Right, this will be the very first rant on the topic; Life. I apologise for such a shit topic but I feel rather down, confused and possibly crippled (mentally, anywho).

Let us begin on what human beings consider as a perfect life, shall we?
The topic on life has been overjudged. I believe this fact due to my life being reasonably disappointing; despite the amount of things going on it it at any one time. A perfect life consists of a perfect family. A perfect family is a supernatural thing, for there is no such thing. It would have to involve no arguments, brawls, yelling, screaming, attacking, ect. The classic family these days are broke into stereotypes. We have currently in this time and era; Chavs, Goths, Emos, Individualists (will explain), Skaters, ect. Note that Emo's and Skaters are normally quite similiar, anywho.
One family can split quite badly. I should know, it's happening with mine. Here's an example; When I was in school, I would constantly look out for my little sister, since I didn't want anything bad to happen to her. This would be classed as a brotherly thing which would be greatly admired by possible others. Now, the summer holiday has just finished and my little sister has finished her first year. Who has she met on her holidays? Chavs. Lots of chavs. And does she like them? Yes. I now have a firm loathing of my little sister, despite of all the effort I placed into her to keep her 'pure'.
That could be classed as one example of many, as I cannot wish myself to do such a thing and bore your minds with... Well, bore.
Now, let's us push the boundaries of life, let's say... Several months forward in time.
I'll still be living in this house since I'll be at college still, attempting to please my family with hard work (understatement) and the such. I am... 5 miles from my old school which is where my little sister is currently at. What am I do if she starts smoking? What am I to do if she begins taking drugs, or gets into the sexual business before she even should? I won't be able to do anything, since all I gave her was advice; if she's going to piss on it and walk away it's her choice. It'll most likely break the family appart.

See, a perfect family cannot exist. A perfect life, however, can - depending on the amount of quality and standard of life. The way a life works is how the mind reacts to most things around them (or for spiritual people, as myself, the soul instead). If the mind/soul reacts to... Let's say, a very well paying job and it has brilliant standards and such but it'll only give you a mildly impressive quality of life; yet the standard of life will sky-rocket.
Now, let's take another example. As one may suggest, a very good career with fun as well as work moulded into it (i.e. GW). Now, a job where you can socialise, move around, talk, smile, converse is better than any massively payed job; in my honest and completely securse opinion as many would deny it and say it was shit. A way this also benefits the person is the fact that if staff can socialise with other staff AND costumers, it'll create a better environment and a more mind/soul comforting zone where people can relax, enjoy and become, in all results, better people. Now, that is a perfect life. Work for happiness, not work for money.

Onto the actual topic then...
How does a life work? Well, you add sanity into the equation. Yes, it isn't everyone around you that makes you suffer, it is your SANITY and your EMOTIONS that cause you to feel like shit. This comes into the phrase of emos and possibly individualists. Emos, as one places, are completely brilliant at making themselve feel shit; and will go to certain steeps to go further. A few cuts here and there, a few drops of blood, a few scars to show off or hide and a quick fag. Excellent combination there. What are they doing to their life then? Well, first of all they're killing themselve with the blood dropping and skin slicing. Also, they're smoking (I apologise if this affends smokers). In basic honesty, I've lost several people to smoking, and the reason why? No, they didn't die of lung cancer or heart disease; they died of what was going on up there. Each cigarette they smoked pushed their friends away, and eventually themselves. This places the fact why most emos smoke. If attention is desired, cut yourself and show the world you life-fluid. If you seek none, smoke. Basically placed and perfected over time. Mostly of all things, an emo's life is short but mostly and basically well placed. They're depressed, therefore it is THEIR choice if they want to do it; as words of disencouragement would push them over the barrier.

Right. Chavs. In MY world, Chavs ruin, destroy and burn it. And they used fuel to help them. They pollute what we used to call home. They'd pleasantly mug, burgle and rob ANYONE/THING. They have a life. They used it. If a Chav was to live to bear offspring (yes, they're that disgusting I'm calling them insects), I would pleasantly rend the child out of the mother and strangle it with its own Umbolical Chord (apologies for spelling, thanks for the help anywho Dar) and watch it scream. Such loathing and hate filled emotion shouldn't be surpressed - they made us suffer in return. Chavs, in society, should be shunned by it. No doubt they already are. Let's push the years forward so that the 11 year olds that happen to be shop-lifting, smoking, baby-carrying whores are actually old enough to live a life. Where are they? Either in hospital getting organs replaced or coughing up their life onto the cold pavement before them; only to be kicked in the face by reality.

