A too boring life to be a role model

How can I explain to a teenager that going to school is necessary in order to get a good life?
How can I demonstrate what a good life is and a bad one?
How can I make it clear that there will be more options in life with an education?
How can I demonstrate what options there will be and what difference they will make?
How can I persuade anyone to follow in my footsteps and to study in order to get an interesting job?
I don't live a particularly interesting life. I always work. I don't have a high salary. I don't live fancy.
I spend my spare time washing, cleaning and cooking. I spend some of my time trying to get in shape. I've got a vacation a few weeks a year, and occasionally I spend a week abroad in another climate. Sometimes I go out and have fun but that's not very often. I'm getting older.
I'm definitely not a good role model for a teen ager.
"You live a shitty life. Why would I like to be like you?"

Bright and easy? Fool!

For a while I got the impression that life was bright and easy. Well, I just wasn't aware of the problems.
I'm sure everybody who hears about it, has got a solution. How many people did I tell? How many people did they tell. So how many people know about the issue. Must be plenty of solutions by now. Never mind people.

Who said life should be bright and easy?

Don't worry stay cool

"All those things that you are afraid of will eventually happen. Most things turn out to be less scary than you imagined, and the rest you didn't know anything about. So don't worry, just stay cool."

Too late to travel

I had a plan. To travel. My plan was to show my children the world. It didn't happen.
If you ask them they think we have been traveling, because we did some traveling in Europe. I always thought we would do the rest of the world some other time. Oh, but yes I forget, we were in Asia once.

Why didn't I travel? What did I wait for? I think I waited for a parter to show up, because I didn't want to take them to unknown places that could be unsafe. Well, guess I'm a coward.

And I hate charter. Isn't group journeys an insult to a grown up intelligent person? To be treated like sheep. To be brought somewhere, put somewhere, told something and even entertained. All you can do is to enjoy it or to complain. No room for own decision except when you want to go to sleep, what on the menu you want to eat and when to take a bath.

I did teach my children something. I did teach them that traveling is an adventure and you have all the freedom in the world to decide where to stay, where to eat, where to go, what to do, and what to see. One of my children went on a journey with a friends family. When he came back he was surprised that they didn't explore anything, not even the backside of the hotel. He said that I had taught them to at least explore the neighborhood and that he appreciated that. Or maybe he just wanted to make me happy.

However. Now it's too late. If I ask if they want to travel somewhere they say "with you?".

I'm afraid I'll wake up one day and find out that I didn't live, because I was waiting to find a man. And then it will be too late. Doesn't seem like a good plan, does it?