Well, you know how life is, it gives and takes away, and I'm just here doing my Algebra II homework and thinking about it. Life has taken people away from me that were close, but it has given me much more than I would have expected. For every one I've lost, I've gained three more. People constantly come into my life and out... And like a famous statement says:
Forget about the people in your past; there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future.
I agree with that, and also the fact that everything happens for a reason. Although many events might mark our lives, we have to go on and just live with the consequences. Many people often ask others:
If you could go back in time, would you change anything you did?
I wouldn't. You know why? Because everything that happens to us shapes our personality and makes us who we are. Pleasant, unpleasant, hard, and fun times all make us the beings we are and compose our psyche. We our built by all of these experiences. We grow with these things and they become parts of us. Such as hard work. When we work hard, we seldom forget that we did and how we did it. But people who don't understand this prefer to take the "easy" way out, and simply question:
Why work so hard, when you can slack off, and get a good result, take the easy path?
Well, for an IB kid there is no easy path, and we have to work hard. When you work hard and you understand your work and sacrifice yourself a bit (or a lot) you gain maturity and a sense of knowledge about the world. When you have to give things up for something else and you are working hard to achieve a goal, you will never forget what you did, and in the end you will be rewarded. Well, some might say:
What type of reward do you get from sacrifice?
The intelligence and ability to confront many problems or issues in your life easily and calmly. That's a plus, because we all need patience. And when things don't go our way, we get aggravated and irksome. That changes along the way, and we grow emotionally and psychologically. But, you might wonder:
Maturity: who cares about that?
Everyone. If you're immature, you tend to be annoying, hard to deal with, obnoxious, and highly irritating. Therefore, people will be driven away from you, hence you will end up alone and unaccepted. Many people don't care about the alone and unaccepted part, but let's face it: immaturity is highly annoying. That will lead some to think:
Well, why would I want to be mature, to please others?
The answer lies within the person and it could go two ways: You either want to be a clone of society or you want to make your own rules. Both sound pretty interesting, but they are both flawed in the end. Being a clone of society is being brain-dead and being manipulated by the 1000 year old traditions and opinions of people who don't know who you are, don't understand you, and don't care about you. Making your own rules would ultimately lead to problems with everyone due to lack of respect of others and violation of natural law. And still, you might wonder:
But, what does it all matter in the end: who you are?
We are who we choose to be and who we are molded by the events and actions of others toward us, and our events and actions toward others and the consequences of our actions. We all have different characters and personalities and we have to learn how to get along beside all the defects and imperfections. We are the children of the world, and we have to make the world work out.
Then why are there so many wars, if we can make it work?
Because there cannot be peace without war. Further than that, humans have problems understanding each other and accepting differences. We seldom have toleration for others and their variety of ideals, beliefs, and dogmas. Maybe if we could work a little harder to understand each other and talk out the resolutions to problems, we wouldn't be facing so many as we are now. But many people don't want to talk; they refuse to communicate their views and opinions and to work out problems. Right there is where the question pops up in our heads:
Why are they so stubborn; can't they just work for the greater good?
But, what is the greater good, I ask you. You may not have an answer; I myself don't have one. There might be variations of the concept, but nobody has the concrete answer or solution to the mystery of the greater good. Well, let's just say that many people have some concepts a little more extreme than others, and some radicals will kill for the so-called "greater good." But we should keep our ideas to that of safety and benefit to the others in our planet. We share this world, and we live in it to survive and go through struggles supporting each other. That leads to friendship:
Why do we always need to identify with friends, or best friends?
Because we all need support and we all need someone to be able to identify with and to talk to, ask for advice, and share the cute moments of life with. If we can't share life with someone, and we keep all the happiness hidden away in a basement for only us to have, we aren't really contributing to any happiness ourselves, therefore making us selfish, which nobody likes to be. Then you ask:
But, we're all naturally selfish, so, what does it matter?
Oh, it matters a lot. Because if everyone would be selfish, then we should never have happiness. Imagine that nobody wanted to share their happiness and their good things in life with others, then nobody would be able to smile about it and share in the contentment. But,:
Why should we make others happy, and not ourselves?
Because others influence us and actually help determine certain aspects of our personality and behavior. This may lead you to think:
Where is this all going? Why does all of this matter?
Well, it does, because in order to understand ourselves, we need to understand others, and if we are willing to make this world worth living in, we need to corroborate with others. We all have effects on others, in a sense you could say like the domino effect. Our actions are what push the dominos down, and it's up to us how many dominos get knocked down. You can always put your hand on the back of a domino and prevent it from knocking down the rest that are in front of it. You can help prevent disasters. Even though you might do something small, you can control actions and reactions. Just make sure you know what you're doing. Because, in the end, we are who we are and we are who shape the world. This isn't some talk about world peace, or world understanding. This is a talk to understand what we're about.
