It Starts with One.

“Often I was told that war was an ineradicable part of human nature.“_quote unknown

There are times when I feel that the “human” part of humanity is deteriorating in society as a whole. When humans are separate, off by themselves in the meadow, there is peace and some understanding. Once they are bunched together, the group is not a collection of intelligent, peaceful people, but a group of…well, I’ll let you decide that for yourselves. But I often forget that there are groups of people, if placed together at the right time, with the right motivations, will not only bring happiness but contentment and satisfaction in each other’s hearts.

I read this story some time ago about Marilyn Coyne, a survivor of America’s rocky and short history and of breast cancer, and how a hospice came together and gave her one last dance before she passed away. She survived the Great Depression and the natural course of life, and that makes me wonder if humans need to suffer once in a while to get back on the right track spiritually and emotionally. It changes perspective. It allows us to see things we wouldn’t normally see. When you pull money away from a rich person; when you put them in a homeless person’s shoes, I wonder how much of a change we’d see in them? When you put a person in front of Death, will the values, beliefs, and views they have change?

I’m glad she had the chance for a last dance before passing on beyond a world of our knowing.  A collective is not necessarily bad. But good intentions within a collective starts with one.

Gifted.

“I’ll never stop.”_I’ll Never Stop (‘Nsync)

Have you ever wanted to be gifted? To be profoundly smart? To be a prodigy of some sort?

I’ll admit I used to. I used to ask myself why I wasn’t as smart as the other kids. Or why I couldn’t be the first 8 year old to pursue a college degree just so my family would be proud of me. Or why I actually had to practice the piano to sound barely decent. Now that I’m grown up (or as grown up as I can be for my age), I’m glad I’m average with my own talents.

I read an article about Sky Choi–a 12 year old double-majoring in physics and mathematics at Florida International Universitry, minoring in astronomy. It says everything positive about his situation–I have no doubts that challenging him is a positive thing–but socially, I wonder whether he’ll suffer with dealing with his peers in the future. “His professors and classmates don’t appear to have any problem with it either,” the article says, and sure, he’s among college students. I’m glad to hear that college students won’t be picking on him (I mean, gosh, we’re not in middle/high school anymore), but what is going to happen once he enters the real world? He can’t stick with older people anymore–he’ll need to learn to deal with those his own age, those who just weren’t as gifted as he was.

Through experience, I realized that my interactions with my peers in middle/high school taught me a lot about life in the future, about hardships, about human relationships, and all of those experiences have helped hone my personality, my mentality, my beliefs, and myself as a human being. He won’t be able to experience that. He has the intelligence beyond a college student, but as a person, there’s always that possibility that he won’t be mentally mature enough to deal with real life problems, dealing with people who hate him, who bully him, who find his intelligence nothing but pompous ash. How will he feel? How will he deal with it? One can always hear about these things from other people, but dealing with those problems without any prior experience can be immensely difficult, especially later in life.

I hope that he is as mentally mature as he is intelligent. Perhaps he’ll be one of the lucky few who will be loved no matter where he goes, what he does. If he is, then he is a fortunate boy.

Respect.

“R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to me.“_Respect (Aretha Franklin)

I was reading through an article the other day about Philly fans booing Adam Eaton. Now, I’m not a sports fan. If I watch anything related to sports, it would be the Olympics, or the World Cup, or Wimbledon, and that’s only because my family likes watching them. And maybe it’s because I’m not a sports fan that people are going to say that I “don’t understand anything” and I should “keep my mouth shut because the sports world is different” blah blah blah. Come off it already, will you?

Reading through comments on an article (or youtube) is always frustrating because you have completely tactless remarks being posted. Of course, the internet makes the person anonymous to a certain extent, and so people drop all forms of social etiquette and say the most offensive things. I can understand that. I was in middle school once. I did it back then too.

First, I’d like to mention that the opposition will say that those who boo’d Adam Eaton surely had every right to do so. After all, this is America, right? Freedom of speech and all that? Fine. If that is your argument, then you can stop reading right here. You won’t like what I’ll be saying following: freedom of speech has nothing to do with respect and social etiquette. If ‘etiquette’ is hard to understand, then I’ll make it simpler: “manners.” Does anyone remember the “Golden Rule” we learned in kindergarten? “Don’t do things to people that you don’t want done to you.” Sounds familiar, dunnit?

“Well, Adam Eaton SUCKED BALLS–he DESERVES to be boo’d!”

No one, and I mean no one, deserves to be treated like that. How humiliating is it when things don’t go your way and then you have the  entire world booing and sneering at you? If you lost your job or you just happened to have a bad day or you just happened to suck at everything, how would it feel when you have the entire world judging you? I certainly wouldn’t like that. I wouldn’t like other people to feel that way either.

“This is a STUPID article. We all know that sports fans are stupid and ridiculous. Stop talking about the Phillies already!”

