Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Here It Is


This is a new beginning. It’s the first words out of my pen onto this page. This is for driving around with the stereo up and the top down rolling lyrics out of your mouth. This is for the smell of the dorm room from your freshman year of college, makin’ out and stackin’ knowledge. This is for that fight with your ex that starts out in flame, but ends in the cloud of I still love you the same. Here it is. This is for the moment when the text rolls through you’ve been waiting for all day, they like you too they feel the same way. This is for the cold side of the pillow. This is for the brand new headphones that pump the bass straight into your bones, here it is. Here’s for the kiss that makes your heart drop, the love that makes the world stop, the poem that takes you straight to the top of your mind. This is it. Here’s to the perfect honest man who never succeeds, the gorgeous girl that sits at home alone and reads, and that quiet lonely person that only needs your attention. This is for you. This is for you and this is for me and this is for all the people that can never be as smooth or as quick as they want to be. This is for us.   

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

A Summertime Requiem

My summer is over. School looms on the immediate horizon, and my current week is to be consumed by work. This summer was one of the most interesting I've ever had, and filled with the most lessons. I met so many new people and had so many new experiences, it almost feels like a dream in someone else's life. The daily grind turned into my own blown mind with the plethora of diversity I surrounded myself with. The banality of my activities may bore my readers, but it was some of the best four months of my life. Cliche man-time things such as going to the gym, tanning, and maintaining a constant flow of beautiful women became the norm for me and my companions. I'm about to embark on another adventure, one just as great as the last. I've already got a great group of people to spend time with, a stable job that I'm good at, and classes that I will do great in. My hope for myself is that I will have a successful semester with a positive outcome. It's approximately four o'clock in the morning, the time when nostalgia usually grips me with a firm refusal to let go. I have to be to work in an hour. My thoughts are all over the place, but I'm determined to make this my first post in which I don't insist on eloquence. I'm ready for what's coming next. I'm meeting it head on with a great attitude and a great team behind me. As the summer dies and my friends move away, I just want to thank everyone that took part in the awesome time I had. All the trips to Vegas, the lake, and the river, performing at Jazzy Java, going on long drives, staying up way too late, going to the gym too much, and watching way too many bad movies has been awesome. Who knows where the winds of change will blow me now? An intelligent man once said "I can not change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." That is exactly what I am doing now. I am adjusting my sails.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

My Future at a Glance

Opportunity is a strange thing. Blink once, and a golden chance may be lost. There have been many such chances in my recent past. There have been times where I have been staring at the ceiling, waiting to fall down that dark rabbit hole we call sleep, wishing that I had seized opportunities that had the potential to be great. It was during one such sleepless night that I had an epiphany. If I were to take every event and treat it like it had the same importance as the one before it, there would be no regrets. My only question is this: where is the line? Where does something that might be trivial to one person become an important event to someone else? I think this is where the time-honored saying "to each his own" comes into play. Maybe this is just my inner existentialist coming out thinking that things are more complex than they really are. Maybe I just enjoy a roundabout way of thinking. Either way, I am now taking every chance that I can. So far I have only had positive experiences. Took a chance and reached for her hand in the dark? I found that she was already reaching for mine. Help negotiate a deal for Richman Grand Marketing? I find I have a knack for business and a fairly lucrative side job. Aristotle said, "All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion and desire." I've decided that this is definitely a great list of actions to add to my daily routine. I will continue to take chances, believe that nature has a way of helping things work out, be compelled to be great, form good habits, have excellent reasons for my actions, be passionate about everything I do, and desire to be a better man every day. Life is a funny thing. Who knows where I will end up tomorrow. 

Monday, April 11, 2011

A lot of people don't believe in luck. Most just chalk it up to a superstitious frivolity. While I don't believe in keeping a horseshoe upright or carry the dismembered limb of a helpless animal to stroke in times of distress, I do believe in the general concept of luck. I honestly believe there are some people in this world that things just work out for, and there are some people that will constantly draw the short straw. Fortunately for me, I happen to be of the former. Maybe it's my personality, maybe it's my Irish heritage; of the reason I am uncertain. But things just seem to have a way of working out. It was only when I realized things were going well that I had an epiphany. Maybe things work out because I want them to. My new philosophy is that we can all make our own luck. If we want something and we work hard enough, we can have it. Most people consider it good fortune because they have been given something good. I consider it the positive outcome of a job well done. So is it ever really luck? Or are we just being given what we deserve? A four leaf clover is indeed rare, but not if we could breed our own special strain of them. I guess the bottom line is that we can all have what we want if we're willing to put in the time. If I can do it, you can do it too. Breed your own four leaf clovers. Make your own luck.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

A Word on Happiness

Happiness comes in many forms. For me this week, it came in many shapes and under many different monikers. The smooth and painless passing of a loved one was a great blessing. It of course had me pondering the implications of my actions, and still has me hoping that I might be able to leave this life with no regrets and zero burnt bridges. I also had the opportunity to get in touch with my roots and really appreciate my heritage. Being able to reconnect with my immediate and extended family has really aided me in my quest for happiness. I feel like the icy fingers of hopelessness have relinquished their grip on me. I'm finally starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Do I still have a long and arduous journey ahead? Of course. But now i'm prepared for the ride. Another great blessing has been the kind ears of a friend. My grandiose and existentialist views are probably not always a sweet tune to hear, but the ears are always open and have helped me find a great new attitude. I stated earlier this evening that not only is the glass half full, but I drank the first half already and enjoyed every drop. My attempts to remain optimistic have drawn a new conclusion; optimism breeds happiness. I'm happy now. Is it permanent? Probably not. But I will enjoy it while it lasts and do my best to maintain it. Things are good.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Let It Be