Individualists. In my own opinion, individualists are the best form of human. Surely, EVERYONE could call themselves an individualist, but they probably don't understand/know/realise what one is. An individualist is a person who follows no-one. They only follow themselves. These are the smartest people. Normally an individualist is able to hide in other stereotyped groups but not show their true colours, try and imagine a hoard of black ants and there's one grey one. No-one notices, apart from themself. Normally, an individualist would be a break-away from the groups of society and have managed to breath in their own lungs; instead of others. There may be other names for these types of people, but individualists have a better a chance of living than any other group, since even to them, they are still a group - yet they work in a much bigger, comfortable hive. To gain in life, individualists are the calm people, the ones that the elderly ask for help finding something in a shop, for example. They are the ones who sit idle on a desk waiting for a certain phone call. They are the NORMAL humans, and in all honesty, I believe that everyone on this website is too.

Shit, I've gone off topic...
The topic on life in this common age has sickened me. Relationships, as for most people never, ever work. I have several severe cases of proof. My first beloved was named Flora. Beautiful girl, great attitude, would eventually or even manage to make a suitable life with. Surely, everyone has ups and days along the way but still, she would of made it through; with or without my help. Now the problem. She didn't live past her 10th birthday. For being a 10 year old at the time, I was always in tears. Everything reminded me of her, and yet, yet she seemed happier. Her grave would always be clean whenever I went to see it. This can prove how fickle, how disruptive life can actually be. Mostly, no-one will ever get the same thing happen to theirs, and I really do hope you lot a happy love-life/lives. If I was a little older, during the depressing times of Secondary School, I doubt I'd be typing this. See how well life can preserve those by hurting them way before?

Next part. Pain. Pain preserves life. It sounds strange but hear me out. How would you know you're alive without feeling pain inside you, be it mentally or physically, or even spiritually (which believe me, feels like shit)? To become one with life you have to embrace the constant thought of death, I know it sounds completely shit but this is what I believe; you have opinions, share or keep.

((*sigh*.. Sorry guys, needed to let it out. Thank you for your time and I apologise if I wasted it.))

Heh, all I can say is, life's gonna look up. Sure, you can live with all the depressing concepts of mortality and endless failure. With all the knowledge of how crap things are and how they'll never get any better and yada yada yada.

I much prefer to accept that for reality and then look for the better parts of things. It really depends on your attitude and where you look. A lot of people inadvertantly ruin things for themselves and sometimes others (if they give voice to their feelings, and/or act mopey) by dwelling on the bad side of things. As long as you keep looking at the bad stuff, you will never ever enjoy life. Simply because you found something bad, and because there was a bad thing, it sucked.

Yeah, I hear you, you have had some pretty crap stuff hit ya. It happens to all of us, by my own standards, I've had a good life so far. It's been one full of experience in the middle of one of the poorest places in the world. And I could dwell on all the bad stuff, there was plenty, or I can dwell on the good stuff. Of which there was plenty too. In fact, I can turn the bad stuff around because I can say I learned valuable lessons from it, even though I hated every minute of it.

Life's horrible only as long as you let it be horrible. Bad stuff happens to everybody, it's a fact of our fallen world. The unspoken law that says your car will break down in the middle of the desert with nowhere to go for days will act upon even the most prepared person. The fact of the matter is, you're alive! And as long as you're alive, you can leave your mark on the world. You can do stuff that says "Here was this person. They did this." You can step forward with the knowledge that you can always do something and you can always find a good thing, even in the worst of situations.

And you can be assured that, if your life was/is crap, then some elses will be worse. And they are getting along. Happiness can come regardless of circumstance or upbringing. Sadness comes too. But to take a positive outlook on things, your attitude must be a positive one. I know it sounds dumb, but if you try to find the good in things, no matter how bad they are, if you try to find that little smidgen of light, it makes things a whole lot better. Change the world around you, but for positive change to happen, the source must be positive. Life might be crap. But I assure you, it WILL get better. And you are the only person standing between you and a better life.

And as long as you believe things are good. Then things are good. No matter how crap.

Dunno, that's just what I've learned. Things have been pretty crap, but as long as I looked for the good in things, or clung to the hope that things would get better. They inevitably did.

Now I look for the good in everything, or at least try to understand things better. Like those chavs, or emos you talked about. Sure, you can bottle them up nicely and package them as evil. But your perspective changes drastically when you actually understand things from their side. The world ain't black and white. It's shades of grey. And them more grey you know and understand, the better you'll do.