Socrates once said, "Understand yourself, and you will understand the world."
Once we know that... Everything will unfold before our eyes, and comprehension will dawn upon us.
And that, my friends, is what this is all about.
I agree with that, and also the fact that everything happens for a reason. Although many events might mark our lives, we have to go on and just live with the consequences. Many people often ask others:
If you could go back in time, would you change anything you did?
I wouldn't. You know why? Because everything that happens to us shapes our personality and makes us who we are. Pleasant, unpleasant, hard, and fun times all make us the beings we are and compose our psyche. We our built by all of these experiences. We grow with these things and they become parts of us. Such as hard work. When we work hard, we seldom forget that we did and how we did it. But people who don't understand this prefer to take the "easy" way out, and simply question:
Why work so hard, when you can slack off, and get a good result, take the easy path?
Well, for an IB kid there is no easy path, and we have to work hard. When you work hard and you understand your work and sacrifice yourself a bit (or a lot) you gain maturity and a sense of knowledge about the world. When you have to give things up for something else and you are working hard to achieve a goal, you will never forget what you did, and in the end you will be rewarded. Well, some might say:
What type of reward do you get from sacrifice?
The intelligence and ability to confront many problems or issues in your life easily and calmly. That's a plus, because we all need patience. And when things don't go our way, we get aggravated and irksome. That changes along the way, and we grow emotionally and psychologically. But, you might wonder:
Maturity: who cares about that?
Everyone. If you're immature, you tend to be annoying, hard to deal with, obnoxious, and highly irritating. Therefore, people will be driven away from you, hence you will end up alone and unaccepted. Many people don't care about the alone and unaccepted part, but let's face it: immaturity is highly annoying. That will lead some to think:
The answer lies within the person and it could go two ways: You either want to be a clone of society or you want to make your own rules. Both sound pretty interesting, but they are both flawed in the end. Being a clone of society is being brain-dead and being manipulated by the 1000 year old traditions and opinions of people who don't know who you are, don't understand you, and don't care about you. Making your own rules would ultimately lead to problems with everyone due to lack of respect of others and violation of natural law. And still, you might wonder:
But, what does it all matter in the end: who you are?
We are who we choose to be and who we are molded by the events and actions of others toward us, and our events and actions toward others and the consequences of our actions. We all have different characters and personalities and we have to learn how to get along beside all the defects and imperfections. We are the children of the world, and we have to make the world work out.
Then why are there so many wars, if we can make it work?
Because there cannot be peace without war. Further than that, humans have problems understanding each other and accepting differences. We seldom have toleration for others and their variety of ideals, beliefs, and dogmas. Maybe if we could work a little harder to understand each other and talk out the resolutions to problems, we wouldn't be facing so many as we are now. But many people don't want to talk; they refuse to communicate their views and opinions and to work out problems. Right there is where the question pops up in our heads:
Why are they so stubborn; can't they just work for the greater good?
But, what is the greater good, I ask you. You may not have an answer; I myself don't have one. There might be variations of the concept, but nobody has the concrete answer or solution to the mystery of the greater good. Well, let's just say that many people have some concepts a little more extreme than others, and some radicals will kill for the so-called "greater good." But we should keep our ideas to that of safety and benefit to the others in our planet. We share this world, and we live in it to survive and go through struggles supporting each other. That leads to friendship:
Why do we always need to identify with friends, or best friends?
Because we all need support and we all need someone to be able to identify with and to talk to, ask for advice, and share the cute moments of life with. If we can't share life with someone, and we keep all the happiness hidden away in a basement for only us to have, we aren't really contributing to any happiness ourselves, therefore making us selfish, which nobody likes to be. Then you ask:
But, we're all naturally selfish, so, what does it matter?
Oh, it matters a lot. Because if everyone would be selfish, then we should never have happiness. Imagine that nobody wanted to share their happiness and their good things in life with others, then nobody would be able to smile about it and share in the contentment. But,:Why should we make others happy, and not ourselves?
Because others influence us and actually help determine certain aspects of our personality and behavior. This may lead you to think:
Where is this all going? Why does all of this matter?
Well, it does, because in order to understand ourselves, we need to understand others, and if we are willing to make this world worth living in, we need to corroborate with others. We all have effects on others, in a sense you could say like the domino effect. Our actions are what push the dominos down, and it's up to us how many dominos get knocked down. You can always put your hand on the back of a domino and prevent it from knocking down the rest that are in front of it. You can help prevent disasters. Even though you might do something small, you can control actions and reactions. Just make sure you know what you're doing. Because, in the end, we are who we are and we are who shape the world. This isn't some talk about world peace, or world understanding. This is a talk to understand what we're about.
Socrates once said, "Understand yourself, and you will understand the world."
Once we know that... Everything will unfold before our eyes, and comprehension will dawn upon us.
And that, my friends, is what this is all about.
