Have you ever thought about what the guiding principles in your life are? By guiding principles I simply mean the things in life that you truly and fundamentally believe; the beliefs that shape your decisions when you find yourself in a position where you have to make one. Perhaps it is the notion that "everyone, no matter how seemingly insignificant, has something to teach us" or something as common as the idea that "all men are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights...among them...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" or "treat others the way that you wish to be treated" or "blood is thicker than water."
Those are just some generic examples, but your challenge this week is explore some of your own core beliefs and choose one guiding principle that you would like to shape your journey into adulthood and throughout life. Don't get caught up in tired cliches or age-old aphorisms, be creative, be yourself. What I mean is, really think about the beliefs that you hold near and dear to your heart and try to capture them in your own words. Talk about why these beliefs are important to you and how you came to recognize them. (400-450 words/75pts)
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First to post! Yay! Didn't even read the question yet, but I am still first. My life is complete.
Growing up, my mother has always told me that "karma will always come back to bite you in the ass." Being a strong believer in karma, I hold this very odd quote of my mother's close to my heart. I believe that if you do good, you will be rewarded, whether it is a personal reward or physical one, but if you do something bad or hurtful, something bad will happen to you. I like that because then you can't get away with doing something bad. This saying is important to me because it keeps me a good person. I, obviously, do not want to be punished for any wrong-doing so I will try my best to do good things and help other people. I don't need a reward in return, just knowing that I have become the person I am by living in this lifestyle is reward enough.
I truly believe that if other people were to live like that, we might have a better world. People wouldn't be so selfish as they have turned out to be. It seems that times of peril are the only times people decide they want to be these well-polished citizens, which is a complete facade. During 9/11 is an example of this. People were more respectful towards others and wanted to help as many people as they could because we were all hurt by this attack. Does it really take a terrorist attack to become unified? No, it doesn't. If people had better lifestyles and believed in karma as I do, we may all have better lives and the respect won't be fake or random, it will be all the time and real. By giving something up or doing something nice, we learn to appreciate others and not become so into ourselves. Another reason I believe in karma is so that I can learn to become independent and compassionate. It really develops you into a better person and teaches you proper ways of living.
And I have to add that, Jake, I am actually the first comment. :P
I actually began to write my response last night. I sat at my computer, sniffling and coughing, at 9:06 PM to be exact, and kind of just starred at the screen. Each week the blog has become routine. We all know it’s coming and we’re forced upon it, and we all do it because everyone in AP Lang is a freak about getting good grades. But besides the grade aspect of blogging, I think we all secretly love writing out our opinions and emotions and feel pretty comfortable doing so, even if we complain about how hard it is to write each week. I think that’s what I like about it. It’s personal. It’s all you and writing my opinions and remarks about unanswerable subjects helps me feel somewhat accomplished. When I first read this blog last night at 9:06 I couldn’t answer it. I thought about my life and what decisions I’ve made to get me to where I am and how I am. It really just hit me. I’ve had a rough childhood, but not a terrible one. I’m not the only kid with divorced parents and there’s definitely worse things that have happened out there, but when it comes down to it, that’s honestly what has shaped me into who I am, well and other situations, good or bad, along the way. When I was 9 years old, just a little girl, this innocent person, I went through my parents divorce. I wouldn’t wish the experience on anyone, especially twice like me, because I felt like it made me grow up too fast. There’s nothing I can do about it now, it’s all said and done, but it made me think of a moral that I would like to set for myself: From this day on, the person I end up marrying is going to love me for who I am and I’ll do the same for them and if that’s not what’s meant to be, then it won’t draw out. I’m not going to do what my dad did. I’m not going to get married at 20 and have a baby at 21. I’m not going to get divorced twice. I know this because even though I respect and love my father to death, he was too young. You need time to develop into who you are before you get into a big rush trying to settle down. For some reason, the topics of divorce and love always seem to work their way into everything I write. As you all know, I’m a 16-year-old junior in high school. But in my mind, I feel like a 30-year-old woman. I’ve been through divorce, I’ve been loved, and I’ve been dumped. The only thing missing is a career and a hubby. In a way, it’s a bad thing to go through hard times, but you can only learn from them. I definitely have. After talking with Bunje today, I realized that people are going to do what they want to do and you can’t stop them. You need to let them see what the world has to offer and what path they want to choose, because that’s really what life’s all about. So to make one final statement of my morals and beliefs close to my heart it would have to be this: Life is packed with the greatest and worst opportunities. Everyone is going to make decisions they regret and everyone’s going to make mistakes, but that step to changing any part of you is scary and risky in itself. The only way to get over anything in the past is to not let it affect your mind. I know I’m weak and drained, but I know I’ll get past it because let’s face it, I’m a 30-year-old-woman inside with a tough back bone. So all in all, to grow you need change, but which path you take is up to you and you have to do it for you, not someone else.
I would have to agree with my BFF Erin that karma is out there, but I don’t agree with her completely. I know for a fact that she has done bad things, not like rob a bank or something, but she’s committed some wrong doings. Who hasn’t? We’re only human so things are going to happen that are out of our control sometimes. If everyone believed in karma, where would I get my entertainment? As bad as that sounds, I love watching the show Cops. It’s completely ridiculous of people humiliate themselves on national television, but I find it funny. I don’t know, maybe that’s just me, but I think there needs to be some wrong doing out there or else everyone would go crazy.
Well Bunje, since you told me to do my blog while I was in the library, I figured why not. I knew that this blog was about our beliefs and why we do things, and I knew that we couldn't use cliche aphorisms. But even though I was thinking about it since I heard about it, I had no clue what I wanted to write. Then it hit me.
I base my actions on the belief that I am here to help other people. I have been blessed with a good family, enough money, lots of friends, and an amazing life. I believe that God gave me those things in order to help me help others. When I have to make a decision, my first instinct is to consider what it means for other people in the situation. My actions always affect someone else, and I always make sure that I am not hurting that someone else.
Though I am not a big believer in karma, I do agree with Erin when she says that if everyone in this world were less selfish, the world would be a much better place. I couldn't tell you how many times I've been hurt by someone else, and knowing that they were just being selfish. I try my hardest to make sure that I do not hurt anyone because I was being selfish.
I am not here on this Earth to completely overindulge myself. Though I do know that we all must have time for ourselves. But I am here for God's purpose. I am here to show the peacefulness and the prosperity that can be achieved by caring and selfless. But I can not just preach and discuss how these things can happen, I have to show throught my actions and achievements that by being selfless, you can still be happy, and enjoy life, and the world isn't all that bad.
I am not saying that I am "Miss Perfect". I am not saying that at all. I have so many things that I regret in my past, and I know that I will make mistakes in the future. But I would like to think that I never make the same mistake twice. The mistakes in my past have helped me realize that my life is so much fuller when I help and aid others rather than myself. It is when I only think of myself that I find myself making mistakes.
I am here to make the world a better place by putting others before myself, by considering the consequences before I act, and choosing the best choice rather than the one the helps me the most. God has blessed me with everything I need, and he will continue to provide for me as long as I am faithful to the purpose he has for me. That is what I believe.
Okay, so I'm in the library right now trying to figure out what I want to write and I'm having some difficulty coming up with one solid thing or things that make me believe what I believe. After reading Becca's, which was very well-written, I've been thinking about how who you are and what you believe about your past and your future depends on the people you know and what has happened to you, your experiences. I think that this is true for everyone.
I know that I believe that people are shaped by their actions and the people they surround themselves with. If you do good things for people and truly strive to be a moral person, then you deserve good things in life, whether you actually get them or not. If you are a jerk and decide to be a dirt-bag your whole life, you don’t deserve anything good, even though a lot of the time these people end up getting exactly what they want. I really believe that this is wrong. I also hold true to me that people should try. They shouldn’t just take the easy way through life and just get by relying on cheating or bumming off of other people. I think that I believe this partially because, as I said, I think that people who don’t do anything, don’t deserve anything and also that there is a sense of accomplishment and pride in yourself when you work hard and get the things you want the right way. And lately, I have been hearing the cliché “Everything happens for a reason,” from a lot of the people I’m close with. My whole life, well at least the intellectually thinking portion, has not persuaded me that this is necessarily true. I have never really believed this was something true. But then I think about how everything that happens around us shapes us and how I believe that. And don’t they pretty much go hand-in-hand? I think they do and this is making me adjust more to the idea that this could be a pretty good life concept. Everything happens for a reason…somehow writing this blog has made that make more sense.
So, these are my beliefs. But, where do they come from? I think mostly from my parents, and I mean that in both a good and bad way, actually. My mom is the best person I know. She is always working hard and being the best teacher she can be. Really, I promise you she does more for her second grade class at Hess than she does for me and my sister. She also drives me pretty much anywhere that I want to go and does so much for me. I think that this is the reason I believe that honest, hard-working, good people deserve what they want-because she works so hard. Then, there’s my dad. Well, let’s just say he isn’t the greatest guy. My parents aren’t divorced or anything…unfortunately, but he has done some bad things in the past partially because I think he is just a jerk and partially because he has a problem controlling his beer. I really believe that this is why I think the things I do and I act a certain way. He is someone that I want to be the complete opposite of when I get older and he doesn’t do one thousandth of the things for me that my mom does. He is probably the one person that I can count on NOT to be if I ever needed him, that is, if I decided to talk to him. Whatever, I don’t want to talk about him anymore.
Overall, I guess that my beliefs are similar to Erin’s in karma, but maybe just construed slightly differently. I definitely agree with her that people who are good deserve good things, but maybe not that they will always get it, because that unfortunately isn’t the way the world works. But, my beliefs are based on my childhood and my parents and what I was told-good or bad. And everything about my life makes up who I am and what I believe, so I guess I really have no choice but to sum it up in that “Everything happens for a reason.” (Even though sometimes it is really hard to figure out what that reason is, I guess I’ll try believing it for a while and see what happens.)
Through out life I have been brought up by the morals and beliefs of my parents. My parents have very strong morals and have many believes. Some of which are like being polite to your elders, listening, getting good grades, family is more important than anything, and that someone will always be there for you no matter what. Ok so I do believe all of these things and always will because they have been engraved into my mind and will not ever be erased. Though I am growing older and I am learning to deal with my own problems. I am coming across different situations in my life and these are things that I have to decide and things that I have to make the decisions for.
