One Million Dollar$

"What would you do with a million dollars?" he asked.

I thought for a while.
I thought a lot of things that other people might think, like traveling the world, or dropping out of school, or starting my own business, or volunteering in some impoverished place, or buying everything I've ever wanted.

But really, the only thing that came to mind was that maybe I'd quit work so that I could focus on school.

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wouldn't even do that.

I can't just change my entire life because I fell into a bit of money. Money has no effect on the quality of my life. It doesn't change anything.

If, for example, I traveled the world with my million, making the travel itself the focus of my life, wouldn't that mean that the focus of my life, all these years, has been dependent on the acquisition of wealth?

Or say I dropped out of school. Effectively retired, periodically investing my money so as to gather interest, and... what? Would I just sit at home and read books, watch movies, play videogames?

Maybe I could pay for expensive guitar lessons, and invest my future in making music. Well then, my desire to do that, to be that, is false. I have never once made a serious attempt to get guitar lessons, even though I could afford them without a million dollars. Guitar lessons would be an investment of convenience, not of passion. That's not to say that passions cannot change, that a million dollars doesn't have an effect on the landscape, but still I have deeper to dig.

Say I start my own business. An editing/publishing business. I'd be doing what I love, and I wouldn't have to get a degree to get someone to hire me and work my way up. I could just jump into my passion and start NOW. But then, wouldn't I be saying that I had nothing to learn from school? Is that the case? Is my education such an obstruction that I would avoid it at all cost? Is there no worth to it? Of course there is. I am here to learn. That makes these times learning times. In any case, a proper education helps to secure future investments.

Okay, so I'll volunteer, donate to causes, help people around the world. But then again, aren't I making this a passion of convenience, and not of something that I really want? Don't get me wrong - I have a strong desire to help others. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't get satisfaction out of it. No, the even bigger issue here is that to start helping on the condition of a million dollars says at the same time that the path I am on right now is one that cannot do the same. And I refuse to believe that. In the background of my career pursuits there has always been a mind to aid, even so small as to encourage writing and the producing of other various arts. Translations of works can be sent to countries in the aid of improving literacy. And I would be the moving force behind the power of language to both communicate, teach, support, and reach other people. I do not need a million dollars to do this.

And I do not need a million dollars to buy everything that I want. The list is quite short and relatively inexpensive.

So what would I do with a million dollars?

I don't know. I guess I'd start researching people to give it away to. What would you do?