BitoBain
Career
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2013
- Messages
- 375
- Reaction score
- 840
As humans, we do not understand how puny our lives are. We teach our children from the time they are born that they will have to wait for opportunities to come. We see children waiting for play time, waiting for candy, waiting to learn, and waiting to grow up. They don't even realize that their life is just a flash, just a kiss with reality that is short, and sometimes sweet. We talk like we are going to live forever, but this is a twisted image. Life does not only go by quickly, it is an illusion that accelerates itself the longer we live. Achieving our dreams in this tiny period of time takes a lot of focus.
When you are drowning and want fresh air, there is nothing else you want more than dry air. You don't care how hungry you are, how you look, how many texts or alerts you have, what people think of you, what you are going to serve at a party this weekend, or who says what. All you want is air. Air is the pinnacle of your existence. Your entire being is devoted to attaining air, regardless of what it takes. Indeed we will all die eventually, but whether or not we ever get our name spoken for the last time is determined by whether we choose to seek after air, (success) or settle down and die a second death. In our second death, we disappear for real. Our name is no longer spoken; you cease to exist in the hearts of your people. Great people are immortal. People who have gone down in history for greatness have all devoted themselves to their cause, and little else.They haven't let petty distractions get in the way of a substantial contribution to mankind. They haven't gotten stuck waiting.
You must never get stuck in this dangerous state of mind: the waiting state. When we are waiting for opportunities to appear, we are wasting our infinitely precious existences and we miss out on pure joy. It is often tempting to join most others and simply wait for life to happen. You must not let this happen. You must not wait for friends to talk, for inspiration to come in, for school to end, for the water to turn warm, for a text to come in, for a boat to come in, for a flag to raise, for a bell to ring, for our brains to turn on, for fortune to show up. Genius is not completely natural; much of it it is attained by choosing to be completely proactive all of the time. Geniuses wait less.
I once met a young man who baffled me from the moment I heard about him. First, I heard about him when I asked my brother who the best clarinet player at the high school was. He stated his name without hesitation. The next thing I heard was the beautiful sound of him playing clarinet. The moment I heart these two things, I knew he was not a "waiter."
He played on an entire other level than I had previously heard. Fascinated, I came to play clarinet with the band one time at a basketball game. He looked me in the eye, and said "It's nice to meet you. I'm glad you came and I'd love it if you could come again. If you want to join marching band, We'd love to have you." He played those tunes perfectly every time, smiling and enjoying life when it was appropriate, being serious during the pledge of allegiance. He loved the school and country and showed it.
After his amazing first impression, his character only got better. He turned out to be an amazing leader. During parade band, he led effectively and lovingly. He remembered all of our names the first time. He even remembered music the first time he read it. When it became cold outside during marching band later on, he would somehow channel warmth into his fingers so that he could play sixteenth notes, while the rest of us froze. His attitude was perfect as far as I knew. I was even more baffled by his perfection when I learned that he had skipped a grade. His humor was directed towards my age group, but he seemed to have matured far beyond his years, almost into eternity.
As he was quickly gaining my respect, I was enjoying life. His example was making me something I was very proud of. I was ignoring that fact that I was young and I was doing everything that I wanted to. Nothing was going to get in the way of what I wanted, just like my hero wouldn't. I should have known, though, that one cannot live in bliss forever.
During a great time over my summer between my eight and ninth grade years, I was sitting in my car, returning from a road trip with my family when I got a strange text from my older brother, who was home with my dad, saying "don't come home for six or seven hours." At this point we were only two hours away, so this made no sense. We figured he might be throwing a surprise party or he broke something that he wanted to fix, but I had a bad feeling. We texted him some more but got no clear indication of what was going on. My mom got impatient, and as soon as she was about to call one of our neighbors, by brother who was in the car with me got a text from someone back at home saying "there is an ambulence in front of your house."
At this point, I knew something was very wrong. I walked into the gas station, my mind buzzing with thoughts of what might be going on. I looked at a hispanic lady and just sat and thought about what my life would be like if this was just another day. I dreamed about how hard I would work to get towards my dreams if today could only be normal, though I already normally tried very hard at life. I saw a man at the cash register, just waiting for customers. I remember walking into the bathroom and being on the brink of tears, though I didn't even know what was coming.
