Resolutions & Revelations

"There is nothing you cannot accomplish if you set your mind towards it. If it didn't happen, you didn't want it badly enough."

As the ball makes it descent in New York City tonight our heads also fill with hope. Hope filled with excitement for the unknown; and hope for a seemingly better future to come.

In order to make this year better, we need to first look back on this past one. We need to look at our achievements and more importantly we need to look at our failures. What did we do wrong and what can we do to make sure it never happens again?

It is arguably so that our failures are a vital part to our success. If you are looking back on this past year and cannot find failures readily available than you should probably stop reading and get moving because you just discovered your first resolution: "swing the allegorical baseball bat of life more." I mean come on, even the pro's only bat on average about a .300, leaving them with 7/10 failed attempts at bat on a professional level.

The good news is that you have already made the first move. By envisioning and anticipating this better future you have already taken a step towards making it happen. Now simply enough it just needs to be done. A good friend of mine has once told me that: if we can approach every day with the fervor and excitement as we have today, than there is nothing that we cannot do tomorrow.

Take some time to reflect on all the things you can be grateful for at some point tonight because no matter what you think, there is something we are blessed to have. Whether it's our health, our family, or our friends or whether its simply having a choice we are very lucky and most of the time we do not know it.

Secondly, set some goals. Both personal/self goals and entrepreneurial/income goals. Resolutions are only cliche if you don't intend to try and do them.

New Years Eve is about starting the year with people you care about above everything else. Start this year right, and start it quick, because as fast as it took you to read this post it will already be time to have this conversation again.

Here is to the new year, and another chance to get right.

Dorian

In light of my recent post, I will add this. Although, objectively, one may not seem important, keep this in mind:

A smart man once said, "Live everyday as if it is your last and eventually you will be right".

Life is short. One of the most powerful intellectual tools is to know that you will absolutely die. You have no option. It is the only destination that we all share. Death will come with certainly and will seem to have arrived much more quickly than you can imagine now. I have had plenty of discomfort in realizing this fact, but it has also helped me greatly. Steve Jobs spoke about this in a speech of his and I couldn't agree more. Realizing that you are going to die certainly and relatively soon will help you greatly in life. Because, once you realize this almost everything -- all external expectations, pride, and fear of failure and embarrassment disappear in the face of death leaving only what is important.

Steve Jobs says, "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose. You are already naked, there is no reason not to follow your heart."

He goes on to say, "No one has ever escaped death and that is as it should be. Because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Someday very soon you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your inner voice. Most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you want to become. Everything else is secondary."

To the journey,
Soccer-tease

You Are Not That Important

From the time we were born, we have been told that we are special. We have been told we can be whatever we want. The truth is that there are 6.7 billion people in this world. In 1988, when I was born, there were 5.1 billion people in the world. A 20 percent increase in the world population since I was born. Now, I've never seen 7 billion of anything so it is hard to conceive that many unique individuals in existence. People live and people pass away. Most people won't even know when you pass away.

Where am I going with this? Well, in today's society we are obsessed with things that make us feel important. For instance, many people are now using twitter, but why? Perhaps for a good laugh. Maybe to keep up with old friends. I would like to propose that the fascination with twitter and other social media sites is it forces others to take notice of your thoughts and daily activities. Status updates, tweets, and wall posts are just a way of getting your opinion or thoughts out to your social circle. You would never hear anyone say directly to you half of the things they tweet or put on their status. In all honesty, no one gives a damn if you "raged last night" or if you are studying or your opinion on anything. It's those that are close to you that really care.

This seems pretty drab, but my point is coming around. In 1776, there were about 2.5 million Americans and 800 million in the world. You have less of an opportunity to matter to society now than ever before. The odds are, you will never be important. Here is the catch. No one's opinion alone is important. After all, opinions have no clout unless others agree and exchange the information. It is all about the small interactions you have everyday with the people that are important in your life. This chain of interactions is what causes the real movements in the world. There must always be a leader, someone that seems to be the important one. Truly, it is everyone of us in this huge network of nobodies. Throw your conceit out the window and make the changes you seek through the people you meet everyday. You don't have to be a Martin Luther King Jr. or an Albert Einstein to take part in changing the world.

And when you look back on life, like looking back after you climbed a mountain. You will remember each step you took along the way, not the fact that you actually made it to the top.

Soccer-tease

Real recognize Real

"The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created--created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating.”- John Schaar

Some people just get it.