That’s a generalization fallacy there. Not all sports fans are stupid and ridiculous. Some of them are ridiculous, sure, but I wouldn’t say they were stupid. They’re just over-enthusiastic to the point they forget all matters regarding manners and respect. The article written wasn’t stupid either. It brought to light the utmost lack of respect people have for others. Is winning the most important thing to a fan? Does a fan’s loyalty to a team lie in the numbers of wins? When a team loses, the blame should not be placed on one person.

I believe that respect is lacking immensely from today’s society. We all know the Golden Rule, but it hasn’t been practiced. If there was a little more respect in the world, maybe there will be less offensive comments invading the internet.

That Time of the Year.

“I’m so starstruck“_Starstruck by Lady Gaga (ft. Flo Rida)

It’s been two years since I’ve been admitted into college, and I’ve almost forgotten the absolute tension rising in high schools around this time of the year. It’s when the seniors start receiving answers from colleges: yes, no, you’re-on-a-list-maybe-you’ll-get-in. I’ve had friends applying for various colleges and universities. Some people even filled out eight to ten applications, hoping that at least one of them will say yes. I wasn’t that person. Maybe I was just lazy and didn’t want to waste my time and money on applications when I already knew which ones I really wanted to go to. I think I was also lucky to have a father who wanted me to go wherever I wanted to go. I was set against going to Ivy League schools (as an Asian, it’s almost a sin to not want to go to an Ivy League school) and there was no way he could’ve talked me into applying for one if he tried.

On yahoo, I read an article about college waitlisting and how the economy this year may make it easier to get accepted as long as you play your cards right. I’ve never been waitlisted (then again, I only submitted three or four applications), but I had friends who did. There are some points in the article that I didn’t think was fair. I was raised never to be a kiss-ass or bribe. With the economy so down in the dumps, parents who offer to buy a college administrator Mercedes, pay off mortage, may actually get the chance to get off that waitlist. After all, the private colleges are going to have it hard the next half a decade (and I thought my out-of-state tuition cost was bullshit!) They’re going to need all the help they can get.

It bothers me. But I’m also aware that I’ve never been in that sort of a situation, and I was raised never to do things like that. Is it moral? Does morality have anything to do with college admissions?

Ultimate Worst.

“It’s going down, down.“_Right Round (Flo Rida ft. Kesha)

I’m sure that everyone’s heard of some version of this quote: “When life’s problems seem overwhelming, look around and see what other people are coping with. You may consider yourself fortunate” (Ann Landers). And I’ve certainly heard more than one version of it.

“Think of the people in Africa!”

“At least you’re not homeless and starving.”

“You’re not stuck in the middle of war.”

“Well, you’re not failing out of college!”

“You’re luckier than you think.”

And et cetera, et cetera.

But that makes me wonder: well, if there’s always someone in a worse condition than you are, does that mean there isn’t a “ultimate worst position”? It’s impossible for no one to be at the complete bottom of the chain. If we’re going to put these in simpler terms, the ladder would kind of look like this (think more of Shakespeare’s time–and don’t blame me, I’m taking a Shakespeare class and am absolutely in love with it):

King: Who would be in a worse position than I? I’m constantly fearing being overthrown by someone who doesn’t agree with the way I rule my people.

Queen: I would be. I have to deal with your bullcrap. And I’m a suppressed woman.

“Government”: We have to run your errands and do your dirty work!

Lawyers: We have to clean up the government’s crap.

Aristocrats: There’s never enough money.

Upper-middle/Lower-Aristocrats: Oh, go drown yourself in a well.

Middle: We do all of the stinkin’ work!

Lower-middle/Upper-lower: We do all of the labor!

Lower: We can’t even get jobs because you people make it impossible for us.

Homeless: =_=

So what goes beyond that? Can there really be someone who is “worse” than you if you’re already in a low position?

Through Your Eyes.

“What if we see things differently?“_Through Your Eyes (Martina McBride_Bambi2)

I’ve found out lately that when life gets too smooth, you’re too happy and content, a series of unfortunate events will come hurling at you like a torpedo. But successes in life aren’t determined by how many times you’ve won against someone (even yourself). It ’s how you handled the failures that places you on the ladder of self-contentment and a life that makes you smile at the sky every day. If you curse, and scream, and yell, and attempt to bite at your failures, curse the people who “put” you there, you can’t learn anything from it. But once you’ve embraced it, once you’ve accepted it as a part of yourself, and deal with it maturely after a couple of tears and a scoop or two (or three if you really need it) of French Silk Ice Cream from Dreyers, it’s a new beginning.

You don’t need to move to a new city, start a new life, in order to have a new beginning. It’s when something on the inside of you changes that rewinds that blasted inner clock to give you a second chance. If you failed this time, brush it off, change something, and keep going. It’s harder to do than to say, but as long as you’re determined to make those changes, to be willing to cry a little when you feel impatient, like it’s taking too long, then everything will be ok later.

My self-worth is mine to determine, and mine alone. My failures, my successes, my luck, my fortune, are mine, and mine only. Nothing; no sheet of paper, no cursed e-mail, no “oh, don’t feel bad; we had so many qualified candidates, but you just weren’t one of them” speeches, will change that.