We started driving again and my mom suddenly pulled over to the side of the road after being on the phone for a few seconds. She just blurted it out. "Apparently your dad has passed away." I just gasped silently. The thoughts flooded my brain. Trying to take in this thought was like drinking from a fire hose through a straw, but I sucked it up relatively quickly anyway. I didn't cry; I just prayed for peace and comfort. My poor sister burst into tears instantly, but I couldn't comfort her since I was just as clueless.
The next few weeks were full of every possible emotion, but I didn't want to go through some grieving process, so I generally just shut out my emotions and did what I wanted. I just wanted my family to be okay. One fundamental aspect changed, though, despite the fact that I wasn't very changed. I started to make excuses for why I couldn't accomplish my dreams. I would whine that I was too poor, or born in the wrong place, or that my family limited me. This would cause more grief than I was already dealing with, later on.
But my hero stayed constant. He was always there for me. He quickly became the prominent male figure in my life. It couldn't be either of my brothers since they were too stricken with grief to function like they used to. That clarinet player was sincere and understanding. He took advantage of every moment and made no excuses. He became the most influential person in my life outside of my family. He was ranked #1 in his class despite being under pressure from so many people. He was often hated for what he was, which only happened because people were jealous. He stood up for what he believed with rage whenever something evil tried to penetrate his high moral standards.
I would sit in bed at night and just think about him. I wondered how he could be everything he was. I would often ask what he would do when stuck in uncertain situations. His shining light spread to people all around him every day. Sometimes I even wondered if he was truly human. He had to struggle every day not to let his clean personality get infected by this filthy world. He seemed too perfect to really belong to this world. He should have been somewhere better.
Throughout the past two and a half years since my father's passing away, I have changed a lot. I think entirely differently but I still gaze up to my old hero like he holds up half of the sky. I know he will be a part of something great in his life. I know he will be immortal after he dies. He will not wait for anything; he will go forward like train on a perfectly straight track, never veering from his dreams and high standards of morality. I would give anything to be like him. He is success. I want to be like him more than I want air. Thank goodness for him and his soul and the countless good deeds he has done. If every person could be like him, there would absolutely be no limits on human expansion, achievement, and happiness. May we all strive to be have that kind of virtue.
There's my speech. I hope you enjoyed my 250th post and thank you if you have read this far. Everything I stated was completely true. I hope you can appreciate the power of a hero like I did. If you learned anything in this post, I hope you will not forget it.
When you are drowning and want fresh air, there is nothing else you want more than dry air. You don't care how hungry you are, how you look, how many texts or alerts you have, what people think of you, what you are going to serve at a party this weekend, or who says what. All you want is air. Air is the pinnacle of your existence. Your entire being is devoted to attaining air, regardless of what it takes. Indeed we will all die eventually, but whether or not we ever get our name spoken for the last time is determined by whether we choose to seek after air, (success) or settle down and die a second death. In our second death, we disappear for real. Our name is no longer spoken; you cease to exist in the hearts of your people. Great people are immortal. People who have gone down in history for greatness have all devoted themselves to their cause, and little else.They haven't let petty distractions get in the way of a substantial contribution to mankind. They haven't gotten stuck waiting.
You must never get stuck in this dangerous state of mind: the waiting state. When we are waiting for opportunities to appear, we are wasting our infinitely precious existences and we miss out on pure joy. It is often tempting to join most others and simply wait for life to happen. You must not let this happen. You must not wait for friends to talk, for inspiration to come in, for school to end, for the water to turn warm, for a text to come in, for a boat to come in, for a flag to raise, for a bell to ring, for our brains to turn on, for fortune to show up. Genius is not completely natural; much of it it is attained by choosing to be completely proactive all of the time. Geniuses wait less.
I once met a young man who baffled me from the moment I heard about him. First, I heard about him when I asked my brother who the best clarinet player at the high school was. He stated his name without hesitation. The next thing I heard was the beautiful sound of him playing clarinet. The moment I heart these two things, I knew he was not a "waiter."
He played on an entire other level than I had previously heard. Fascinated, I came to play clarinet with the band one time at a basketball game. He looked me in the eye, and said "It's nice to meet you. I'm glad you came and I'd love it if you could come again. If you want to join marching band, We'd love to have you." He played those tunes perfectly every time, smiling and enjoying life when it was appropriate, being serious during the pledge of allegiance. He loved the school and country and showed it.