There is such a bigger picture out there.... if you can take a step back you can really appreciate how beautiful and great it is. So great and so vivid in fact, that you don't want to waste any time with people who can't see what you see; or you want to use all your time helping them catch up.

Consciousness or the way we think flows down a one way river. It can only grow. Its like learning to read. As a child before you could read you would see words and they would be merely symbols to you, but now when we look at words we can't help but perceive and read them, and more so understand them. When a person reaches a new level of awareness you can feel it as divinely as a cold swig of water feels running all the way down your esophagus after exercise on a hot summer day. You look at the trees differently, a sunset maybe....as though somehow you never noticed quite how beautiful it actually is, and continues to be every single day. You say yes more....because the more you do, the more you learn. We are always learning. You have more patience because you realize nothing is perfect. You learn that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing right. You dream to pretend that we can actually even imagine a place where we are whole and care free and our thoughts align with our actions. You listen to others more because you realize they are the same as you....

Lost

I don't really have the answers. I just know what I know. The best part of all of this, is that the bigger your conscious gets, the more aware you become. In return, the less you realize we actually know, and this hunger grows even more. That's life...there's always a kicker. Always a balance. Every action, a reaction. Cause & effect. Ying fuckin' Yang.

This hunger, these realizations will take you somewhere. I promise you that. Not even just physically. I've come to realize that the places it takes you are very rarely ever about the destination, but almost always about the journey, the ride.

I can tell you that we are young enough and probably stupid enough to put in a passionate effort into anything we do. I know that if we don't try, than we will never be satisfied. So keep looking, keep searching, you may not find what you are looking for, but you might find something else.

I heard the word "awesome" more than I usually do today. The expression is thrown around quite casually in our daily dialogue, just like the words "I love you" these days; losing their power with each empty breath. The actual word 'awesome' means so much more though. Defined as: to inspire awe, so much so, that it can cause fear, or apprehension. When something is awesome it is so powerful and so extraordinary that it causes us to be uneasy and apprehensive.

I think this feeling we have is awesome.

Its entirely ambiguous; For I am both: scared at how real this life is, and I am also as deeply in reverie at its potential.

Let's at least give the crowd what they paid for eh?

Dorian

Is Bono really human?

Whatever poisons in this bottle will leave me broken, sore, and stiff. But, its the genie at the bottom who I'm sucking at -- he owes me one last wish.

The peak of the mountain always seems better before you reach it. I have realized, quite recently, that no matter how many achievements one may have under his/her belt, the fact is happiness comes from deep down inside. Pulling oneself closer to the person that you wish to be brings happiness. The vehicle for this is not always big achievements. In fact, it's almost always the smallest details in life. Why am I in pursuit of happiness using the wrong vehicle? I must redefine success. One of the hardest things to do is understand yourself and what makes you feel happy or complete. It seems a lot easier to inundate ourselves with material possessions until those possessions grow old and then aspire for more possessions. I, personally, would rather figure out the real secret to satisfaction and fulfillment. I guess where I'm going with this random stream of consciousness is: I want to rid myself of any vices I may have (I'm not sure this goal is attainable, as I have a beer in hand and am sharply craving a cigarette) and seek a pure existence. So, cheers to the nearly impossible; true happiness.

IM BACK,
Soccer-Tease

ARMED TO THE TEETH

The human body is simple. Our bodies adapt quickly to new environments and stressors. If something is too heavy you get stronger. But what if something is emotionally too heavy. How does one strengthen their mind? For most death is one of the most traumatic experiences of their lives. Death can cause extreme shifts in personal perspective. Although the angst of death can be overcome. A soldier can condition oneself into justifying the act. Possibly so many repetitions of the action take away from the severity. How does one get physically stronger? So many repetitions of heavy weight makes lifting that weight easier. But does one need to feel the sorrow of death over and over again in order for the blow to be lessened. There are certain deaths that no one can truly recover from. A soldier can watch comrade after comrade fall on the battlefield, but still continue with the mission. But if that person was say a sibling or a parent, the soldier would be an emotional wreck. It could be years or longer before they ever recover. Not all soldiers come out unscathed from the horror that is war. Many suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome. Maybe it just the moment that allows them to overcome death. Motivated by fear and a desire to live these soldiers can overcome death momentarily to survive. So the question still remains, How does one strengthen their mind? With Facts and Figures? With Experiences? Our minds are strengthened by living. One will only truly be able accept the harsh reality that is death when he comes a knockin’ at our own doors. So until that day LIVE.

LUCID LIVING

different than we've ever been

Look back one year from today. Forget the fact that you probably haven't the slightest inkling of what actually occurred and try to focus more along the lines of what you thought you knew.