So as I grow my mind grows as well. My all time biggest belief is to live life to its fullest. All of my friends know that it is a crazy time when I am around. I see no harm in being a little louder, acting a little more confident, or not caring what people think. I live one life and one life only. It is my goal, my belief to end life the happiest girl ever. To know that the day I die will be the day I have accomplished life. I will always follow this belief and it will only continue to get stronger as I get older. Now I know that when it comes down to college and my career I can not run around singing on bowling ally chairs, or peeing in the woods on Halloween, or can I? I can and I will. The thing is as long as I know when to get serious and I know when to be professional, it’s ok to have a little fun every once in a while. I have technically learned this belief from my mom though because she lives her life this way. I want to be just like her when I grow older. My mom is a very serious business woman and always loves things to be prim and prop but she always knows how to have fun. She gets her work done while she is at work and does an amazing job but there is one day where all of those thoughts and all of her professional look goes out the window. Every Sunday my family and I are not allowed to do anything. It is o9ur day to go around and do the craziest things. Sometimes it is not even that crazy but it is relaxing and fun. Being with my family is the most amazing feeling in the whole world. I will always make time for them and will never forget them. That is another belief I have, that family is one of my most important factors in my life. When I grow older and I have kids I am going to do the same thing. My family does do things during the week but as we all get older we just get busier and it is hard because a lot of times our schedules are conflicting but not on Sundays. So as I get older I will my life to its fullest and I will surround my self with family and people I care about and that care about me. I will never leave this belief but only make it stronger.
I would have to believe with Erin and Rebecca. Karma is bad. I do believe that when you do something wrong, something wrong will be done to you. It is scary to think this and even scarier to experience. Though it has never happened to me yet I know that one day I will slip up and it will come back and bite me hard.
Hmmm…this is a pretty hard topic to think about. Basically, I just sat here looking at Microsoft Word and the blinking cursor, for what seems like an eternity, trying to think about what I should say.
Let’s see, my parents have taught me many things about how I should live with my beliefs. First of all, I’m Catholic and I believe in the word of the Gospel and the morals that they teach in the bible. I’ve learned that when you do bad things you just committed a sinful act and that you need to go repent them or else when you die you’re full of sins and go down to hell. At a young age I was always afraid of hell, for being a fiery pit of doom and that I’d burn to a crisp and boredom and I still believe that now, but to some aspect. I’m a strong religious person and I’ve dealt with my strict parents for 16 and a half years, I’m not allowed to IM on aim, I’m not allowed to hang out with my friends outside of school, I’m not allowed have my own money (Except on Viet/Chinese New Years but I only get 15 bucks, so that barely counts), I’m not allowed to go to parties (even birthday parties), I’m not allowed to play sports and I’m not even allowed to go watch movies. What type of world do I live in?! Most of my friends say I live in a bubble that separates me from the rest of the world and I guess that’s true, but the plus side is that I’m more responsible and respectful than the other Vietnamese kids at my church (and their parents love me. hehehe ). ^^
There are no exact quotes that my parents tell me, but I know that everything they do and teach me is to make me a better person. Maybe I’m a little loony for believing that their strictness is for the best, but I don’t really mind anymore, it’s like a daily routine, like doing blogs. I don’t complain when I get lecture, I suck it in, I might not be perfect to them but I know that I’ve been raised well in my parents care.
I do believe in what Erin said about Karma. When you do good things than good things will always come back to you and if you do bad things than you get bad things back in return. Yeah, I think that Erin is right, that if everyone believed in Karma than the world will technically be a better place. I mean who wants to do bad things if bad things are going to come back to you in return?
What the heck Ms. Bunje? I told you to make this blog be about Animal Crackers because they make me happy and I don’t have to think that much about them. Instead I have to come up with my core beliefs.
Well, I guess right off the bat the first thing that comes to mind is the Bible. Unfortunately, just putting “The Bible” would be short and a little lame, and probably wouldn’t garner very many points from the Bunjenator.
I guess there are a few things I definitely believe about my life. I think I’m going to bypass platitudes and morals and instead talk about the basic assumptions about the world I include in all my decisions.
Here they are
1. There is more.
There has to be more to this world than the standard BS and garbage that is sold to us as being life. Somewhere In this life of mine, there has to be some story, some event, worth remembering. I quite often will take on an Office Space sortof outlook on life. It’s not that I’m lazy, I just don’t care. The standard suburban life does nothing for me. I need to escape to something new and better.
2. I have no freaking clue.
Frankly I’ve got no idea what’s going on with my life. I have no clue about who I am or what I am really supposed to do with my life. I have no clue how I’m supposed to act, or quite frankly anything. I don’t even know how I’m going to manage to stretch this flippin’ blog out to 400 words. I’ve already gotten through 2 out of 3 of the main things I wanted to say and I still have almost 200 words left to go. I don’t know, I’ll have to see what I can do to get it to work. (Banana Banana Banana. Ha that’s three more.) I just really don’t know.
3. I’m not supposed to know
We’re not meant to know where we’re going in life. Our lack of knowledge is thing that came keep is at the edge of our seat in life. If we were sure to succeed in life, there would be no real reason to live because we would just be fulfilling an inevitable outcome. Socrates once said that the only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing. It’s really not my place to know fully what I’m supposed to do, or what’s going on, I just have to have faith that things will be successful in the end.
And above all else, animal crackers are freakin’ amazing.
These blogs keep making me think harder and harder every week, Ms Bunje, and I'm sure there are plenty of others that can agree with me on this one. But after reading this one, all I could think of was "I'm so young, I don't know what I do and don't believe." Because sometimes it seems like everytime you start to believe something, it has a funny way of proving you wrong. But anyway, there are a few things that I actually do believe and will probably always believe.
First, I believe the old cliche - everything happens for a reason. Basically, if something is meant to be, it will find its own way of working out. I look at things like, if something doesn't work out, then it just wasn't supposed to be that way, and you've got to move on from it. There's really nothing you can do except be strong and get past it. Find something else that makes you happier. You have to let yourself know that you always deserve the best.
I also strongly believe that if there is something out there you really want, and I mean REALLY want, then you've got to be strong and work for it. You've got to go out there and get what makes you happy. It sounds so stupid sometimes, but really, anything is possible if you honestly set your mind to it and work for it.
I believe that the best person to be is yourself. Life's too short to pretend to be something you're not. You were put here to show the world something new, not to be just like anyone else. You can't love anyone else until you love yourself first. So get comfortable with who you are because you've got awhile to spend being the person you are.
And finally, one of the most important things I believe is that everything will be okay in the end. And if it's not okay, then it's not the end. Everyone has their share of ups and downs - but you'll never be put in a situation that you can't handle. And what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. And smarter. So you've got to learn from life's lessons and just realize that things will be better in the end.
Personally, I loved Jon's #3. I completely agree with him and believe that we really aren't supposed to know where we're going. We can tell ourselves over and over that we want to pursue a certain career and live a certain way when we grow older, yet the fun and experience actually lies in getting there - and changing our mind a thousand times before we reach our destinations. The journey is more important than the actual destination.
I guess I've come to recognize these beliefes just throughout my 16 years of life. Different experiences teach you different lessons. Our parents teach us their morals, values, and beliefs and we take them, learn from them, and make them our own. We're also suppossed to make mistakes, because through them - we learn. Through trial and error - we learn.
I just want to say that I totally agree with Emily, because these blogs are getting harder and harder. And I thought the exact same thing: “I’m too young to know what I believe in. I have no idea.” But actually I know a little bit more about what I believe in than who I am, so this blog shouldn’t be as stressful.
I guess I have one or two solid things I believe in, and one I’m trying to make myself believe because I know I should. But my parents are absolutely the reason I believe what I believe. They were the ones who taught me the basics of life, like talking and walking and so on. So obviously, they were the first ones to teach me the basics of what is right and what is wrong. But also, because of my parents, there are certain things that they taught me that I don’t believe in. As I have gotten older, I have formed my own opinions on things they instilled in me were right, such as religion. I have a different view of religion than my parents do. But making our own decisions comes with age, and it feels good to know that I can make decisions for myself.
My parents pushed me to work hard when I was young, always pressuring me about doing well in school. Their beliefs were that the person who works hard benefits from it, while the person who slacks does not get the chance to reap the rewards. They taught me that grades are important, and striving for good grades should always be a top priority. I think that’s why I worry so much about my grades, GPA, and class rank. I know in the back of my mind that in the grand scheme of life these things are inconsequential, but I can’t help but feel them weighing down on me like an elephant sitting on my shoulder. And I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. Most, if not all, AP/honors kids have an identical elephant sitting on their own shoulders. And even when these thoughts of AP tests, SATs, and college are just memories, hard work pays off. The person in the corner cubicle who does everything right, works overtime, and helps out in the office will most likely get a promotion over a coworker who hasn’t put extra time into work, has messed up, and did not put themselves out to help someone else. It’s just the way the world works.
I also believe that one who tries does not fail, even if they do not accomplish the task they set out to do. But if someone doesn’t even bother to try, they are the one who failed. The person who had the guts and the courage to try really did accomplish something by standing up for what they believed or tried something they never had before. As Shakespeare once said, “If we should fail-we fail. But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we’ll not fail.”
One thing I’m working really hard at believing in now is that the little things in life that go wrong don’t really matter. The argument I get in with my brother about who lost the TV remote isn’t important. Getting frustrated at my sister for wearing my jacket and spilling soda on it has no effect on my life other than making me mad when I shouldn’t be mad. These sort of things don’t matter in life, and I’m working really hard at reminding myself of that. Some days I have to remind myself of this more than others, but it’s a work in progress.
Also, our beliefs change with experience and age. I mean, my beliefs when I was six that all boys had cooties and Sesame Street should be considered as sacred as the Bible have obviously evolved with time and events I experienced in my life. We learn the more we live, as sung by Alanis Morissette.
I guess writing this blog helped me figure myself out a little more. What we believe in affects our lives so much. It affects the way we view situations, and how we make decisions. I learned that I have a good set of morals, and I want to stick to them. There are things I definitely want to work on, but we all want to change in some way.
“Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for you country.” This is most likely the most famous quote by the United States president John F. Kennedy. I didn’t hear this quote and than right away change my life in order to fit what it had to say but actually this quote actually fits my life as is. The reason that this quote relates to my life so well is because of the fact that I take it out of context and relate it to other things than just my country. Although my country is a large portion of my life and most likely an even bigger portion of my life in the future because I’m joining the military when I get old enough but you can take this quote and use it in many different applications. I not only use the word country but you can replace it with anything that you want like Family or Friends or really anything.
I tend to try to live my life like this to the best of my ability. I want nothing more than to put everything else in my life before me. I don’t like relying on people to be there for me. Also when people do rely on me I try to pull through for them and get what they want done, done. I hate thinking about myself, and only myself. You can’t get through life by yourself, although most people do believe that. You get through life with the help of others, no matter what (as they say in marriage “through sickness and in health”). And hopefully you will get what you give in return, although it doesn’t happen like that all the time.
If you notice through out high school that’s mainly what they are trying to teach us, and this year for our three day curriculum project, we just so happen to be giving back to nature. But the school is always trying to tell us to give back to our community through can drives or even when the homecoming court was raising money for cancer research. Everywhere you go in life it’s always about giving back, besides you never know when you might (hopefully not) need the money that you helped raise for cancer, or the cans you gave to the food drive.
As much as I hate it sometimes, my girlfriend will give her left over change from her very frequent trips to Wawa, into those donation jars. And I at first always though she was just throwing away her change, until one day I actually realized what one of them was for, and it was actually helping out her sister (who has epilepsy). She just doesn’t donate on the times that the nervous system donation can is there. When they have the paper balloons, yes she’s one of the ones that buys them. She doesn’t believe she helps out the community a lot, but sometimes every penny counts.
Responding to Erin I feel that what her mother always said to is also true it’s just that my quote is more fitting to my own life.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” I have a dream! Yeah, um, I was talking to somebody about the “I have a dream speech” and I said I would quote from it on every blog from here on out.
For some reason, everyone was complaining (and by everyone I mean Rachel and Megan) about how hard this blog was to answer. I utterly disagree. Although I don’t wake up every morning with this quote or phrase in my head, I try to stick my life to it. I’ve actually said it before, and I most definitely will say it again, but, “Learn from the past, plan for the future, and live for the present.” When I have to make a decision, these principles are fixed guide as to steer me on a proper course.
The past, it only has lessons to learn, answers to offer. We have how many years of written record now? “Civilization,” as we term it, began some six thousand years ago. The stories, myths, records, holy texts, and myriad of other sorts and ilks of the information that has gathered over the millennia is at our disposal. Family, friends, acquaintances, teachers, leaders, celebrities, and practically every human being we see or come in contact with has a story to tell and a life they lived and another lesson to be learned from their experience.
There is no time like the present. And anyway, the only time that exists is now. It is the only malleable moment of our existence that we can determine. Our past is set in stone; no one can alter it. Our future is believed to be set in stone; predestined, some would say. I don’t know about that, but I do know that we are never promised tomorrow. I want to live a good life now, not in the future or even to think I had lived a good life. I think Emily Mehler agrees with me to some respects, at least I agree with her. But I am, we are, placed upon this orb with a purpose preordained by God. I don’t know exactly what I am to do but I can only do what is right and love, not with hugs and kisses but with selfless, joyous actions.
Finally, the future is the most unstable thing ever. You may think you have it all together now, but tomorrow it can fall all apart. Two things are supposed to be certain in life, death and taxes. The latter I’m still trying to formulate a plan to avoid it by some devious scheme so I have an alternative. Death: 1/1 people who are born die. The other is Jesus’s return to Earth. My future is in God’s hands. Everything I do I try to give to him which include my present decisions and my future plans. And I can see his blessings in my life every day. But I like organization and I need a plan in life to stay on track, with grades, relationships, God, and everything else. Although it is not by works that a person gets to heaven, it is by their fruit that you can see the position of their heart. So I plan to succeed and serve. Excellence and Humility. Do your best for the sake of the Lord, says 1 Corinthians 10:31. I always write too much so I’m done.
Ok, Gary or should I call you Martin Luther King Jr., thanks for calling out Megan and me. Even though I might have complained originally about the blog, I thought about it all day and finally decided what to write. After taking some time and thinking about this blog, I decided the topic isn’t as hard as I originally thought.
My beliefs are mainly based off the Bible. I try to not commit sins and obey the word, which helps give me a strong foundation for my beliefs in life. Although, I try to follow the ten commandments, like Emily Mehler said I am not miss perfect and I know I do make mistakes but I try stay sin free and I live my life in that manner. Also, in the Bible it is not just meant for me to be a perfect person but a light to the world and help others. I try to serve others and not just make my life perfect but the lives for others perfect too. I believe that a simple way to help others is to start by smiling because a positive attitude can be spread and can create only positive things in this world.
My beliefs are not only based off the Bible though, my parents are what helped plant different beliefs and ideas into my head. They helped mold me into the person I am today. They have helped me have a competitive side in my life but at the same time help others succeed too. They have guided me through life and have assisted me to the point I am able to make my own decisions and create my own personal satisfaction in my life. I help others not only because the Bible or my parents tell me so but also because its puts this feeling of satisfaction in my heart. I play non-stop sports because that makes me happy.
Christine and other people said that everything happens for a reason. I am one of the strongest believers in that. In my first occasional paper I said that throughout the whole paper. In times of difficult trials I remind myself that God has a plan for me and I have to read the Bible and ask for advice and I will be able to get through the situation. My faith, I believe is my strongest belief because I feel that whenever I am in a rough situation or problem I am able to overcome the obstacle by my faith and determination to succeed. My faith is what allows me to follow God’s plan and obey his word, which is the basis for my beliefs. Although you said no clichés I am going to use one anyway, faith can move mountains.
Here goes nothing. Well something that helps guide me through my many life trials and tribulations I have had in my 16 years of life is that life is not long enough to be the lame who sits by the sides and let there life slip away from them by worrying about the senseless crap that you will encounter forever. By this I mean I am someone who likes to take chances and live on the wild side. I take pride in the fact that I like to be able to push myself as far as I can go on things that people don’t believe I can or should do. This is something that has been instilled in me by my parents. For example my dad owns a business with my uncle but it is his dream to start his own business. He has been building up credit and taking out loans for a few years now and he is close to being able to job start his own car wash. My mom always tells me not to let someone else tell me what I can and cannot do. In the eighth grade my teacher suggested to a few of us not to take honors because it was really hard blah blah blah. But to take into account that I was already in advanced classes I think that was pretty bad advice to give her students. But instead of believing the hype surrounding the class I took that chance and pushed myself to do something challenging instead of falling in line with the rest of my peers who were going to take the easy way out and now I have bee successful in these classes since my freshmen year. Another way this is something I live by is the fact that I try not to be the type who holds grudges with people. You shouldn’t let the little things that people have done to you stress you out for a long period of time because its not worth it. Life is way too short to be petty. In the long run you will come to regret letting people rule your emotions like that. In the same sense it is not good to hold grudges because people are here today and gone tomorrow which goes back to my main point. In saying this though I’m not saying that people should go out and live life recklessly but to do things that you never thought you would be able to accomplish. Accept people who you would not ordinarily be a part in your life. A part of Emrow’s blog sums up the basic principle of what I am saying if there is something you really want and it makes you happy go for it life is too short to be a punk.
“Always try your best and never give up. Most of all is be happy with your results and try to improve. And don’t forget you can have fun while being serious.”—My parents.
As many of you probably know, I am very goal oriented. I always try my best and try to reach above my goals. I also try to have fun while I’m learning or working. Many knowledgeable people say never stop learning and I believe this is a great thought. Hopefully, if I continue learning I will become rich, both in knowledge and wealth.
I personally believe that no one should give up. I follow the saying “Never say can’t, you can do what you set your mind to!” which also goes with what my parents say. I hope to follow these two quotes and continue into adulthood with them.
These things keep me going everyday. Sometimes I feel like I want to give up, but I see this as failure. And I seriously don’t like failure. No matter what I am doing I constantly try to think of the best way to do something. People may find this stupid or find me as a highflyer and make fun of me for it. But really, I don’t care because I am setting myself up for a better life and hopefully a good career in the future. One example can be Emrow because today in anatomy she blurted out “OVERACHIEVER!!!!” when Mrs. Haddock complimented me on my work and habits. But I know Emrow was just kidding and didn’t mean it in a mean way. However, other times people are serious and they say things like “Why do you have to try so hard?” or “Why are you such a teacher’s pet?” And I am not even a teachers pet, I just like to follow rules and do my best.
Work always pays off somehow. At crew I work and work and never give up and this just makes me a better rower. In school I do the same thing and this makes me smarter and a better student. And this outlook allows me to be a better person also.
And when you try your best, you always feel happier. Even if you don’t succeed there is always another time that you can enhance whatever it was you failed on. Even if you didn’t fail, in my eyes there is almost always room for improvement. Although this doesn’t mean be so strict that everything is business.
So overall, I just take day by day by what I can do and how I do it. If you do what I do most likely you may reach happiness from self satisfaction and others. I’m not saying you have to try your best or never stop at something, but it can help. You may also find better situations and different outlooks on your future.
Commenting on Erin’s blog, I strongly agree with her on Karma. This is another thing I see largely in life. When she says “I truly believe that if other people were to live like that, we might have a better world.” I couldn’t disagree one bit.
Ok, now that I have sat here and thought about my strong beliefs for a while, I feel prepared to answer this thought-provoking question. Also, I may add that Rebecca's blog was very well written and BECCA IF YOU ARE READING THIS, I BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE A VERY STRONG PERSON. (EX-BESTFRIEND =) LOL)
Ok, so I feel as though I live by four strong beliefs. First off, I believe that you should love someone whole heartedly. This derived from me seeing so many breakups in my life. Since I have very few married family members, I can speak on this subject easily being as though most are now divorced or single. I have one cousin who will remail nameless that seems to take marriage for granted. I have been to three weddings where she was the bride. There was also a fourth marriage, however, I wasn't able to attend that wedding. It sucks because her current husband is a man that she doesn't seem to like. She talks down to him in front of the entire family;which is completely embarrassing. She's cheating on him now. My parent were NEVER married, just a girl friend/boyfriend thing. This perplexes me like none other and if anyone has an answer please help me. Why do people get divorces? I mean, what is so bad that you completely want to leave to person you love entirely forever. When the words "for better or for worse" are said, what are they thinking in their mind? For better or for worse means forever. It upsets me to hear of people divorcing. Don't they realize what they signed up for? A life long commitment! The only exception to me is adultery, and even still, I know people who have worked through that. Does love not last forever? Maybe people who get divorces never loved eachother. Maybe they changed. It baffles me to the farthest extent. I hate cheaters. This is why when I get married, I will love my husband whole-heartedly, always and forever. I also use my saying "love whole heartedly" when it comes to my family. I realzied that when AJ was in his car accident, his life could have been taken form him that instant, but it wasn't. I show him how much I love him now, so later, I feel no regrets. I show my mother, and family how much I love them, even though I could still show them more. I love this belief of mine.