Life is for living. Not for wasting time on thinking about the patheticness of society and how worth is nothing more than a couple of numbers and a stamp on a sheet of paper.

New Years Eve.

“In the arms of the angel, far away from here.”_

It feels like you never really look back on something until you’re starting something new. Every New Years Eve, I always sit on my bed and think back to everything that happened the past year. How it started out, what resolutions I made, which one of them I thought I’d actually accomplish, what I should have done differently, what I wouldn’t change for the world. Then, of course, you start thinking about what you want next year to look like. What I’d want to accomplish, what I’m going to do differently from this past year. I wonder if there are people who actually see a change in themselves after doing all of that recalling? Or if their determination rises to actually keep those New Years resolutions?

Happy 2009!

Airports.

I’m a typically very patient person. Nothing can shake me too much, and if I get annoyed, I turn on my ipod and then that feeling eventually fades away. But that patience wears thin when every single time I fly somewhere (mostly home), my flight is delayed. I don’t mind having my flight delayed due to the weather because that’s a very natural thing and we can’t do anything about it, but when all of my flights have been delayed due to technical problems, I’ve just about had enough of it.

Granted, I don’t know much about the process within the airport. Like whether or not they check the damn engine first before allowing the passengers to board, or always having a mechanic handy if they’re not going to check the damn engine first, despite it being five o’clock in the morning. Thankfully my departure location is filled with pretty quiet and understanding people, and even thought everyone is pretty flippin’ annoyed, we make sure to keep it to ourselves, and holy crap, I just looked out the window and it’s snowing. Well, that certainly brightened up my mood. But not enough.

It’s getting ridiculous. We might as well just abandon the entire idea of the airplane (unless they’re willing to be more responsible about maintenence) and go back to horse-drawn wagons. At least I’d be able to get some sleep. It’s been 24 hours since I’ve slept. My fuse is about ready to explode.

We Are One.

“We are more than we are; we are one.”_We Are One from Lion King II

I actually ran into this a couple of days ago and shared it with a couple of very special people in my life because I knew they’d appreciate it or that it’d at least brighten up their day. It certainly brightened up mine, and, if anything, made me tear up a little.

Picture taken from Ezra Klein's blog, and taken by April Winchell. (http://prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=11&year=2008&base_name=change_we_can_believe_in_1)

Even though it’s such a little thing–maybe even somewhat normal–but the fact that it was during an Obama campaign made it all the more important to liberals and Obama-supporters. Another great aspect? They were children. The children who are going to be leading our country in the future.

After Obama’s landslide victory on the 4th of November, there was no doubt that we were going to hear some pretty disturbing topics being circulated among Obama-opposers. As they have their own opinions–and I respect them for it–some of the accusations held against Obama were simply preposterous. Him being Muslim, him being from Kenya (therefore, not being able to run for president anyway)…what does that have to do with anything?  First off, he’s not Muslim. He’s Christian. Secondly, his father is Kenyan; President Obama was born in the United States. People can hate all they want, but at least hate for good reasons–not a whole bunch of rumored crap that were spewed from racists and haters. In the end, it doesn’t matter because he’s the next President, and we’ll just all have to deal with it. And hey, the liberals had to deal with the Bush administration for eight years. Four years is nothing.

Point is, we all have our share of opinions, beliefs, frustrations. But we’re still the United States of America. These bridges (whether it’s women’s rights, gay rights, etc etc) may grow further, may shrink, but it’s about time all of us came together for a cause. Whatever it may be. Be it understanding the view of a homosexual couple wanting to get married, or an immigrant who has a family to feed, we should do our best to be a peaceful and prosperous country.

President Obama.

“Cuz tonight’s the night the world begins again.“_Better Days by Goo Goo Dolls

Yes, that’s right. President Obama. Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States, and the first ever African-American President! While the liberals (liberal-moderates and some conservatives) celebrate the results, there are, no doubt, others out there who are more than happy to get smashed and smash a couple of beer bottles against the sidewalk. I’m not going to lie–I was more than happy to update my facebook status to share with the world of my views on these developments, and I’ll do the same here: HELL YES.

I apologize; that was unprofessional, but I felt the need to say it, and so I did. When my friend told me that Barack Obama had 297 electoral votes, I nearly jumped out of my seat. We spent hours and hours talking about the election, our beliefs, our thoughts, our hopes and dreams, and all of a sudden, that one moment, made it feel as if maybe we aren’t crazy after all. Maybe there’s hope after all. I know there are people out there who complain about rising taxes, about ending the war in Iraq, about a black man being the President of the United States, but it’s about time for a change. Our foreign policy is in the ditches, and I think it’s about time we fixed that. Think about why Barack Obama had 338 electoral votes: it’s because we want change. The majority of us want change. We don’t know if he’d be able to do much in four years, but he’s sure as hell going to try. And even though people wonder if this phase is actually a change or a chance, but you can’t have change without chance. You have to take that risk. That little chance can change in the long-run. Let’s see how well he does. There may be complications. There may be horrible happenings in the future. I don’t even know. But I’m willing to give this change a chance.

We should at least do that much.