A Short Essay on Success

“If you think you are beaten, you are.

If you think you dare not, you don’t.

If you like to win, but think you can’t, it is almost certain you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost.

For out in the world, we find

Success begins with a fellow’s will-it’s all in the state of mind.

               

Life’s battles don’t always go

To the stronger or faster man,

But sooner or later the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.”

-Anonymous

                Did I write this?

                No, my name is not anonymous.  This is so amazing that I would have put my name on it if I wrote it. 

                My dad always recites this for me.  He has it memorized.

                As you’ve probably guessed, I’m on Walter’s side in A Raisin in the Sun.  That man has an honest dream, and he believes he can succeed with it, and for that I commend and support him.  I don’t care what color your skin is, what religion you follow, or anything else that makes us all different; as long as you understand that your culture, your history, your disadvantages, your “limits,” and your failures are no reason to quit trying to succeed. 

Bittersweet Symphony

                I’ve heard people talk about how it’s too hard to move up in the world because the competition is so far ahead and so ruthless in its tactics.

                But looking at the competition of the late 1800s and early 1900s, it’s clear that moving up is possible.

                You may say something to the effect of “business now isn’t like it was in the past,” but did you consider that maybe you aren’t like the Americans of the past?

                During the time these men were advancing to power, the United States was fairly fresh out of a Civil War that tested “whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” Those would be the words of the Gettysburg Address.

                According to Lincoln, what was that nation dedicated to?

                It was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

                All men are created equal.  There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.  “Created equal” does not mean that the government sees them as equal.  It means that they are created equal by their Creator,  who, according to the Declaration of Independence, endows each and every man “with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

                “Pursuit of Happiness.” Read that again.  I’m pretty sure it still says “Pursuit of Happiness.” If you haven’t caught the message yet, read it again, and I’ll help you out this time; “Pursuit of Happiness.”

                Now let’s look at the synonyms of pursuit.  They are as follows, according to the results on Bing: “striving toward, quest after/for, search for, aim, goal, objective, dream.”

                I’m fairly certain that “lack of adversity,” “being provided happiness by the government or another power,” and “everyone being cordial and nice and helping you to happiness” were not in there.  Did you want to read through the synonyms again?

                “striving toward, quest after/for, search for, aim, goal, objective, dream.”

                Hopefully you got it the second time.

                If you haven’t noticed, we will all face adversity in our lifetimes.  The rich of the Industrial Revolution certainly didn’t go without it.  The women who fought for the right to vote and the blacks who fought for equality and the men who founded the nation that gives you the right to pursue happiness certainly didn’t have it easy.

                I don’t have it easy.  I’ve got an immune deficiency that may prevent me from fulfilling my dream of serving my country. 

                Nearly every single day I can hear someone complain about an insult from a person who honestly won’t matter to them in the long run, or about how they’re depressed because they never seem to be able to get what they want, or some other complaint relating to how the world doesn’t provide for their every whim.  Maybe we’re just a bunch of pansies now.

                We all face adversity.  Throughout history and up to the present there have always been obstacles.  Those who succeed are the people who overcome those obstacles.  You have to have the courage to overcome the obstacles.  Sometimes life will suck, but you can overcome, just like the Americans of the Civil Rights movement. 

                “It’s a bittersweet symphony this life.”-The Verve

St. Elmo's Fire

                So I guess this week I can get something off my chest, for a moment at least; but I’ll never be able to get it out of my head.  I guess you could say the same about Gatsby.  He could never get his dream out of his head.

                I do have one key difference with Gatsby.  He is fighting to bring back the past; I am working to forget it.  I never will, though, I can’t.  It is a part of me.  Anyone would probably say I’m being too hard on myself, but I don’t think so.  I think I’ve got it about right.

                When I refer to the past, it’s basically the stuff right up until Christmas break of my sophomore year.  A certain something transpired then, but I won’t get into those details.  I’m going to confess to what I thought before, and what torments me from the corner of my mind each and every day. 

                When I was younger I felt like I was entitled to more, that I was entitled to utter happiness.  I guess I kind of got that way after being the kid on the playground who decided what everyone was going to do at recess.  When I moved to Troy halfway through the second grade I didn’t have that power anymore, but I felt like I still deserved it.  My mind started freaking out as it realized the truth.  I was subject to fits of self-pity that would be followed by anger and ended with depression.  In one of my moments of anger I came a few inches from bringing a golf club down on my sister’s head, but common sense caught me just in time.  Then, in the 8^th grade, I utterly annihilated the heart of a friend through Facebook chat (no details, sorry).  Often in the period of depression later I’d sit listening to The Wall, a Pink Floyd album that fit my mood very well.

