yourself to others. You start to ask, “Am I normal? Am I on track?”

In our world, we’re obsessed with being “on track.” Everything is a means to an end. The motivation to score well and do extracurriculars in grade school is to get into a good college. The motivation to score well and do extracurriculars in college is to get into a good job. The motivation for working is to exchange hours for a paycheck. In the meantime, there are culturally appropriate age markers for getting married, having kids, buying a house, and retiring. Are you exhausted yet?