Another is a little cliche I wasn't to abstain from using, but it's true. I live by the saying that everything happens for a reason and that God wouldn't give you more than you can't handle. These together give me my strength as a person. I know I'm a crybaby, but deep down, I think I'm pretty strong. Everything that happens is in God's plan. I believe from the second we were conceived =) to the moment we die is all a plan that we don't know about. So, everthing that happens, happend for a reason. I fell in love with AJ for a reason. AJ was in a car accident for a reason, and everything that goes on in my life is planned, and for a reason. When I say that God would never give you more than you can handle, I think of my grandmother's death. Although memories of her angelic warm smile still fill my eyes with tears, I believe that her dying was not more than I can't handle. Having faith helps soothe my pain. God's love helps soothe my pain. I think God wouldn't allow something to happen if you couldn't handle it. Poor people that prey for a finacial belssing, like winning the lottery never win because maybe it's not in God's plan. Everyone is not a millionaire. Maybe is a poor person was to win the lottery, they wouldn't know what to do, and waste their blessing. Whatever the case, I believe that they are may not be ready to handle all the money they may receive as a blessing.
My final belief is that if there is no one else, love yourself. You are born alone and you die alone. Never waste time trying to please others for their gratification. Love yourself. You are you for a reason and everyone should embrace themselves. Love yourself. I hate hearing people saying to their friends "I hate myself." No you don't! Why? People should always learn to love themselves forst because when everyone else is gone in the end of the night, they are all alone, without anyone. When you are with yourself, you should be comfortable and love that you are you. When you get older, also remember that you don't need anyone to love you as long as you love ayourself and have God's love. That's all you need. People tend to dwell on what people think and not enough on what they think, or even God , for that matter. In the long run, loving yourself will help sevearl aspects of your life. Why? Because it's YOUR life; you.
Well when I first read this blog I was like what the heck. I completely drew a blank but after thinking about it all day and even all night I think I finally know what I am going to write. I like Rachel and John follow the bible for how I should live my life. Well at least I try. I used to hold grudges for a while but now every time I get frustrated with someone I just think “WWJD” or what would Jesus do? I’m pretty sure this is instilled in my mind due to the fact I was raised catholic and attended catholic school for 7 years, but I think it helps me be a better person by thinking about it when I get mad. I try to be more forgiving now because I know that I shouldn’t stay mad at them forever and that everybody makes mistakes and everybody has those days (see if you can get that allusion haha) This isn’t the only belief that I follow though. My parents always taught me growing up that you need to take responsibilities for your actions. I firmly believe this and that is why when I do something wrong, get a bad grade, have a bad race, or other things of the sort, I will 9 times out of 10 blame myself. I don’t think you help yourself at all in the grand scheme of life by blaming others for your actions.
A belief that my coach has instilled in my head from probably about the first day I ever swam for him, which was over 9 years ago, is that if you fail to practice, you are practicing to fail. Now I can not say I can apply this to everything that life throws at me, but I apply it to what applies. I do my homework, which in itself is practice for taking tests, I go to swim practice and always try my best which is preparing me for future meets, and when I am bad at something that I want to be better at I don’t stop practicing until I am. I hope that made some sense. Something else I have learned from my coach is that you can’t control everything. He always says “only control the things you can, the rest is what it is.” I know that things are going to happen that are completely out of my control so I try to remember this and not let things out of my control get to me.
The biggest thing I probably base my life on though is the old cliché live your life to its fullest. I know I don’t always achieve this, usually its because I can be shy in uncomfortable situations, but in general I try not to let things get to me, I try to laugh a lot, and for the most part I try to be happy. I try not to stay upset long when I do get upset because “because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you’ll never get back.” I can’t remember where that quote is from but I was deleting old away messages on aim the other day and I found it. I always loved that quote and I try to live by it everyday, even if I may not always be successful.
So I just got back from work and I was thinking about what you told me in the library and it made me feel very accomplished but then I remembered BLOG.
As we all grow up we are all embodied with different morals and values depending on what type of family we are apart of. Some values good and some even bad. I feel as though from the morals that are embodied in us help us form our own that we will carry with us and also try to instill in our children to help them form there own morals and values.
My mom and most of my family members all believe in the word of God and take our religion serious. God is the main component of my life and I try to live by the way the bible tells us to leave as a Christian but of course in this world its hard. I believe that God is the reason why I am here today and I give him all the credit to anything prosperous that I do. Living as Christian means that you have to live as a saint, you know follow the ten commandments; thou shall not kill, thou shall steal; thou shall not commit adultery; treat your neighbor as you want to be treated and the rest. If those things are broken or not followed you have committed a sin and will go to hell that is if you don’t repent. These are just some rule of a Christian.
But back to what I believe in, One thing I truly believe in is the fact that EVERYTHING ALWAYS HAPPENS FOR A REASON. It is something that I follow and I use in my everyday life. I guess for me it’s a saying I think about when I decide that I want to blame somebody or something for something bad that happens if you know where I’m coming from. I try to never ask why something has happened and just go along with the situation. To the truth I don’t know where I came up with the value and why its just been apart of my character and I believe in it so much.
Like Hannah and Emily, I to sat here and thought about this question. I never really thought I had my own moral values already, but as I started to do the blog I realized that are a lot of thing we as 16 or 17 year olds are oblivious to.
I am a farmer. I look better covered in hay and manure than mascara and lip gloss. My area of fashion lies between riding britches and the most durable jeans. My 24-carots are orange and edible. My boy troubles are with neigh-saying geldings. The best way to keep my hair is simply out of my face. The only thing I cut myself with is barbed wire or broken tree limbs. I feel high when I soar over a jump, and wasted when I hit the ground. I know more horse breeds than boy bands. The only hot studs on my mind live in stalls and eat hay. My perfume is the smell of horse manure. My ecstasy is riding out a buck. The only dress I know is how to dress a horse's wound. My goals are not Harvard or Princeton or Yale. My goal is to one day own a farm, and to run it right.
I have a Mom, and I have a Dad. I love them dearly. They don't make a lot of money. I have two brothers. I love them dearly. They don't help the situation by going to expensive colleges. Hence, I have a dream, and although this dream isn't a plea for civil rights (God bless the soul of MLK), I think it's an important one. This dream is a free ride to the college of my choice. I just figure, my parents deserve a rest for their wallets. This dream is what gets me through school. When I'm beamed in the face in volleyball, I think of this dream. When I'm pulling my hair out in Pre-Calc, I think of this dream. When I'm rolling my eyes in Italian, I think of this dream. I will not let myself fail.
Like Mehler, I am not "Miss Perfect". Many people wonder why I live the way I do, dressed in sloppy sweats, and somewhat antisocial. It's because I want to focus on my dreams. I want to be a farmer, and I refuse to let anything get in my way, as ridiculous as it may sound. I remember a car ride I had with my Mom after a disappointing day at the farm. She said, rather pointedly, "Well you better start lookin' for another job if you'll never be a trainer, 'cuz you won't get on the damn horse." I looked at her and said, "I'm going to be a farmer. Crop or livestock, I'm not sure which." She laughed and said, "Livestock farmer, yeah right." I laughed, too, because I knew that she could never stop me.
I see the people around me at school, and it's weird because it's like they're all the same. The girls walk around with Hollister bags and newly darkened hair, and act like they're stupid so that they don't seem like nerds. The boys stand tall with broadened shoulders and vividly reenact nights when they "got some" and "were so wasted they couldn't see straight. It feels weird to be different, but it always feels satisfying. I never want to be one of those girls who spends hours on hair and make up, wears what everyone else wears and does only what is cool to the population. I like being different, and wish everyone felt the same way. I hear about girls waking up an extra two hours in order to get ready for school and I laugh! I think about all the things that could be done with that time, if just a few more hours of shut-eye.
As the great Red Hot Chili Peppers once sang, "There's a reason for the 21st century. I'm not too sure, but I know that it was meant to be." It's up to you to figure out what your reason is.
I live by one saying and that alone. It has been something I have always grown up believing in and this is “Everything happens for a reason”, just as other of my classmates have mentioned. This is a defining statement in my life and I truly, 110% believe in this cliché. Whenever anything has gone astray in my life, believing in that saying gets me through knowing that out of everything good or bad, something that was meant to happen will happen. I guess that means you could say I believe in “When one door closes, another door opens” which I guess in ways I do. But I’m not always optimistic about the nature of the outcomes. I don’t think that “everything happens for a reason” necessarily guarantees a good outcome to every situation, but just the right one, the one that was meant to be, and sometimes this is meant to be bad. I truly believe that the tough obstacles we are faced with help for us to know what true happiness is. If everything in our life was good, then we wouldn’t know what good was, it was just be normal. I came to the conclusion that this was in fact always correct I would say about five years ago while in my Sunday school class. The words finally sank in and made sense to me, the words my minister had been preaching sermon after sermon, “God has a plan for everyone, its already predetermined, we are simply here to follow his plan out.” To me the saying everything happens for a reason explains everything in life to me. As Christine brings up, she thinks that good things happen to good people while bad things happen to bad people, with exceptions of course. This made me really ponder, why do bad things happen to good people? And once again, this cliché helped to clear this up. I truly believe God has chosen each and everyone of us to be on this Earth for some purpose. It may not seem fair at the time, like when a cheater gets a 100 on a test and doesn’t get caught while you ethically get a 50. But God has a plan for these people, everything happens for a reason. Even horrible things such as accidents and deaths have a purpose, a reason, one that is leading to a greater outcome that we are unaware of but need to trust that it is out there. This cliché has never once in my life let me down.
