Youthful Life: X

" The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it.  Memories need to be shared.” Lois Lowry Memories are all we have to make life real . Memories are what we cherish to carry all that has come before us. Memories are all that we truly are. What a year. What happened this year? What the actual fuck happened this year? How could this year be real? I have struggled to write this post because life is not some absolute balance weighing the benevolence of this isolated period of time. Simple me wants to say this has been by far the worst year of my life to date. Complex me knows that life not a scale that tips positive or negative. Life has nuance. Life has meaning when we assign it meaning. Life is life.  I think there is profound meaning in memory preservation, and there is immense importance in memory creation. We are tasked with doing both in our lives - holding on to the remnants of the past, and maneuvering to create our presents an...

"The only thing you sometimes have control over is perspective. You don't have control over your situation. But you have a choice about how you view it." Chris Pine Reframing makes the picture different. Reframing is a powerful tool that we have in our arsenals to view our experiences in the ways that we dictate. Reframing let's us craft the narrative, and the story we tell ourselves about our own lives. So much of our lives can be dictated by fear. Fear is paralysis. Fear is a blockade. Fear is holding us back. Fear is not a way to live. Fear prevents us from living. Oh, what our lives could be if we lived in spite of fear. Fear, apprehension, nervousness, and all their dastardly cronies that prevent us for the fullness of life can sometimes be overcome through reframing. We can take a hardship presented to us, and make it small. We can take it is a challenge that will benefit us in the process. We can turn it into something of our own creation. It's taking ...

"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do." Leonardo Da Vinci We live in a society that has come to value expediency over substance. It doesn't matter what we say, just that we say something, and be the first to say it. Knowledge has lost its gravity. Knowledge needs context, always. Contrary to what we're seeing continually, patience, self-restraint, and perspective matter just as much, if not more, than expediency. What does it matter if we're first if we're false? Pause. Wait to respond. Think. Think! Think!!! Before we speak, think. Our answers are more thoughtful and thorough we give ourselves that time to properly formulate them. We get to speak with precision instead of haphazardly. And, and, and we don't have to know everything. In fact, we should NOT know everything. Life would be pointless if we did. Learning is what life is, in essence.  Be teachab...

" People are uncomfortable about disability, and so interactions can become unintentionally uncomfortable." Stella Young College messed me up . It's been almost three years since I moved my tassel from right to left, and yet I feel the lingering effects of that experience for me. I'm specifically speaking of those debilitating memories of absolutely failing exams in my science courses. Surprise, I was pre-med throughout the majority of my college career - switched from biology to religion as my major, and took some GPA hits. I had constructed the entirety of my identity in becoming a medical doctor that even when I was performing abysmally, dreaded going to class, and struggled to grasp the concepts presented to me I continue to persist instead of realizing I had other talents, gifts, abilities, and goals. I eventually figured out my real passions with journalism and educational advocacy, but not before I had crashed, burned, and failed many an exam, quiz, home...

" The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another." William James Stress is meant to be temporary; not a permanent state of being. Once more with feeling, and I'll say it again for those in the back. Stress is caused by our reaction to the things going in on our lives, not the things themselves. Think about that. That means that as we are able, we can manage our reactions. We have the choice to downplay or highlight the impact of what we face. We get to determine what something or someone means to us. In a world that glorifies the disease of being busy, demands contribution to an incessant news cycle, and a sacrifice of the entirety of who you for are for "productivity" - stress has become normalized. If you're not stressed out, to the point where its toll is visible on your body, then you're not working hard enough.  Stress is not a measure of success nor is it a quantifier of hardship endured. Stress should...

Truth - Things rarely, if ever, work out the way we imagine them to. In fact, all the time spent obsessively trying to forecast the future only to be disappointed by the difference between our projected premonitions and reality, could be better spent trying to take things as they are. There's this part of humanity that desperately tries to make sense, meaning, perfect - what have you, out of the ambiguity of life. It's the paradox of predestination juxtaposed against the conceptualization of free-will. Are the two diametrically opposed, mutually exclusive, and the antithesis of one another? All I know is that people maybe vie for control because it gives them power to make things the way they want them instead of life running its unpredictable course. Who knows what will next. I think people just want some closure.  "I don't believe you ever get closure on anything. Things leave a permanent mark on you."  Allison Anders Life is messy, people. Life is r...

Truth - Darkness is only the absence of light. Think about it. Inherently, wherever there is light, there can never be darkness but also the inverse stands true. Light and dark are mutually exclusive ways of being and seeing. Take your shadow for example, it's just us blocking a light source (usually the sun)  right before it hits the ground. Mind you, that light has travelled lightyears only to be thwarted by our clumsiness but that's besides the point. There is absolute importance in carrying your light with you wherever you go, if not others but also yourself. This the dark side of the moon. " Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other." Sojourner Truth The world was infatuated this week with a blood red Supermoon and simultaneous eclipse. Space is something that will both fascinates and scares me. Ther...

Truth - There will be times, places, and spaces where things don't add up. Things seem out of sync, weird, and just kind of off. You can't really place your finger on it but you can feel in twings, twangs, and hints. Something is just not quite right. Sometimes you figure out how to realign your anachronistic schism and other times, you just take things as they are and way for them to pass. Not all the things you experience are going to match up perfectly with your expectations of them are. You never know where you'll end up, and why you are there. It may never make sense, but taking things as they are is imperative when you're faced with the dilemma of the juxtaposition. "Words are not pebbles in alien juxtaposition" Learned Hand A juxtaposition is the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect. It's like a visual representation of an oxymoron. It's things that you wouldn't normally associate with one ano...

Truth - Sometimes life actually feels like situational comedy, better known as your classic sitcom. Things just happen, and somehow we end up in the most ridiculous happenings. So much of it ends up being laughable because of just how absolutely absurd it is. Sometimes you can take things in stride and call them out as you go, other times you have to look back to realize the humor in what has gone on. Each day we have the choice to either laugh along with the chaos or let it consume us. No two days are the same. This is a different world. " I feel now it's useless to keep hoping. The way things are today, we live in a world that needs laughter, and I've decided if I can make people laugh, I'm making a more important contribution" Paul Lynde One of the most iconic shows that is prerequisite for you to be woke is the Cosby Show spinoff where Denise goes to college (and leaves real fast) A Different World . Let me just defining being woke while I'm at it...