After his amazing first impression, his character only got better. He turned out to be an amazing leader. During parade band, he led effectively and lovingly. He remembered all of our names the first time. He even remembered music the first time he read it. When it became cold outside during marching band later on, he would somehow channel warmth into his fingers so that he could play sixteenth notes, while the rest of us froze. His attitude was perfect as far as I knew. I was even more baffled by his perfection when I learned that he had skipped a grade. His humor was directed towards my age group, but he seemed to have matured far beyond his years, almost into eternity.
As he was quickly gaining my respect, I was enjoying life. His example was making me something I was very proud of. I was ignoring that fact that I was young and I was doing everything that I wanted to. Nothing was going to get in the way of what I wanted, just like my hero wouldn't. I should have known, though, that one cannot live in bliss forever.
During a great time over my summer between my eight and ninth grade years, I was sitting in my car, returning from a road trip with my family when I got a strange text from my older brother, who was home with my dad, saying "don't come home for six or seven hours." At this point we were only two hours away, so this made no sense. We figured he might be throwing a surprise party or he broke something that he wanted to fix, but I had a bad feeling. We texted him some more but got no clear indication of what was going on. My mom got impatient, and as soon as she was about to call one of our neighbors, by brother who was in the car with me got a text from someone back at home saying "there is an ambulence in front of your house."
At this point, I knew something was very wrong. I walked into the gas station, my mind buzzing with thoughts of what might be going on. I looked at a hispanic lady and just sat and thought about what my life would be like if this was just another day. I dreamed about how hard I would work to get towards my dreams if today could only be normal, though I already normally tried very hard at life. I saw a man at the cash register, just waiting for customers. I remember walking into the bathroom and being on the brink of tears, though I didn't even know what was coming.
We started driving again and my mom suddenly pulled over to the side of the road after being on the phone for a few seconds. She just blurted it out. "Apparently your dad has passed away." I just gasped silently. The thoughts flooded my brain. Trying to take in this thought was like drinking from a fire hose through a straw, but I sucked it up relatively quickly anyway. I didn't cry; I just prayed for peace and comfort. My poor sister burst into tears instantly, but I couldn't comfort her since I was just as clueless.
The next few weeks were full of every possible emotion, but I didn't want to go through some grieving process, so I generally just shut out my emotions and did what I wanted. I just wanted my family to be okay. One fundamental aspect changed, though, despite the fact that I wasn't very changed. I started to make excuses for why I couldn't accomplish my dreams. I would whine that I was too poor, or born in the wrong place, or that my family limited me. This would cause more grief than I was already dealing with, later on.
But my hero stayed constant. He was always there for me. He quickly became the prominent male figure in my life. It couldn't be either of my brothers since they were too stricken with grief to function like they used to. That clarinet player was sincere and understanding. He took advantage of every moment and made no excuses. He became the most influential person in my life outside of my family. He was ranked #1 in his class despite being under pressure from so many people. He was often hated for what he was, which only happened because people were jealous. He stood up for what he believed with rage whenever something evil tried to penetrate his high moral standards.
I would sit in bed at night and just think about him. I wondered how he could be everything he was. I would often ask what he would do when stuck in uncertain situations. His shining light spread to people all around him every day. Sometimes I even wondered if he was truly human. He had to struggle every day not to let his clean personality get infected by this filthy world. He seemed too perfect to really belong to this world. He should have been somewhere better.
Throughout the past two and a half years since my father's passing away, I have changed a lot. I think entirely differently but I still gaze up to my old hero like he holds up half of the sky. I know he will be a part of something great in his life. I know he will be immortal after he dies. He will not wait for anything; he will go forward like train on a perfectly straight track, never veering from his dreams and high standards of morality. I would give anything to be like him. He is success. I want to be like him more than I want air. Thank goodness for him and his soul and the countless good deeds he has done. If every person could be like him, there would absolutely be no limits on human expansion, achievement, and happiness. May we all strive to be have that kind of virtue.
There's my speech. I hope you enjoyed my 250th post and thank you if you have read this far. Everything I stated was completely true. I hope you can appreciate the power of a hero like I did. If you learned anything in this post, I hope you will not forget it.
Sincerely,
-BitoBain
-BitoBain
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