Worlds apart.

How is this so?

How can we feel the way we feel right now and know it will change?

How come in one year from now, we will look back on this day in awe of how little we knew and how far we have come?

I don't have the answer. I just know that it's happening.

From around the age of seven to twelve years old, our minds are more malleable than play-dough. In this precious time frame we can learn skills at an accelerated pace, and are more likely to retain and produce them more efficiently than in any other window of our lives.

Too bad we never learned how to cope with time.

It's crazy to think how different things would have been if we would get to do life over just once. I wish that I knew what I knew now.... or maybe I don't. Things would have been different, maybe too different. I might of been more careful, when I needed to learn. I might of been more distant, when I needed to feel. I might of been more restrained, when I needed to let go. All that I am is because of the decisions I made, at the time I made them, and we need to find peace in that or we cannot progress.

We are different than we've ever been. We know this. Young, and dumb enough to put our whole heart into something, and mature enough to know the difference.

Our whole childhood we are in a rush to grow up and be taken seriously, and the rest of our lives we try to bring back that feeling when we had nothing to worry about.

Well we've arrived.

There might not be fireworks and a welcome party but that doesn't mean anythings changed. Our whole life we have been preparing ourselves for the next step that we have been too distracted to enjoy the one we are on. Elementary preparing you for middle, middle for high, high school for college, college for the work force. Stop preparing.

This is your life, and the way you feel right now is how you are going to remember it.

Gray

the great majority of men are bundles of beginnings

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." - G.B. Shaw

I am going to start this tirade by denouncing success and embracing failure.

If you have never screwed up, if you have never lost, if you have never been utterly denied, then you have not been successful.

First, for arguments sake, we must define "success"... and that for me is easy. I have found that success if nothing else, can only be distinguished on an individual basis. For success is the parallel alignment of ones thoughts and actions and those are not exactly the same for any two people alive. Simply put, it is a world where cognitive dissonance is eliminated.

I don't think success is an end goal, because the achievement of one thing only leads to the void of another. An idealistic success is most beautifully perceived as a journey. A journey where are you doing what you are thinking, and you are thinking about what you're feeling, and they are all complementing each other.

If you have never failed then you have never tried. End of story. Consistency is stealing the vitality out of you one day at a time. The simpleton doesn't risk the 'no', because even though he is not achieving success, he is content that has never failed. To do nothing is often worse a crime than doing the wrong something.

They say the great majority of men are bundles of beginnings. Because, there are no endings in this world. Endings only mark other beginnings, and a failure in one thing is just the beginning of the next endeavor.

Fall down 7 times, get up 8. We know this.

Don't let anybody tempt you into believing otherwise, cause g-d help me they will.

I'm not telling you that we will always get what were after, but if we are earnestly trying, if we are pushing towards that place, then often the feeling we are looking for is found along the way.... and in the fractional chance that it isn't, then at least we can be without regret knowing we gave it our best shot.

Josh Billings asked us to consider the postage stamp... it's sole purpose was to stick on to something until it gets there.

Dorian

Lewis Pugh After Completing the Mount Everest Swim

Just because something has worked in the past so well, doesn't mean it's going to work in the future and similarly, now, before I do anything, I ask myself what type of mindset do I require to successfully complete a task.

I Have Better Things to Fill My Time

I would like to follow up on the previous post. Hope is not required when all is well. Hope is required in times of duress. Why must I ever experience duress? Most of human sufferings is a manifestation of thought. Yes, hope does come from within. Hope is created through thought. Much the same way that everything is created by means of thought. Think of any time you have ever tormented yourself over something menial only to retrospectively realize how ridiculous it was. Internal havoc is created by thought, but a lack thereof is associated with peace.

So many times we hear, "Do what you must now so that you may do what you want later". I am so tired of modeling my life to sculpt and form some future that is correct only in societal views. I want to be an explorer. An explorer of life. And of thought. I look back on my youth and allow my thoughts to create havoc when I realized how I was hoodwinked. To be told, "you can do whatever you want in life", is a hoax. You can do whatever you like in life so long as you attend school, stay grounded, and do as everyone else! I'm done with that.

That is all for now.

Hope & Power

"The kind of hope I often think about (especially in situations that are particularly hopeless, such as prison) I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it is a dimension of the soul; it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.

Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but, rather, an ability to work for something that is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpropitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. In short, I think that the deepest and most important form of hope, the only one that can keep us above water and urge us to good works, and the only true source of the breathtaking dimension of the human spirit and its efforts, is something we get, as it were, from “elsewhere.” It is also this hope, above all, which gives us the strength to live and continually to try new things, even in conditions that seem hopeless as ours do, here and now.

I leave it to those more qualified to decide what can be expected “from above”—that is, from what is happening in the sphere of power. I have never fixed my hopes there; I’ve always been more interested in what was happening “below,” in what could be expected from “below,” what could be won there, and what defended. All power is power over someone, and it always somehow responds, usually unwittingly rather than deliberately, to the state of mind and the behavior of those it rules over. One can always find in the behavior of power a reflection of what is going on “below.” No one can govern in a vacuum. The exercise of power is determined by thousands of interactions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, all the more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: Everyone has a small part of himself in both.

– Václav Havel: "Disturbing the Peace"

Thank You

"Tonight for several hours I sat and thanked every person who has ever really helped me become who I am, who has taught me to be a man, and given me strength. If I die tomorrow I know that everyone I care about knows I love them. I have never felt more peace and more of a man than I do at this very moment."

-Peter "CHE" Pan

People need to be reminded.

They might not know how much the world needs them.

You truly never know when the last chance you will get to tell somebody something will be. Make sure you do it now. Life is too short to be anything less than real.

Thank you for being you.

Shine On

"There is something about yourself that you don't know. Something that you will deny even exists, until it's too late to do anything about it. It's the only reason you get up in the morning. The only reason you suffer the shitty puss, the blood, the sweat and the tears. This is because you want people to know how good, attractive, generous, funny, wild and clever you really are. Fear or revere me, but please, think I'm special. We share an addiction. We're approval junkies. We're all in it for the slap on the back and the gold watch. The hip-hip-hoo-fuckin' rah. Look at the clever boy with the badge, polishing his trophy. Shine on you crazy diamond, because we're just monkeys wrapped in suits, begging for the approval of others..."

-Jake Green in "Revolver"

All I can do is be me, whoever that is

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares."

-Henri Nouwen

How can we truly know ourselves, let alone someone else?

I do believe everybody has a story to tell, I don't care who you are. How could you not? The real question is if these stories are all of equal value? Unfortunately, there is not enough time to decide that nor is there time to hear them all... and besides, we have ourselves to figure out.

So what does that make a friendship? If we don't know somebody completely then are they really a friend or just a season in our life? A beautiful friendship an everlasting summer, and a breakup a harsh winter? I think it's safe to say that companionship with someone else is a essentially an act of faith. When you meet somebody we jump head first into their story, and they into ours.

Sometimes it takes a relationship with someone else to learn more about yourself and how we can affect others for better or for worse.

We are always learning about the people around us and ourself, and if we never stop learning, than we never stop growing.

To never know oneself is entirely different than being happy with ones self, we can be very happy with the way we feel about ourselves and our decisions now. Do not be mistaken about that.

In a world where we are never finished knowing ourselves, I guess we can never finish knowing someone else, because there is so many different lights for a person to be seen in that we may never see them all.

So to answer the question at large, do we ever really know someone?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Do we need to?

I don't think so.

We don't know absolutely everything about any of the people we know, but that doesn't mean we can't love them for what we do know. Happiness isn't getting what you want, its loving what you have.

I really fucked that up...Thank God.

Today I learned, today I grew, today was a culmination of small occurrences that converged and formed into a small step forward in my quest for knowledge, peace and guidance.  I Started my day with the words from a dear friend, “ It only takes one good thing in your life to bring you happiness, don’t let it go if you got it. “.

At this point in my life where I am unsure of my future that lies any further than two weeks ahead of  me I  have come to appreciate the present. I have learned to let go of yesterday and not attempt to control tomorrow. I have learned to live and be happy with today, now and here. I had become so accustomed in putting forth all my energy on trying to control the uncontrollable I lost control of everything I had immediate pull over. I have lost a lot of my goals in a half a year that I thought I needed and stumbled upon some that I never intended to seek out. I have learned to embrace who I am and not who I thought I was. This was a hard thing to come to terms with. Ill share with you a small piece of life I have began to unearth, we are who we are for a reason, its easy to be ourselves when on our own and in our thoughts. It’s another obstacle to be ourselves in a room full of people and stand up to the mic to let the world know what your so sure of in the confides of yourself. My life in my mind is a beautiful disaster, in the recent past I have found happiness and regained passions but only because I lost and failed first. I have been through heart aches and spun in a tight downward spiral, plummeting only to realize that I had been on a wrong course and that someone somewhere just hit my E-brake and shoved me back in the right place. You cry tears so that they may hit the ground and give life to a withering piece of your life. Every failure you have is a benefit to your future. We don’t fail so that we can be defeated we fail so that we can succeed. Its simple, failure is gift that we have to learn to love. My failures do not define me, my recoveries from those failures make me who I am.

