Experiences

Experiences teaches you, it makes you – a tougher you- only if you let it.

All our experiences are based on the past, but not all that happened in the past are necessarily an experience because experience is something that impacted you, that changed you –for the better or worse, an experience is something that caught you in the moment, it pulled you aside for a second and said remember this, and most often than not, it made you your own teacher and made you eat your own lessons - that’s an experience.

That time you dipped your cookie in the milk for too long, it became too soft and fell into bottom of the cup. That time when you sneaked out of class, or that time you deliberately didn’t do your homework and was asked to hand in the next day. Remember that experience when you fell because your shoe lace was untie or that time you woke up early on Saturdays just for your favourite cartoon. The experience when you were betrayed of your trust, the experience when you scored a distinction or that time you woke up late for an exam or the when you had the best times of your life. There are gazillions of experiences that we have, and each, has shaped us to be who we are today.

Based on experience you might think the point here is to tell you that you’re are in control of how you are going to feel about tomorrow. But the real point here is what you do not experience shapes you. Yes, the times you just ate what your mum cooked, you don’t remember them, but she might have worked hard at it. That time you had a seat in the train and standing in front of you was someone who had leg cramps.

Yes, its equally ridiculous to be remembering all that happens in our life, almost impossible psychologically. But we can remember this, that our inability to understand something shapes our ignorance. So while you and I are ignorant, as difficult as it may seem, lets not pass judgements.

Something she is learning to this very day.

Ocean Deep

 

Come to think about it, life’s a lot like being thrown into the ocean (minus the sharks and jellyfishes)

We get thrown into it, and eventually we learn to swim and paddle through. If we keep with our strokes and our paddling, we get better, our muscles get stronger.

“The end of the year always excites me because its like the movies where the ending is always when everything happens”

– Mr Francis (Lecturer)

Less than two months away and the year comes to an end. We’re  in the ocean, all of us, question is where in the ocean are we? Maybe you’ve been swimming along the coastline, or perhaps you took on the adventure and you’re paddling to the middle.

Reflecting on her journey thus far, she recalls taking a few risks, she had begun paddling towards the high tides. Yes, there were times she felt her legs cramp, there were times she get tired. Even every now and then she still does get tired, but that’s when she floats a while and enjoys the view of clouds passing by and the sound of water lapping on the surface.

The ocean can be a scary place or a wonderful one, and its up to you how you would like it to be. But whatever you do, move. Because someday there will be a higher, rougher wave, and if you’re not ready, it will hit you, push you deep and sink you down. She has her surfboard and she’s waiting for that wave. Now you, the year is coming to an end, like a movie it will finish with a bang, will you sink or will you surf?

We’re all in the ocean, question is where in the ocean are you now?

On a lighter note, while you’re in the ocean, make a few friends and keep the bond, because life’s more colourful with a few more people in it.

Everybody knows

A new day, a new lesson to learn, a new experience, a second chance – to live.

Her eye shut tight as she holds in the pain. Tears flow because of helplessness, her body weakens and she feel her pulse drop. Last morning, a strange but surreal thought came to her mind. A thought that she believed with all her heart when breathing became harder and there were longer pauses between her pulse – that it was the end of the journey for her.

Today, now, the breath you just took in as you read this, and the one you just let out - its another chance to live. We’ve heard countless reminders to live like it was your last, and one day, it will be your last.

Love just because, forgive because someone forgave you, hug because it speaks more than words, laugh even in the toughest situation, cry because it releases you, share because it brings more meaning, take time to appreciate because you can – this is how she will live.

If it really is the end of the journey for you now, are there things that you’ve left incomplete? Go do that – today.

The stories we wrote.

“Everyday is a new story” – Marissa

 

Time passes by so fast. Where she is now is a place far from where she was six months ago. The road she took when she begun the new journey and the potholes and turnings has lead her to a road far from where it all began.

We’re all writers. We’re all working on a book with our names imprinted on the front cover. But the stories we write are different. Some write tragedy, some write love stories, some write about dreams. Whatever it is we’re writing at this time of our lives, we are nevertheless writing. Writing – an active word because reading this, you’re still working on that book –your book.

Today, she flipped through her book, where the pages are stained with words. And as she read through how one chapter closed and opens to a new one, she saw how some of the character in the book exits and enters as well. But what caught her attention was how she wasn't always the writer of her book.

 

Writing is not always an easy process, sometimes living is easy, other times we wished it was easy. And those are the times some of us have handed our pen to circumstances, and the people around us. People who have bruised our pages, caused pain and smudged the page. We let them write our story.

 

We might have given away our pen last year, yesterday, or the day before, or maybe just now, but what’s wonderful is that we can take it back. And write our story, with our dreams filled with hope and love. But as you write, don’t draw a line away from torn friendship, and broken dreams. Drawing a line away from something to protect ourselves from harm and pain is something nobody taught us to do, but we have been so good at it. Instead, lets try drawing a line to it.  And if you can, make connections, rebuild it, or else learn from it, but never hand the pen to it.

