Youthful Life: X

Truth - stories are how we communicate. Stories matter more than we may ever truly know. It's through stories that we create our truths and come to believe what we believe. It's by the storytelling of others and their craftsmanship of the narrative, richness of the plot, and vivacious characters that we come to have our worldviews. Stories have an immense power if only they are allowed to be told. Representation matters, stories matter, we matter.   "There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously ...

The 20s are all about processing what goes on around you, and figuring out what role you play in every situation. No matter what, we are participants in our lives. Things happen, for better and most notably, for worse, but in all happenstances we take part. Whether we are active in what goes on, stand useless as bystander, are the perpetrator or the person who has been impacted - what we do or say (that if we say or do anything) affects us all. Regardless of whether how little you feel the aftermath, the repercussion are real for us all. This is race relations. Yesterday night I was in my residence hall room responding to emails for RHA (residence hall association) at like midnight, and it's been a crazy busy few days (physically strenuous, heavy lifting, tons of walking and stairs). The amount of exhausted I was cannot be even put into words, everywhere I went was falling asleep, public or not. I was just about ready to prepare for bed when of course, I zonked out (mid-email) ...