CHE / Peter Pan

Remember the time -- It's now

Like Michael Jackson said "Remember the Time --" It's now.

Here's a little perspective for you. Hopefully it's enough to get your day started:

Seize the Day

by Derek Lin

Here's a puzzle for you: What do you see in this grid above? What do you think it represents?

Okay, it's not a difficult puzzle. The answer is "one year." The columns represent days and the rows are the twelve months of the year, so each day of the year occupies one square.

"Okay," you ask, "so what's the big deal?"

When I look at this grid I get a chill because I'm used to thinking about one year as a long time. Chances are, you do too. But when a year is represented like this, and you can see every day of the year at a glance, suddenly a year doesn't seem so long anymore.

This grid is the layout of a typical table blotter calendar that you can find in any office supply store. It's quite an ordinary, everyday thing. Why should it be any different from a regular yearly calendar that shows the same thing month by month? I'm not sure. Perhaps it is because we've also been conditioned to think of a month as a long time. Perhaps the irregular number of days in a month and the space between months all contribute to that illusion.

In any event, confronting the grid and contemplating its meaning is a sobering experience for me. You cross out a square with each day passes, and no power in Heaven or Earth can bring that day back for you. Once it's gone, it's gone forever. And when another year has passed, all the squares will be crossed out, irrevocably lost. You move on to another grid.

How many more grids do you have? For me, perhaps forty more, if I am lucky. And what is the number forty? It can be expressed as a five-by-eight matrix. The number of table blotters I have left fill the matrix, representing my life. With the passing of each year, one square from this tiny matrix disappears, never to exist again.

If I am lucky. If not, then my matrix - yours too - contains considerably less squares. For all I know I may have just a few more table blotters remaining. The same is true for you.

When you see it this way, you come to the inescapable conclusion that, indeed, life is too short. We hear this platitude so frequently, it has all but lost its power. But now, seen from a fresh angle, the message regains its dark potency. We, all of us, really don't have that much time in this plane of existence. If life is a lesson, it's a crash course.

Are You Living?

A common trait in today's society is to just work hard to reach the next echelon in life, whether it be getting into the school you want, finding a job in this depressed economy, or just trying not to drown in financial instability. Too much pressure is placed on these fabricated benchmarks in one's life, replacing the joy of just doing things for self-fulfillment.

A pretty wise, fictitious high-schooler once said “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” How many times in our lives do we find ourselves just going through the motions and living the day out like there are many more to come? What ever happened to living each day as if it were your last? I see too many individuals caught up on all the numbers in life, too worried about the complexities and social norms imposed by society. This detrimental effect has created the bubbles we all live in today.

From time to time, I find myself just reaching out for that next benchmark in my life, disregarding the people, places, and experiences I have had. I ask you all to learn from my mistakes and not live in the same dull, numb manner. At each stage in your life, there is something to be learned and absorbed to create the individual that is YOU. YOU are the most important factor in YOUR life, and by downplaying what makes YOU original and makes YOU special to this world, we have a society full of the exact same individual.

So I challenge the reader's of this blog to go out there and live YOUR life. In a world of competition, too much emphasis is placed on what others are doing. It is important to remember that no one else is living YOUR life, and the more you focus on others, the less of YOUR life is actually being lived.

3some

The man in the glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day,
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.

For it isn’t your father or mother or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass.
The fellow whose verdict counts most in you life
Is the one staring back from the glass.

You may be like Jack Horner and chisel a plum
And think you’re a wonderful guy.
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

He’s the fellow to please-never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear to the end.
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass.
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

Anonymous

Never truly satisfied

"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."

For a little while I thought I knew everything, now I realize I know nothing, and while I know nothing, I don't think anyone else knows much either.

The more I learn, the less I know.

We do know some things however. We know who we are because of our choices, we know where we want to go because of our hopes and goals, but do we know where we are now? Or are we just mindlessly stuck in this routine, like a B-rated movie, where we already know the ending.

Step 1 of Self-Actualization: Experience things fully, vividly, selflessly.

Throw yourself into the experience of something, let it take you fully. At the very least you learn. Learn how you feel about it, or learn more about how it makes you feel. There is no substitute for experience.