Every time I sit down to compose, my fingers poised over the keys ready to tap out some more difficult-to-decipher sentences, I feel like I'm writing a very self-serving monologue. For those of us who have seen the TV show "Scrubs," I feel like Dr. John Dorian; talking to masses I can't see in a narcissistic attempt to make myself feel better. I guess the long road we all travel has as many zig-zags as Lombard Street. We may not always be headed in exactly the direction we thought, but we must press on. We can't let every cheap shot and infidelity make us press on the brakes and slow down our cosmic momentum. I've realized that whenever things don't go my way or people act out in a manner I deem less than socially acceptable, I have the tendency to let it ruin my day. I don't know exactly how much traction I have with my audience, but I would like to advise you to try my new way of thinking. It's paradigm shifting and has helped me start every day with a better attitude. Maintain a high level of control over your moods, and attempt to stay positive in all circumstances. Putting out good energy draws good energy, and who doesn't want to be surrounded by positivity, right? Today I survived two deeply seated acts of betrayal, and have already decided that moving on with a smile plastered across my face is the best plan of action. It's not that I'm sweeping it under the rug, I'm just choosing to let it go. John Lennon spoke it the most concisely, "Let it be." I'm choosing to let it be. 

Friday, March 25, 2011

Risk can be the most terrifying thing in the world. Going out on a limb and searching religiously for the things that will test us and frighten us can be amazingly cathartic, and begin our healing process. If we start from our beginning and search our souls we will find that the most youthful and alive we ever feel has been when we are standing on the edge of a proverbial ledge about to jump. It's a strange feeling, being on the edge. It can be an odd but exhilarating experience. We all have the power to plummet over the brink, or step back and ignore the epitome of who we could potentially be. I'm saying we should all jump, for we have nothing to lose but indecisiveness. Go back to the start when things were easy, and count through the years. You will truly find that age is the answer and not the question. It does not matter if you are 18, or 75. You too can find excitement and comfort diving into the unknown.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A Paradigm for the Masses

Sinners and saints: Two organizational cubbyholes that we've been placed in for centuries. The grand question is this: are these the only two categories that we as humans can fit in? Must we be either a selfish demon or proverbial good Samaritan? I say no, and that we may each have our own soul and identity. Let's create a theoretical situation: a man forces his friend to go to confession. Is the man a saint for helping his friend be saved, or a sinner for destroying his friend's free will and sense of individuality? This is the real battle. A man can not and should not be judged on his day to day doings, but on his heart and mind. "What can you ever really know of other people's souls - of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands." What can we take from these words of wisdom from C.S. Lewis? He insinuates that we can never truly know a person, with the obvious exception of ourselves. The only person's head we can ever really see the inside of is our own. So why do we believe it is our right to judge people? Have we been appointed to be the judge and jury of someone else's personality? No, we have not. It's not our place to call someone a sinner or a saint when most of us are failing to be a paragon of ourselves as it is. Let's just be the best people we can be and worry about ourselves. If we do that then people would enjoy a higher level of understanding and there would be be a better social construct in general. Join me in putting down the gavel.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Existentialism at Its Best

I can now see what I was blind to for so long. Change is inevitable. Change is the driving force behind everything in nature. Everything from the evolution of man to the changing colors of the leaves on the trees in autumn. The real question is, how do we adapt? For those of us who have missed opportunities and not been able to keep up with a constantly oscillating set of social requirements, the answer does not have to remain so elusive. Henry David Thoreau said, "Things do not change, we do." Our best bet to stay alive in this savage jungle they call life is to be open and accepting. It would be easier if life had a Dow-Jones or a NASDAQ that would let us know our net worth, but what we need to realize is our worth is only as high as we lead ourselves to believe it is. Our ability to adapt and create new futures and goals for ourselves is vital to a high level of affluence and personal happiness. When we start being the change we want the world to experience like Ghandi suggested, we actually create a new universe of which we are the master. Do we pass up such an opportunity? Do we walk away from a perfect version of ourselves because we are afraid of losing something we think is important? Or do we find what we want, and then take it? I guess the ultimate answer is that we must conquer the most difficult opponent we will ever face: Ourselves.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Tomorrow

The blaring noise of my cell phone's alarm clock looms. I can almost hear the annoying blast rousing me from my light but fitful sleep. I'm currently debating which plan for tomorrow I should follow. Plan A: Get up, shower, go to class. Plan B: Get up, shower, get breakfast, go to class. Plan B requires me to wake up a half hour earlier than I would otherwise. Either way, the sleep will never be enough. The apathy behind my ambivalence is sort of shocking. I feel like I'm always in a rush. I'm rushing off to class, I'm rushing back to my apartment to sit down for a moment, I'm rushing off to work. Why does the world require us to rush, to be fast? Does no one want us to take time to stop and smell the roses anymore? Then again, there are no roses. The roses have been replaced by sidewalks and the corporate drones that continue to run our lives. I don't look forward to tomorrow. Work, school, sidewalks, and a predilection to put myself on autopilot for the day. I guess it's just a small window into every other day in the near future. For now, I'm content having consistency.