                As I entered high school I started to improve, I started to learn.  The anger phase was easily skipped if I flipped on depressing music.  Christmas break of my sophomore year provided inspiration, and I refused to let go of it.  I quit the Pink Floyd and started playing music that helped.  I started thinking, too, forming my own solid opinions instead of letting them be controlled by my emotional phase. 

                Yet even today I hear the voice inside that wants to freak out.  Whatever piece of me I’ve stationed to guard its cage feels more and more strained every day.  It’s been months since I’ve gotten another resurgence of strength (Paityn Donaldson will probably know what I’m talking about if she digs into her memory of last year, but I’d appreciate it if she didn’t leave it in the comments when she remembers).  I doubt I’ll ever be free, but there’s no way I’m letting that thing get control of me again.  I've got to get moving.

                Well, that was quite personal.  Wasn’t expecting that, but oh well. 

From the soundtrack of a good movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaGsbv2skr8

All the Small Things

                I was watching my cat today.  It was the small one named Knight, a little black cat.  The big fat tabby named Captain was off doing whatever, probably eating, but Knight was sleeping on my computer chair while I read the first chapter of The Great Gatsby.  After a while he decided to get up and visit my window.

                That cat sat staring at the sky for almost an hour.

                That got me wondering.  What does the cat see?  How does he feel about that world he sees outside my window?  He’s so small and so primitive that he can’t possibly comprehend everything he sees.  While as humans we can look out the window and see a car and understand the basics of how it works, a cat probably thinks it’s an animal, just like a vacuum or a fan.  We see a house and know it’s a place where humans live, built with bricks and wood and metal and whatnot. 

                That brought me to a thought I’d had before.  Why us?  Why did humans end up here?  Did we just haphazardly evolve from lower creatures, or was it guided by something else, something more powerful than the human mind can comprehend (I’m referring to God)?  As a Christian, I certainly believe that, if evolution is true, then it was guided by God to result in us.  That, however, is an opinion.

                I am in the middle of conducting an experiment.  I invited four people of differing mindsets to a chat on Facebook and presented them with seven stories, and asked them what they got out of each one.  I was interested in finding out how people who are inclined to different states of mind will view different situations.  One person of the four has responded so far, and one of these stories is exactly what I am talking about now.  The story was that of evolution, with an emphasis on asking why we came to exist, and why we ended up superior to everything else around us (although I did not specify the human race in the story).

                The person who has responded, who shall remain anonymous, wondered whether this species will “…use its capabilities to take advantage of the other beings.” Are we here to oppress all the small things around us?

                Now I guess it’s time to present my opinion.  I am not a vegetarian, to put it one way, but I’m also not a ruthless killer.  I support hunting rules and punishing those who break them, because although we’ve set ourselves a world apart, we can’t destroy the world around us. 

                Like I’ve said, I’m no environmentalist.  I believe in alternative energy because it means it’ll take longer to run out of oil, not because it “helps the environment.” I believe in recycling because it means we won’t need as much raw material.  I will not support detracting from human society for the sake of Earth, but I also will not support detracting from Earth for the sake of black market money and law breaking.

P.S. I hope you all get my references to older songs in some of my titles (this one is by Blink 182).

Sleeping on my Face

                I woke up at 1AM yesterday and began a coughing fit that wouldn’t stop for more than an hour.  After inhaling steam, moving my humidifier closer, propping myself up to basically a sitting position, taking Dayquil (at night), drinking hot cocoa, drinking cold water, having a cough drop, and forcing myself to hold in coughs, I still couldn’t get it to quit.  It really sucks sleeping on my back (especially propped up) because I’m a front sleeper.  Of course, they tell you to sit up when you have a cough, so I did.  They say it lets the fluid drain down your throat better because of gravity.

                Then I had a thought.

                If I slept on my face, wouldn’t that prevent the stuff from running down my throat (thus causing me to cough) in the first place?

                No, the cough didn’t stop, but it slowed to the point where I could manage to fall asleep again.

                You can call me sentimental, but when it comes to anything I always count on the old and dependable stuff.  I listen to music from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s (although mostly 70s and 80s), I have an MP3 player instead of an iPod, I have had the same t-shirts for three years, I’ve got a laptop from 2011, a car from 1998 (which I still can’t drive alone until December), and a mind that prefers the old-fashioned way of working things out instead of memorizing formulas and answers and definitions and such.

                None of that stuff ever lets me down as much as modern things do.  Facebook screws up way more often than my MP3 player does.  My '98 Chevy Blazer is nearing 129 thousand miles.  From what I've heard a heck of a lot of modern Toyotas aren't making 10 thousand.  The United States is still giving me the freedoms that people in most nations across the globe don’t have.

                Now, this may be because I sleep on my face too much, but the way I see it, what could be wrong with good old dependable punctuation?