I also try not to “cry over spilled milk” and just accept that some things are unchangeable. Not everything in our lives is going to be a walk in the park or a piece of pie, but that doesn’t mean we should waste our time sulking over things the harder things we have no control over. Every step we take on the road of life gets us that much closer to living our ideal life, and that is another thing I truly believe in. I don’t dwell on the bad things because these are each a stepping stone that has lead to where I am today and where I will be in the future. All of those bad things lead to the happy ones, and for that we should celebrate the bad as a means to arrive at the good. EVERYTHING happens for a reason.
I don’t know how to begin this blog so I am just going to jump right into it.
Being loyal to someone is most important. Loyalty is a personality trait I cherish. I have always been loyal to people I respect and hold dear to my heart. I am loyal to a fault and sometimes it backfires on me. My friend did that to me.
I believe in making the right decision, not the easy one. Everyday we are faced with decisions and everyday those decisions give us two types of options: easy and right.
These are few basic beliefs I have. However, when I thought about all the beliefs I have, I thought to myself, “How the heck did I come to believe that?” After reading what Christine and Rebecca believed in, I have to say I agree with them, too. I believe that past experiences shape what people become. My family is messed up and my parents are divorced and I live with just my mom. My aunt is brain damaged and the reason behind her condition is horrifying. My grandfather died when I was young and because of that, my uncle became an alcoholic and is know coming out of it. My cousin was abused and so was I. Meanwhile, I woke up and went to bed everyday without seeing my mom because we lived in Pennsylvania and she worked at Oakcrest. I spent most of my childhood at my Aunt Kathy’s house because my father was always working. Everyday he always had some sort of music job. When my parents finally got divorced, I had to grow up and take care of myself while my mom was working after school or when I was at my dad’s, who worked every hour of the weekend. Now, when I go to my father’s, he is always busy even though he said he would stop taking music jobs on the weekends. He said we need more quality time together. It hasn’t happened yet. I still feel like he only wants me when it’s convenient to him.
Where am I going with this? I basically described the issues I have faced with and currently face in my life. These issues are what have sculpted me into the person I am today. If I haven’t been faced with these situations, maybe I would be a different person. Maybe I would have different beliefs about life. I know that I have seen dishonesty and betrayal in my family and I have learned to be loyal. I have seen family members make irresponsible decisions and end up messing up their entire life, which taught me to always make the right decision. I didn’t express every belief I have, but I wanted to talk about the one belief that encompasses them all – Past experiences are what sculpt what we believe in.
Can I just state that Becca wrote everything I was going to write? I obviously agree 100% with her and how she said to not let the past effect your mind. When I was younger I dealt with the loss of family members who I thought the world of and family friends who acted as older siblings, parents, and grandparents. Some how I learned from each passing that life is short so you have to live it up and live with no regrets. Most of my decisions that I make are usually based on how I feel at the specific time. I’ve also learned that decisions based on emotions aren’t necessarily the right decisions.
Like my BFFL Devon said, know when there are times to be serious and when you can just be crazy. My mom also displays that motto well, but not in a business way. She has the tough job of taking care of my Grandmother during the day by running her to the multiple doctors’ offices that she needs to go to for her heart problems and for her deteriorating knees. The day time is my mom’s “serious” time, where she has a place and time to be somewhere. However, in the afternoons my mom wants to relax, whether it is trying to beat me in DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) or in Wii tennis/bowling/golf/boxing. Most of the time I win, but when I know my mom has had a rough day, I let my mom win. Only at the Wii games though, because DDR is my territory. I believe my mom’s determination to get what is needed to be done but to also have fun while completing the tasks, will forever be engraved in my tiny head for years to come.
Communication is key to life. I, however, have horrible communication skills and usually find myself tongue tied or rambling on and on without making any sense. I’m not just talking about communication between friends and family, but also between you and you. I know I write in a journal to write down my thoughts and express how I feel about whatever is going on in my boring life. If I write about how I feel at that exact moment, later on when I reread it, it doesn’t make sense and then I can’t tell what I was truly trying to say. When we master the art of communication, there will be nothing left to conquer. We will be able to know and understand and portray our thoughts to people and ourselves in a manor in which we’ll feel like these years of education have not failed us.
I guess to sum all of this crazy nonsense up, I’m going to live by all of these little ideas. Leave my past in my past and work towards a future where communication isn’t a boundary and always find the time to act a little crazy now and then.
I find this blog somewhat challenging because I don't think that our beliefs and principles can truly be summarized in one tidy phrase. Life is a very complicated thing, but simple aphorisms are not. But, here it goes.
"Don't regret the past. Instead, focus on the future." Basically, decisions and actions that you might have made cannot be changed. Those events are everlasting and etched in stone. So, holding onto regrets merely holds you back from focusing on the present and preparing for the future. Instead, accept the fact that the past has passed and do your best to make good decisions in the future. Thus, learning from previous actions is good, but dwelling on previous actions is bad. For example, if I make a bad play in soccer (which doesn’t happen often : ] ) I don’t dwell on it or frustrate myself constantly thinking about it because it will take me away from thinking about other plays that need to be made. Like my coach tells us if we miss a shot, “That’s alright. Just score on the next one.” In addition, if you have a positive, forward-thinking attitude, you will perform better than if you are constantly regretting decisions – at least that’s what I have noticed.
"You only live once." Going along the lines of the first quote, this quote basically tells me not to think "I wish I had done that" or regret the past. So, as many of you know, I do everything humanly possible to get entertainment and enjoyment out of life - both for myself and for others. I do my best to appreciate the nuances of everyday life: the happy, the sad, the good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly. I try to smile and make others smile because life should not always be serious; you need to relax and just have fun. Constantly I think to myself as I type up a DBQ for History, “In the grand scheme of things, does this stuff really matter? Is this what we should be spending our time doing?” This tends to lead me down the road of procrastination. However, when I do eventually begin to work on my assignment, I don’t stress because I know that I will get it done and that life should not be stressful (because stress causes pimples and gray hair).
So, hopefully these quotes summed up my beliefs effectively despite the fact that this was not one of my favorite blogs to do.
As weird as this may sound almost everything I do I am always reciting to myself a quote I once heard that pertains to what I am doing. It could be something as simple as “everything worth doing is worth doing right” or something a bit more complicated like karma. Every week I read the inspirational quote in our trackers, I try and relate that quote to my week at least three times… yeah I know corny and childish.. But it has been part of my weekly routine since we had quotes on our agendas in elementary school. For anyone wondering this week’s quote was “The quality not longevity, of one’s life is what is important.” My life has been filled top to bottom with quotes, you name a subject, any subject and there is a 99.9% chance I will be able to recite a quote about it. Leslie used to tell me I was obsessed with ‘cute quotes’ and short sayings, whether she was right or not it never changed what I did or how I did it. I could pull out notebooks and notebooks filled cover to cover with nothing but quotes and sayings… and I am not going to lie, I have read each notebook at least three times. Everyone in my family always had a saying, a catch phrase kinda thing, and even though I always wanted one, I could never just decide upon one quote. This might be because I am a little greedy and want more than one quote or just because I am so indecisive and can not decide upon which quote I want.
After taking some time and thinking about it, and listening to an entire Jack Johnson CD, I do not think it is either of these two. All of life’s choices can not be summed up in one simple quote or saying. There is no way someone can use the same quote to describe a decision to break up with a boyfriend or girlfriend as you do to explain why you are so determined to do good in school. Having only one quote to base all of your decisions on is like having a CD with only one song on it or having a feeling you can accurately and completely sum up in one single word. It is just unrealistic.
Despite feeling this way I did make a very big attempt to do this. Calling this unrealistic is probably what made me so determined to do it. I thought of everything I choose to do. I thought of what drives those decisions. I tried to make sense of everything I came up with, and then sum it all up into one long and congested phrase. The result: “Always do what is right or best for you and whatever it is do it completely, even when it hurts or takes all day because when you are done you will feel accomplished and any pain created will eventually go away, and you will learn and grow from and it all.” This quote can be related to both a break up and determination in school, so I was wrong. =D
After reading a few blogs I saw a lot references to Becca’s blog.. so naturally I read it. I completely agree with the part about even though we complain about blog’s we all must really like it. I’m not very talkative in class and tend to be a bit more shy. Most of the time, I let this hold me back form sharing my opinions on discussions during class. In blogs I feel like I can actually say exactly what I want to say and I like giving my opinions a chance in the world outside of my mind.
=D
The principles that have guided me through life have changed throughout my life, Earlier in my high school years, my principles and guide lines included bros before h*** and something to do with life is short, party hard. These guidelines helped me get through the first two years of high school and without looking back and with no regrets I moved on to my junior year. I found out that the way I lived those two years was catching up with me and maybe it was not the best idea to follow those ideals for the rest of my high school career. This year I found out from Mrs. Bunje that partying and English do not mix and thank god I listened because she was right. This year I have changed so much not in the sense of my haircut yesterday which is really really short:/ but in the sense that the aspects of life I felt were most important last year and the year before such as have a good time every weekend and doing whatever I want are not the most important anymore. The principles I live by now still include bros before h***, but they also put school and living life to the fullest above partying hard because I realized that it was not the most important thing in the world and I have to be more focused on my future and the people in it than the people that will be around when I need them to get me in trouble, but not help me. Wow, I just read Erin h. comment and that saying, “karma will always come back to bite you in the ass” has never been proven wrong even in movies. In my life, many of the things I knew were wrong when I did them ended up come back to haunt me throughout my life. When I had my morals and principles not unified I did a lot of things I regretted and knew were wrong, but since I never did anything to stop it from happening it hurt me in the long run whether it was getting in trouble for something or from a moral standpoint. So for the rest of my high school career, I am going to follow my new found principles and the people who helped me establish them. My old life was fun, but it was not productive and that is the worst thing that can happen to you in life, because when your not productive and fall behind the 8 ball, there is always someone waiting to take your spot.
PS I really liked this blog. =D
When I first read the mind, it seemed like nothing at all came to mind. I mean, normally I’ll still have an idea of what to write, but this time I drew a complete blank. I don’t think I’ve ever tried to put what I truly believe into words before. After thinking about it for a while, I think maybe I can.