To those who are waiting for something, life has no obligation to make things happen for you, you have to go out there and take it. Stop looking at things in such a grand scale, foundations are made one brick at a time. When you can believe that, you can feel opportunity hanging on to the second hand of your watch, bellowing you to move.

They say the world steps aside for men who know where they are going.

It starts when you start. Today is Day 1.

I'm a gonna show the way.

Dear America,

Ahhh the purgatory of life. College. So often I feel as if I'm in The Phantom Tollbooth's Doldrums. Are you thinking? Stop. Laughing? You wouldn't dare. Sitting, waiting, and stagnating. Formal education shouldn't feel like such a hindrance to one's true education and pursuit of life goals. I try so desperately to enjoy the journey. Enjoying the hike as much as reaching the summit. This concept, so easily conceived, is much harder to implement in my life. My aim in this blog is not at all to turn readers into cheap therapy for myself. I don't want you to become sounding boards. I'm just attempting to provoke thought. Shouldn't society be more tailored to fit all of its diverse members? The ease with which performing well comes in a top public university is astounding. Let me set up an independent study curriculum for myself and then give me a degree.

I digress, I guess I'm tired of ignorance setting the precedent. Which leads me to the following conclusion:

Please, Let us stop fooling ourselves America. Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Also, forty-four percent of US adults still believe the earth is less than 20,000 years old. I'm not making these figures up, it is in the 2008 Gallup poll. The only way for us to achieve our educational goals is through independent study. Make the world your classroom and for the love of god, do not give in to ignorance. Knowledge IS power.

Until next time,
Soccer Tease

none of us are everything, but we are all something

We can sit here all day thinking about which side of the spectrum your quarrels fall into but in reality there is no definite answer to anything.

The only thing we are sure of completely is that we are experiencing something.

Our instincts and emotions are the realest thing we have in this world, and without them we are nothing.

Life is quick, too quick; and the older we get, the faster it goes. It's our very own tragedy, and it's beautiful.

It's too hard to remember everything we have seen. The only thing we can do is to remember how things made us feel.

So remember to feel real.

Let me ask you something powerful, and please try to answer yourself honestly....can you name 10 of the best moments of your life?

1. The day my brother was born

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

And so it goes...

Remember, "Life happens while you're busy making other plans."

-John Lennon

I'm Alive!

How hard is it to know where you are going in a world with no directional references? When not being cliche becomes the cliche. When an attempt at ingenuity is forced to suffice one's need to be different instead of naturally occurring as it should. Enough aimless rambling... I think what I'm getting at is, it is hard to flow with the current of the world. So often I find myself swimming in the opposite direction and nearly drowning most of the time.

So how does one suppress this urge to swim against the current. Well, in a completely cliche, one-word answer -- Hope. Capitalized. I never knew what the word meant. No Merriam-Webster definition can satisfy the meaning of "Hope" that I have come to learn. It means putting all of your worries about the future aside because you believe good will befall you. Hence, room is left for preparation. I became engulfed in escaping mediocrity through any means possible. Avoiding the cliche. Hope means that one day you will escape mediocrity yourself.

An extremely insightful individual once said, "A man can go without wealth, and even without purpose, for a while. But he will not go on without hope".

Coming from the "trophy kid" generation where everyone in the developed world can be whatever they want to be, mediocrity seems like a joke. Then, somewhere reality sets in and you realize that you must actually find a niche, grow up, and ditch the fairy tale. Use hope to prepare and be all that you can be.

Excuse the cliche.

Here's to you

Everyday I pass by a countless number of strangers. I wish I had all the time in world to get to know each one of them, and I wish I had a heart big enough to care.

I have so much to tell you, I don't quite know where to begin. In a world full of billions of different minds and ideals, I am quite sure that all the answers we seek can be found in each other. A lot of the questions we beckon have already been asked and answered by either those around us, or the immortals that lie on our bookshelves. In a world full of people trying to make sure they say everything they need to say we often forget to listen to those who needs us most.

This is one of my favorite quotes of all time, and it certainly highlights the allegory I present to you today.

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
-John Donne

All the people I have yet to meet and the capacity as to which they could affect my life sets my mind on fire.

There is so much more to us than what we are on paper & often we need to reach out and touch others because we don't know who can touch us back.

This is for those who are not satisfied, This is for those who can see the potential the day offers, the greatness that hangs on to every second of every minute of every day. This is to those who listen because they have more questions than answers.

This one is for you.

If we can't have hope in each other, than how can we have hope in ourselves?

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