Problems Are Like a Goldfish

Problems are like a goldfish.
Once, when I was younger, my uncle told me
that a goldfish grows
just as big as its habitat allows it.
A goldfish in a fish tank is small, but
put it into a pond
and now you have a big goldfish, who has grown to take up all the space it can.
(I used to wonder at the size of a goldfish could it survive the ocean.)
Now, whether or not this is true
if life is our pond
then our problems are like a goldfish.
No matter how much we have
how much money, how many friends,
how big our pond is,
our problems expand to occupy the same proportion of space.
A person who has enough feels that their problems are just as pressing
as someone who has little,
though they may worry about different things.
A person with plenty might worry more about friendships, dating, how they look, grades, and curfews,
while someone with little might worry more about finding work, feeding the family and affording clothes.
Yet if life is our pond
then our problems are like a goldfish,
so the seemingly mundane worries of petty fights and C’s and getting phones taken away
grow to take up the same portion of space in that person’s big pond
as the worries of empty pantries and debt and not being able to pay rent do in someone else’s small pond.
We experience this in ourselves as our ponds grow and shrink.
Someone who works hard and secures a well-paying job
after a childhood of living in poverty
often finds that their life is no less turbulent than it was before.
Their pond has expanded,
but so has their goldfish.
Likewise, someone who had a lot but lost it and now has little
looks back on their big pond wistfully, thinking about how their current goldfish
would be so small in such a large habitat.
But they have forgotten that if life is a pond,
then our problems are like a goldfish,
and their problems will expand to fill their pond
no matter what kind of life they live.