First of all, I agree with Em Row and Jon Henry said. I agreed with most of what Em said, but I esp. agreed with her when she said “sometimes it seems like everytime you start to believe something, it has a funny way of proving you wrong.” I guess this is why I don’t try to solidify any of my beliefs, because I know that they may always change. Sometimes I wish I was more like Courtney T and could stick to my guns without being swayed. Something always happens and someone always says something that makes me reconsider what I thought I knew. Still, I think I still have some beliefs that I’m determined to believe and I’ll fight anyone that tries to tell me different.
Like a lot of people said, I think everyone and everything has a purpose and everything happens for a reason. Even if something doesn’t make sense now, I always know that I’ll be able to earn from it and one day I’ll see why it had to happen. In addition to that, we’re never really going to know what will happen next. I always will have to wait until the last minute to know what the future holds. Like Jon said, “We’re not meant to know where we’re going in life. Our lack of knowledge is the thing that is going to keep us at the edge of our seat in life.”
Another thing I really believe is that I’m meant to do something great and that I’m going to be happy. I don’t know what it is or when it will happen, but I think I’m just supposed to trust God that it’ll work out. There have been so many ridiculous things that have happened to me that I feel like whatever my situation, there’ll be some way out of it, and it may be that last thing I would have expected. I know that everything that happens will be for the better and I know I don’t have to worry, even though I do. I just need to care about others and everything I need will be taken care of.
By far the guiding principle in my life that is most important would have to be, “treat others the way that you wish to be treated.” Now I admit at times I forget about this and I am guilty of wrong doing, but for the most part I respect others. Ever since I was little I was taught to be respectful and polite. When third and fourth grade came along, I had a teacher who was very much into the words of the month. Every month our school would have a word for the month. September was Polite, October was Respectful, and so on and so on forth. Our teacher, Mrs. Gallo, always had the words posted up around the room. We were always sending letters and canned goods out to the needy or the homeless. I can say she really shaped the person I am today. I had her for two years straight and she made a better person. Today I am the same person and treat others with respect. I hate seeing other people get made fun of or bullied. Sometimes I will say something but most of the time I do not want to get in the middle of it.
Another important guiding principle in my life would have to be not letting other people influence me. All my life I was like this. When sixth and seventh grade came along I was still this way but there were times were I would do things that I knew wasn’t right. This was short time period and ever since then I have stuck to what I believe. I could care less of what people think about me (for the most part). I hate seeing other people do things to impress others or do it because the crowd is doing it. I have been this way since I was real young. My parents have always said that I always walked around with a lot of confidence.
These two guiding principles are the most important to my life. I strongly believe in them and I believe they will make me a better person when I am older. I would have to agree with Jake about learning from your mistakes is better than dwelling on them. I have to say that I wish I was good at this. When it comes to sports I believe that I always dwell over my mistakes. It takes a while before I can actually get over them and learn from them. That is one thing that I am working on making better. I have made improvements and I am looking to keep looking to get better.
First off, let me say that I agree with Gary in saying that this blog is not that hard this week. It does require us to look inward, asking more in depth questions about ourselves; but it does not seem as hard as the other questions like beauty and love.
I have several core beliefs that make up my life. The first is that “it is the simple things in life that matter the most”. As those of you who heard my OP this past marking period, little things like driving on my own while listening to the blasting radio are the things that complete my life and make me truly happy. Living by this principle, I am not bothered by the big things in life, but rather the little ones, which makes my life easier because little things are easier to get over in comparison to bigger things.
Another belief I hold nicely in my life is to “hold your friends close and your enemies just as close.” I love my friends dearly, but in the years of high school drama, friends could just as easily stab you in the back as they could pour you a cup of tea. Likewise, enemies one day could become your BFFFFFL. The minds and hearts of the young are fickle, myself included.
The most important, guiding principle in my life is that “there are no absolutes”. This is backed up by my adamant and impassioned refusal to accept things they way that they are. I believe that the world does not have to, for lack of a better word, suck. There is always something that can be done. The world can be changed. Perhaps that’s the crazy liberal in me. Twenty or thirty years from now, I will be more bitter and more cynical than I am and my views and ideals will change, but for right now, this seventeen year-old knows that their must be something better than this.
one minute to spare. nice.
haha. Dave and I are the best procrastinators.
Whatever is meant to be will happen. This short, simplistic little statement is the root to all of my reasoning, actions, afterthoughts, and what have you. These 7 words have gotten me through some rough moments in my life, stressful situations, and even some of the most exciting, memorable experiences I have had so far in my short 17 years of existence. It is not only expected, but natural of me to keep this belief running through my mind, heart, and soul for the rest of my years of life. Whether, it’s a year from now and I receive a letter in the mail from the college of my dreams and am anticipating and dreading the news of whether I’ve been accepted, I am positive, without a single doubt in my mind, this belief will flash through my mind and give me the support and right state of mind to accept whatever the outcome is, sealed inside the envelope. Now, taking this core belief farther into the future, I fall in-love. One side of the relationship, my side, sees the “us” lasting forever. Not aware of how the other side of the relationship, his side, truly feels, this belief will flow through my train of thoughts, reassuring me that, though there is never a way to 100% know EXACTLY what that person thinks or feels, it is okay to fall head over heals and enjoy the present with him because if we’re meant to be together forever, it will happen. Now, slipping away even further into my future, suppose I am living alone in my house, my worst fear, for any reason, such as I never got married, I got married but was divorced, I lived happily married but am now I widower, whatever the case may be, and I am sitting in my living room, reminiscing through all of my past memories , my highs and lows or my life, this belief will, naturally, as always, hit me and surround itself by every image and emotion in my mind. If I worried that that particular day was my last, this belief would comfort me and let me know it would be okay because it were meant to happen. Yes, I know I’m taking this belief to an extreme, trailing all the way until the final days of my life, but having this pre-knowledge that no matter what decisions or made through my lifetime, no matter what damage will be caused, no matter what wishes of mine will be granted, it will all combine to form my life exactly as it should and was meant to. I guess for anyone who’s been reading this, you may not be able to fully comprehend what I am trying to say, but words are a tricky factor in a person’s thoughts. There never is the perfect word to pinpoint or describe what exactly is being thought and felt. By the time my brain thinks of a way to explain my thought process, conclusions, ideas, or emotions, everything changes. An emotion grows or weakens. My thoughts expand or rail off. These blogs are so complicating. I reach a point in my writing where I could babble and ramble way off topic (sort of like I’m doing now) but then I have to remember the key points I want to express. If only words had the ability to show a person’s emotion the second it is triggered, or if words could flow right from the person’s mouth the absolute second a thought is processed. Words are tricky. My sole belief however is not. Nor is my belief complicated. To some it may be complicated to accept, but to me, it’s just a thought that stops by every now and then to give me the confidence and reassurance to keep moving forward and taking in every bit of anything that comes to me in life. Whatever is meant to be will happen.
Well over the years, even more so coming into this year, my principles have changed. To establish your principles, you must first set what your priorities are. For me, throughout my earlier life, pretty much up to junior year, it was always fun first work second. This principle got me nowhere. Everyday my dad tells me, "If you work hard now, you will have fun later." I never embraced this until recently, and after taking it into perspective, it’s true in its entirety. School used to seem as a jail cell to me, a restriction, but now I have come to see it as the door to the future. So junior year came around and I decided no more "messing" around.
For the future, the trip through adulthood, my principles will probably have to change at least a little bit. In the early years of adulthood, especially fresh out of college, so much of the unknown world comes flying into your life. I think it will be important take the initiative and embrace the responsibility and really think out each decision. "Every door leads to another" so when you come to that door take in all perspectives of where the door can take you. Also, when you’re an adult there is no pity from life, so any person that gives you trouble just ignore them. Like the random black guy reading a book in a jail cell in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle said "The universe tends to unfold as it should."
So in my adulthood and into my late life, I will watch out for number one, and try not to step in number two.
I like what Gretchen said, in a way it kind of goes with what I said. She talks about how everything happens for a reason, and that is true definitely. I find it interesting, Gretchen taking the Christian principle route. I think it is cool she goes with the flow of everyday life.
Well, after I read this week’s blog, I decided to get something to eat. I know it sounds retarded, but I think better with a full stomach. I thought to myself, “Is there a little saying that I can come up with that defines how I act?” And then it hit me, like a bat hits a ball, like a bus hit that girl in Final Destination, like Sandy is hitting this green dude. (I’m watching Spongebob Squarepants.)
I decided that I’m going to make up a new quote, and it describes my life pretty well. “Live life for yourself first, and then help others to be happy.” It may not sound very succinct at first glance, but I put a lot of thought into this quote. The first part means that I’m going to do the things that I want to do. I’m going to play the sports I want, take the classes I want, and be friends with the people I want. It means that I’m not going to do anything that I really don’t want to that won’t help me later in life. I’m going to worry about what I want for myself first. The second part means that if it doesn’t conflict with the first part, I’ll work to help make those I care about happy. It almost never conflicts, because seeing others happy is something that I enjoy doing, so it isn’t a selfish standard to live following.
I like this quote because it’s original and it sums up my life well. I do what I want, and I don’t let others really affect how I do things. At the same time, though, I’m a generous person willing to help anyone who asks. I get “the best of both worlds.” I make myself happy by doing what I want. I make others happy by helping them do what they want/need. I get both types of happiness- those that come from doing pleasurable activities and those that come from seeing others happy.
There are some other smaller guidelines to my life, as well. I believe that working hard produces results when all other avenues fail. If you work hard enough, you can achieve almost anything. I know it seems a bit hypocritical since I don’t work hard at many things in life, but notice that I said at the end, “when all other avenues fail.”
Another little quote that could be used to define how I act could be “a steady eye never wavers.” I wanted to use “keep your eye on the prize” but I like this one because it says a lot. If you keep your mind set on the path you want to take, then you can achieve anything. Not necessarily “win” anything or achieve anything, but just to live the lifestyle that you want. For example, a drug-free student never glances over at those that do drugs, because once he/she does, then it’s hard to keep his/her eyes back on his/her goal.
I really like what Laina said. I especially like her last paragraph regarding the future. There are no dead-ends in life, just unseen paths. There’s a way out of everything, just like she said, and if there doesn’t seem to be one, then all one has to do is look a little bit harder.
we are back again bunje with these deep but meaningful blogs.these blogs make me think that i will be enlighten one day and become the next buddha haha well here it goes...
