Youthful Life: X

" I'm lost in space and I want to find a way home. Nobody else can get me back to the planet,  so I have to do it myself.” Susan Vaught Sometimes we have to save ourselve s. Sometimes we have to be our own heroes. Sometimes we are the only ones capable of enacting our own rescue. To this day, I think one of my favorite moments in modern film history is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban  when Harry casts the patronus charm to repel hundreds of dementors, and literally saves his past self. He even says he knew he could do it because he had already done it. Sometimes we are the only ones who can help us because we are the ones hurting us. Sometimes happiness, joy, peace, love, and light at least for us, ourselves, is a choice away. Sometimes the release from bondage, incarceration, solitude lies with us and us alone. What would you do if you had the key to saving yourself? Would you use it? It seems like a rhetorical question but people are complicated, and someti...

Truth - The older you get, the finer the line that separates truth from lies. It's rather uncanny the things that we can convince ourselves of, if we believe hard enough. Sometimes the lies we tell ourselves can become the truths that we accept. Little white lies growing bigger and bigger until they threaten to consume to the entirety of who we are. Then there is the guilt that plagues us as we do so. Our conscious reprimands in cross quips of chastisement. Our hearts can't take it. Our minds have trouble keeping up. It all leads to one big blabbermouth reveal. This is confession. "Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession" Mahatma Ghandi   Catholicism is an orthopraxy denomination of Christianity. That word "orthopraxy" means to emphasize correct practice or conduct in both the ethical and liturgical sense. It serves as antithesis to orthodoxy which is a...

Truth - The Internet is at the exact same time both the best and the worst thing to happen to humanity. What a wonderful thing it is to be instantly connected to not only those that matter to you most but others all around the world with the touch of button, a few keystrokes, or a few swipes. Now many than ever it has become increasingly simpler to do truly marvelous things with the internet, the world wide web, and the technology surrounding them. With those advancements though have been the same problems, but also brand new ones darker than we ever could have imagined. All it takes to make or break people and their spirits these days is a quick type, text, and tap away. Anonymous we go.   "One of the most powerful lessons in life is to recognize that no one can give you power, and many people don’t want you to have it. You have to find the courage to seize it, own it and hold on" Shannon L. Alder Never read the comments. I've heard it over and over again, and yet...

The 20s are all about the truth. What is the truth? Does it even exist? Who gets to determine what it is, when it is given, and who gets to give and receive it? So many questions about this ambiguous thing, but one with the utmost importance. The truth has an uncanny way of always coming out, whether people are ready or not for it's ramifications. The truth has so much power. Not only can it set people free but it keep them chained just as easily. Is the whole truth ever able to be known or disseminated? Is truth just relative or are there irrefutable absolute truths? The truth is fraught with ambivalence. This is my truth - bare naked. Lies and truths are presented as if they are opposing declarations, but I have to understand them as nothing more than subtle tweaks that separate two sides of the same damn coin. As a kid I was socialized, like I assume most of you were, that telling the truth was always the right thing to do. Then I became a teenager and understood that so...

The 20s are all about bending the truth. You always have to weigh your options before you make any decisions, especially when it comes to talking to people. It's amazing how fast one remark can blow up into something so huge. They say that kids say the darndest things but I'd beg to differ that college students say the most outrageous things. You just never know what's going to come out of someone's mouth until its all been said and done. Sometimes it's easier to beat around the bush then say what we actually need to. Everybody tells those little white lies. The other day I was browsing the internet (as if the whole day counts as "browsing") and came across this article examining why people lie. I guess I'd never really thought about it. As a kid you're taught that lying is bad, but the older you get, the more often you seem to lie. Compound that with the actual heavy hitting stuff that people deal with and keep a secret, and lying just become...

The 20s are all about being real with not only yourself but everyone around you. Everyday we wake up and put on the masks, the facades, the illusions that prep us to be perfectly put together enough to venture out in the world. What lies beneath stays there, hidden behind hours of pretending. Then those times come when you get too tired to put on your masquerade, and the truth of yourself and about other people come out. Ready or not, here comes the truth serum.   *First and foremost, if you're apart of my digital social circle you know I attended the NEACURH (RHA conference) this past weekend and my recaps are infamous. I was going to write one, but postponed it for this one. Don't worry it's coming, most likely with a new video too. Prepare yourself, we'll be kickin' it old school with those posts. The truth has a funny way of coming out and it also has a way of hurting people. Why do people lie? Why do people withhold the truth? Why do people pretend to be ...