The book we write might not make it to the bestsellers list but as long as there are blank pages, keep writing, because its your book.

We’re all builders.

 

Seasons – we all have it. In a funny way, it keeps our life in order, like a folder which entitles ‘when i was eight’ or ‘college and all the stuff we did’ . We all have seasons in our life like folders.

Last season was really something for her. She learnt so many life lessons she didn’t have time to note all of them down here.

Life is such that we’re always building. Some people are building their family, some are building their faith, some are building a relationship. We’re all builders. But everything built can also be broken.

Last season she tore quite a number of buildings she held dear to her heart. Imagine building something so long and then one day, all that has been built starts falling apart. It was difficult. More than that, it was confusing. But if she had the chance to go back to that season, she would do the same thing all over again.

 

You don’t have to be an architect to know that unless you have a firm foundation whatever that you have set your heart to build will not last very long. And firm foundation could sometimes mean you need to dig deeper before you pile in the strong irons that would hold that thing you’re building. And if there was already a building built on weak foundation, that’s when you tear that building down and start working on the foundation- if its worth all the trouble.

Sometimes you have to break to make - to make something better than before, something stronger.

But sometimes, after tearing that thing you been building, instead of building it back, you might consider just leaving it torn down to the ground because it isn’t worth building all over again. Other times you try and try to build, and it keeps falling apart. It can get frustrating, sometimes you rather just sit and watch it fall and not do anything anymore.

 

Sometimes it gets tiring, trying to build something that falls even when you lay the first brick. But it is when you get tired of trying, take some time, go someplace, take your mind off, regain strength, and when you’re ready, remember what made you want to build that building in the first place, and try again.

One reason – just one is all that is needed to build. Find that one.

Pursuit of an answer.

“ The world is your classroom.” – mum

The past couple of days, she has been learning, not because she is living in that classroom but rather because she wants to.

 

Questions.

We all have them – no, it wasn’t the why questions, rather the what questions. If the world is her classroom, then she would like a refreshment course. She picked up the book she has been writing, the book that you and I have, flipping through the pages, she tries to look for a reason. An answer to one question – Love. A reason for love.

How can something affect us so mightily, how can something hurt us so much when it goes unnoticed, how is it that that something heal us, how can that very something affect us so much, and yet we don’t know what makes us do it.

Looking through the pages, she found no one definite reason. What makes us care that we care so much?

 

 What.

In pursuit of the answer behind this question, she asked the very person who loves her. She asked, and uttered the words,  the question came out right, but the answer came out unexpected.

The answer she received was not in words, but what welled up in the eye of the one she love. The drops that welled had a reflection of   herself. She found more than an answer, she found love. That answered all.

The world is a classroom, but the teachers are not always right. She learnt today that sometimes, we do the things we do, just because we want to. We love the people we love - just because we do. We fight for what we believe in – just because we do. And she learnt it through a friend- a best friend.

Sometimes when you’re in a classroom and there is a question. You try to look for the answers, you open the books, you search through your own written book, but there is no answer. Well, stop flipping through, sometimes you learn the best things out of the classroom, sometimes the answers are not where you are searching.

Right now, you’re in a classroom. The teacher has a name tag that spells ‘M-I-S-T-A-K-E-S’. Why don’t you ask that teacher to take a sit, and you try taking over the class instead, because when you do, the lessons you learn and the meaning you will find will be extraordinary.

But in the midst of learning, don’t forget to live.  Because in trying to answer her question, she almost forgot to do just that –live.

 Live – just because.

Pocket full of words.

 

Today she wore a jumpsuit. The kind that makes you feel like a child again. The kind that reminds you about that time you were a child and you discovered there is an empty little bag like thingy by the side of your pants people call pockets and that makes your boring pants so much more cooler. And the more pockets you have, the more cooler your pants is. Well, this jumpsuit was really really very cool.

Its a beautiful day. The sun didn’t shine too much, because the clouds had just poured rain, with the breeze blowing enough fresh air to make you feel like you’re on top of the world. She walked, like how you would on a day like this. She slips her hands  to the sides into her pockets to keep it warm and nice, but it was filled with so many things – words.

Like the kind you would see on a kids cereal box, she had words inside her pockets. Lots of words. Words that discourages,  words that heals, some lifts up, some puts down, and others broken. But all of it were in her pockets. In fact is explains the extra weight she has been carrying all along the journey.

Words are sometimes like knifes. As cliché as it may sound, you can use them to cut. Or to sharpen. But if not handled well, you might get a wound or cause someone else to. But no matter what the knife is capable of doing, remember we are the ones who hold the knifes. You and I.

Today, she pulled the words which were not worth keeping anymore. She kept words that sharpens instead, you should too. Because its not worth carrying the weight.

Hold your knife, blow a candle and cut a cake. Celebrate life, encourage. Because your knife is in your hands.