Will Smith once spoke ab out Bob Marley, “He believed that you could cure racism and hate... literally cure it, by injecting music and love into people's lives. When he was scheduled to perform at a peace rally, a gunman came to his house and shot him down. Two days later he walked out on that stage and sang. When they asked him why - He said, "The people, who were trying to make this world worse... are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness.”
As I sat down and read this blog I realized what I was going to type. As everyone knows I am the more cheerful person. The glass is always half full for me regardless of what is in the glass. I try to keep everyone around me happy. I never cause drama because I hate the arguments and the crying and the hating. I look at this world and I know that there is evil and hate out there. That doesn’t mean I’m going to give up. This is for all my friends and family, come to me if you need help or you need someone to talk to. I never like it when unhappy people are around me. In fact I hate it. I will always try to make the unhappy person feel better. In my life, I love everyone. I don’t look at the faults or the negativity of the person. I try to give everyone an equal amount of respect. I don’t want to change the world. I just want to help out a little.
I’ve noticed that the more confident and happier you are your friends will enjoy your company. People don’t like when unhappiness or drama is brought into the group. It seems that in a group of friends that there is always that one person with a lot of drama. I’m the guy in the group that helps the unhappy or dramatic person. I like to believe that I’m that “good” guy. I try to “Light up the darkness”
I agree with what erin said about karma. If someone does something bad to you, sometime you just have to take it like a Spartan and freak out or just comedown and not retaliate. Karma will get the wrong doer. You must see that retaliation is not always the answer.
Alright Bunje, I’m hoping that one of these days we can have a blog that’s not about ourselves because these are getting harder by the week. Hmm..my guiding principles. I have a few, even though they’re hard to stick by. As we go through out teen years, it’s hard to always do the right thing. Sure we all say we treat others the way we want to be treated. But is it the truth? No. We treat others the way we want to be treated to their face but behind their backs, it’s a whole different story. We say to put others before ourselves. But if the situation won’t benefit us in any way, we think twice and doubt ourselves. Again, we say that all men are created equal yet we view ourselves above others and speak condescendingly about those who are less intelligent.
I believe in the idea of treating people the way I want to be treated, putting others ahead of me, and treating everyone as my equal. However, it’s hard to practice those beliefs. There’s always going to be someone who comes along and shatters my idea that everyone is good deep down. There’s always going to be someone out there who tries to prove me wrong and will most likely succeed. I’d like to be able to see the good in everybody but some people hide the good in themselves and instead put on a mask of ass holiness. I also agree with Erin and the whole karma idea. However, from past experience, karma hasn’t always bitten people that I think it should have. I believe everything happens does happen for a reason, even though it’s hard to justify those reasons sometimes. Looking back makes it easier.
I know I sound like a selfish jerk right now, but I’m really not. I’m just saying that people in the world today make it hard for you to motivate yourself to do good for them. My guiding principle is to be happy and live life the way I want to without regrets. Don’t live the life someone else planned for you and don’t let others influence you in a negative way, like Dave said. When I’m 90 years old sitting in my rocking chair knitting a sweater for my granddaughter, I don’t want to look back and wonder, “What if I had done what I wanted to do? What if I did things to make me happy and not just to please everyone around me?” I want to live my life to the fullest and in order to do that, I have to be happy and live the way I want to live. And I really feel like a pessimist right now but I’m honestly not.
I must be the mayor of Procrastination City. Here I am on Saturday afternoon three hours before the blog is due, in my pajamas, taking a wholly welcome break from cleaning my room to complete this assignment. My dad just walked into the room and asked, “Whatcha doin’? Homework?” My response was simply, “The blog.” He then proclaimed that it sounds like a horror movie. Quite the opposite of course, because blogs are usually fun unless they are “debatable topics”. Sorry, but I’m not a fan of those. Anyway, my half-cleaned room needs to accept its state of salutary neglect as I attempt to formulate an acceptable answer to this blog.
For once, my response actually came into existence rather quickly. I knew what I wanted to say halfway through reading the question. I completely believe that life is just gonna happen no matter what I want out of it, so I might as well take it in stride and be happy with whatever happens. There are so many goals that I set for myself, things that I want. I rarely ever get them. Of course, I do my best to make them more attainable, such as studying for my midterm exams or being active in my extra-curriculars. While I excel in some areas, I am completely average or less-than-satisfactory in others. I often find my compact little world flipping upside down and going topsy-turvy. There goes the story of my life, because my bedroom is currently in disarray in correlation to the rest of my daily priorities.
So basically, I am never going to attain everything that I want. When I was younger and I would ask for something ridiculous like, say, a pony, my mommy would sing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” to support her reasoning for answering no. I wouldn’t say that that Rolling Stones song is the definition of my core beliefs about life because my world is ever-evolving and subject to change. I’m certainly not going to sit here on the computer and compile a list of everything that I want in my lifetime, but that is probably physically impossible and doesn’t fit within my time restraint. However, my priorities are totally out of whack and need to be put in place. If I can achieve that, then I might increase my chances by some percentage. I’m not very good at math though, so I won’t try to figure out the odds.
That task can’t be snappily accomplished. I can work hard, long hours and days and weeks and years to prioritize my life. In the meantime, I’ll just continue to roll with the punches and put a smile on while I’m at it. Might as well, right? Sometimes my demeanor could suggest otherwise, such as a pensive stare or a frown. But I can snap out of brooding as quick as a flash. When all is said and done, I’ll come out both failure and success with some dignity and joy.
I also agree with Hannah when she stated that “the little things that go wrong in life don’t really matter”. That’s definitely something that I’ve come to accept in my short 17 years of living. I might get in a fight with Caitlin over some stupid, insignificant, smart-ass comment that I made on the fly, but at the end of the day, it’s completely forgotten. Such things aren’t worth the trouble, like Hannah said. In epic movie of acceptance and accomplishment, they don’t need to play a principle role. Not even a supporting actor. They’re the randomly-selected extras in the background of a scene. They’re inconsequential and paid little for their time and don’t even deserve a mention when the end credits role. So ha! Why bother with them? I’ll go clean my room now. Have a great evening everyone!
So i am sitting here in my room, sick, trying to sleep, when i realize i have a blog due. yeah, i am definitely late, but it is also part of my beleif. No matter how bad a situation seems, will can get you out of it. Of course everyone knows i rely on my very firm friend base for almost all of my problems, but all in all, YOU are the one who has to make decisions and execute your own life. It is self-confidence, will power, and determination that make a person who they are. This may not be true for every person, but that is why it is a beleif, I beleive it solely for myself. I probably put way too much emphasis on success in every way, which comes from my overly competitive nature, but it helps to create a successful background. So, to add onto my argument that you can always get yourself out of a situation, with your own determination, I must say I beleive every man holds his own destiny in his hands. Now that is not entirely true to the extent in which we all wish it were, like marrying your highschool sweetheart, or winning the state championships, because some things are just out of our hands and it takes more than one to create these examples. But, for the most part, anyone can be what he/she wants to be, do what he or she wants to do. This ideal is exactly what our country was designed around; if Niah wants to be head of the FBI then it is entirely possible that she can do that with her own drive and determination.
To add onto that (i guess i have alot of beleifs with this first one), 99 percent of the time, you fail because you didn't work hard enough, or study enough, or put as much time as possible into your goal. I hate it when people blame others for their own failures. Sure sometimes others might be at fault, but more than likely there is something that person could have done to acheive what they were trying to accomplish.
These beleifs are very important, especially when i am conditioning or lifting or doing school work. They are almost like an incentive that add onto personal drive toward a goal i am trying to acheive. When i'm lifting i always seem to repeat to myself "state" because i want to make All-State Linebacker this year, and i know that if i become good enough it won't matter what condition our team is in, though we're trying to win the state championship as well, i will beat any competitor with the right work ethics. I also heavily beleive in work ethic. I don't know exactly where it came from but I think some people are shaped into harder workers than others from their surroundings, which may be a factor in controlling your own destiny.
When it comes to recognizing my own beleifs, at least on this subject, i don't think i ever really recognized them until now. I never really thought about it until now, because before the work ethic was just a part of my life, and i didn't look at it as a beleif. I never had to think about it until now also, because it just eminated from my being (at least on the feild).
Beleifs are essential to a person's being, and even though it may be hard to uncover or realize a beleif you may have, it is part of what makes them who they are.
ah, back to the good old blog phenomenon and late already, good job pete! I'm on a roll already...sorry Bunje
My principles could seem a little hard for even myself to locate and describe. Sometimes I have no idea as to what I believe in or how I feel about something. However the one thing that I do know about myself is to try and make others happy. Laughing always seems to be the thing I strive for when in a public environment, because if you can make someone happy they will most likely like you in return. At least this is how I used to be all the time, but sometimes there are situations when I cannot hold back my anger or intolerance of something and I just let myself loose. Let me ask this question to you, have you ever actually seen me mad or has anyone for that matter? The answer for many would probably be no, but for the select few who have seen it they know it is not pretty sight. Still having said this I can say that being an enjoyable person to be around and making people smile is one of the most important things to me, even if it makes me look like a fool sometimes attempting to get a laugh out of a person.
Another belief I used to always try to keep near to me was that I tried to be well liked by everyone, no matter who you are. To the extent in fact that I would put schooling second on my list to being vastly known and acquainted with many people that attend our school. From the day I stepped into Oakcrest I wanted to be someone that everyone had heard of, but not in a bad way, just a kid who they thought was cool. However, don’t let this make you think I was pretending to be someone else just to fit in or would do anything anyone asked only to be liked. No. I had self dignity and just focused on being a nice kid with an awesome personality. But with this said, I should also say that school was neglected quite often and I would occasionally lag behind grade wise which is not good at all. Sometimes I wonder what is more important, friends or school, but as time goes on I realize I’ll have friends forever even after school. If I mess up in school then the rest of my life will be a struggle, so I really need to try and change myself as far as priorities like this goes.
These are really the only two major things I can think of right now, perhaps it is because I drew a complete blank on this blog, or maybe I really don’t follow too many guidelines, and just live life differently everyday. When I read what Emily row said “sometimes it seems like every time you start to believe something, it has a funny way of proving you wrong.”I can say that I also agree with how Laina believes this too. Why put all of your faith into something just to have it shot down? Keep yourself free of beliefs that could possibly prove to be false in the future because you are only going to get hurt yourself. I must say my dear Ms. Bunje this was quite a hard blog... kudos!
BUNJE THE NEXT BLOG IS JOANNA'S BUT HER COMPUTER WON'T POST IT FOR HER SO HERE IT IS!
Danny Lang, you stole everything that I was going to write in my blog! Haha, it's ok though, I think I'll manage
So today at swim practice I was talking to Kristen Sereci about what I should write in my blog. You might think that it's weird that I'm asking another person to tell me write, but to me, it makes everything so much either. Right before a 100 meter freestyle sprint, Kristen said to me, "Jo, it's not that you're not a deep person. Ms. Bunje's blogs make you really soul search. You just let everybody and everything in. You're you." So I was thinking, and THAT IS SO TRUE. So in conclusion to that, that's why I asked Kristen for her help.
Like Danny said, most of my beliefs have to do with my experiences with hard work. I know everyone is waiting for me to tie in beach patrol to all this, and guess what, I'm going to! Running 8 miles every day in soft sand under the blistering sun was worth it. Swimming 3 miles through choppy ocean was worth it. Getting down into the "THINK" position (the push-up position for everyone who didn't hear my OP) for all of those crazy amounts of time, while my arms quivered under my weight was worth it. Getting broken down by Lt. Glenn (“Mr." Glenn to everyone at Oakcrest) both mentally, and physically, that was worth it. All of BCBP rookie training was worth it, because after that week, I was welcomed into the beach patrol fraternity that became a part of me. (I wouldn't even come close to calling it a sorority because of the 80guy/8 girl ratio in Brigantine. Hahahahaha.)While I was struggling running in sugar sand behind the 7 other rookie boys, Lt. Glenn would say, "Zachowski, you gonna give up? You gonna cry? I'm sure we can get you a Wawa application." Him saying stuff like this just made me want to accomplish the goal of getting through the week even more. I've never quit anything in my life, and I don't plan on ever quitting something. Once you start something, in my eyes, you should finish it. My mom has given me this attitude, because she never lets me back out of anything. I usually have no problem making athletic commitments. If Coach Sera wants me to run 5 miles for crew, then fine. I know that it's going to make me get better. I love the feeling of showing someone that you're a strong person, and you're going to stick it out. However, at school it's a little bit different. My mom told me freshman year that she was forcing me to take AP throughout my high school career, and although I hated her at the time, I thank her so much for it now.
My glass of water is always half FULL. I’m a really optimistic person and I feel like it’s better to live life this way than to be a cynical person. Mikey, after your OP, I hope someday you can be an optimistic person too.
I've also come to realize that everything works out for the better when you don't overanalyze situations in life. I don't mean to say that this statement applies to every situation, but for a lot them.
While Kristen was asking me soul-search questions in attempt to try and help me answer this blog, she asked me what I live by. Kristen, I just “live”. And that's about it.
Ps. I LOVE JACK JOHNSON, KIM. He answers all of my questions in life. And he surfs, and he's chill, and he plays guitar, and his voice is amazing, and I'm going to marry him.
In life, I believe the best way to live is by not letting your mind control your heart. I found that I think extremely too much, and usually, I don't really know what is best for me. I guess this is kinda like the cliche 'follow your heart'. But more like, stop thinking all the time, stop over analyzing, and reanalyzing over and over. This, I have found, only makes things difficult. No matter how smart anyone is, they will never know exactly what is best for them. When it comes down to making certain choices they need to let their heart do the thinking for their head. "I'm a war, of head versus heart,
And it's always this way.
My head is weak, my heart always speaks,
Before I know what it will say." These are lyrics from a song by death cab for cutie. They perfectly describe how your heart knows how you feel, the choice you should make, before your head could ever even think of what to do.
Along with what my beliefs in life are, I would have to agree with Leslie. What ever is meant to be will happen. You're heart will make the choices to lead you there, and if it doesn't, then it obviously understands that its not meant to go there before your head even knew.
I use this philosophy a lot in life. Mostly when it comes to relationships, friends, family, and more. I guess the most when it came to deciding whether I would put my heart through the pain of going back into a friendship or more with someone from the past. My head is always thinking about the memories, the good times. But, my heart, which has the wounds, and the knowledge, knows that staying away is for the past. It knows the occasional smiles, and converstaions is enough. And that, shows that the heart has the greater knowledge of all. It is smarter than the head and mind. Smarter than insticts that carry people through life. The heart is stronger. The heart can stand its ground.
Thats my belief in life. To let the heart do the thinking. And let the mind soak it in. The mind will eventually catch up, and then maybe be equal to the heart. But in the beginning, the heart knows best. Its felt the pain, while the mind just triggered it.
In life, I believe the best way to live is by not letting your mind control your heart. I found that I think extremely too much, and usually, I don't really know what is best for me. I guess this is kinda like the cliche 'follow your heart'. But more like, stop thinking all the time, stop over analyzing, and reanalyzing over and over. This, I have found, only makes things difficult. No matter how smart anyone is, they will never know exactly what is best for them. When it comes down to making certain choices they need to let their heart do the thinking for their head. "I'm a war, of head versus heart,
And it's always this way.
My head is weak, my heart always speaks,
Before I know what it will say." These are lyrics from a song by death cab for cutie. They perfectly describe how your heart knows how you feel, the choice you should make, before your head could ever even think of what to do.
Along with what my beliefs in life are, I would have to agree with Leslie. What ever is meant to be will happen. You're heart will make the choices to lead you there, and if it doesn't, then it obviously understands that its not meant to go there before your head even knew.
I use this philosophy a lot in life. Mostly when it comes to relationships, friends, family, and more. I guess the most when it came to deciding whether I would put my heart through the pain of going back into a friendship or more with someone from the past. My head is always thinking about the memories, the good times. But, my heart, which has the wounds, and the knowledge, knows that staying away is for the past. It knows the occasional smiles, and converstaions is enough. And that, shows that the heart has the greater knowledge of all. It is smarter than the head and mind. Smarter than insticts that carry people through life. The heart is stronger. The heart can stand its ground.
Thats my belief in life. To let the heart do the thinking. And let the mind soak it in. The mind will eventually catch up, and then maybe be equal to the heart. But in the beginning, the heart knows best. Its felt the pain, while the mind just triggered it.
First of all let me apologize for my unpunctuality. I woke up with all intentions of getting this blog done well before twelve, but the moment my bedroom door open I was faced with an onslaught of jobs to do for the day. I tried to plead my case and get this blog done before I started working, but my dad and grandfather just weren’t hearing it. So, here I am now a little after four typing this up still covered in dust, dirt, some grease, and of course a little blood (I never can manage doing anything without some sort of injury).
I have quite a few core beliefs that I lead my life by, and they seem to be doing alright for me. I got some of these beliefs from my parents, while others I came up with myself from observations and experience.
One of my main beliefs is as follows: “Live your life in probabilities, not possibilities. Nearly everything is possible, but not necessarily probable.” For example, the first time people fly in an airplane they are often nervous, because they are afraid the plane is going to crash. This is a totally legitimate fear, because plane can crash, but it is highly improbable. For that reason I was totally unworried by my first plane ride.
My next belief is that you shouldn’t put anything into your body that doesn’t belong there. Drugs, alcohol, and things of that nature do not belong in your body and that’s why I won’t touch the stuff. I honestly can’t understand the thrill of loading your body up with alcohol, which is a TOXIN, and acting like a total ass. That doesn’t sound all too thrilling to me. This is one of the beliefs I picked up on my own. I have seen in great extent what alcohol does to people and I don’t want to have anything to do with it.
Probably my second most important belief is to remain calm under all circumstances. Letting anger get the best of you is never a good thing; and I try my damnedest to keep my cool whenever possible. Usually I’m successful at keeping my cool, but not always. This belief also applies to stress. I just don’t do the whole stressing-out thing. I remain calm and just get what I have to get done finished; I’m always better off that way.
My absolutely most important belief is to pay attention to detail. Contrary to what Hannah has said, the small things are the most important things in life, even though they are often overlooked. Fights with siblings may not seem important, but they are. All of the small seemingly insignificant things in life are often the most significant. For example, oxygen’s tendency to hog up electrons (its electronegativity) seems to be insignificant, but it is immensely significant. If it wasn’t for this small detail, water wouldn’t be polar, and life as we know it wouldn’t exist.
The above are just a few of my core beliefs, but there are many more where they came from, they are just the tip of the iceberg so to say. And once again I’m sorry that this is so late
Ever since I’ve entered into maturity, I’ve been expected to “make the right choices” and “do what’s right”. Technically, these expectations were known to me far before maturity. Take a situation involving cookies in a cookie jar for example; say I was four and I had some friends over. My mom told me I could share some cookies with my friends so I reached into the cookie jar and pulled out three cookies. The problem was that there was four of us. Of course I was expected to give the three cookies to my friends and suffer by watching them eat because it was “the right thing to do”. Sharing is good. But what if I knew that one of my friends had strict parents and wasn’t allowed to eat sugary things? Would it then be alright to eat his cookie instead? Although this situation seems rather trivial, try looking at through the perspective of child. Choices are hard to make sometimes, especially when you’re trying to do the right thing.
All in all, what is “right” anyway? We are all forced to create our own guidelines in this world, whether we have a strict set of rules to follow or whether we just throw things together as they come hurtling towards us.
Looking back, I’ve tried to adopt other people’s rules for living a good life as my own. I’ve tried them out, taken them for a walk around the block, made them work, and put them into perspective. But there was something missing. These views did not come from within me. They were not a product of my experiences and my own emotions. The problem was that I only agreed with these assessments. I did not feel its veracity from the depths of my soul. Its truth was merely floating on top.
I would like to say that I have formed entirely my own guiding principles, which I have extracted from my proficient assortment of life experiences. This simply is not one hundred percent true, but I’ve done my best to find what I truly believe in. The fact is that I’m just some small town girl, and as much as I hate to admit it, I’ve led a pretty sheltered life. As I’ve examined the decisions I make, I’ve come to a conclusion, the best that I could come up with for now: we have to live our life with meaning. I’ve made some fairly rash, selfish, and sometimes downright mean decisions before and I can’t help but think that these could have been avoided with sound reasoning: some meaning behind them.
Intention, meaning, is everything. How great it is to say “I love you” to someone and mean it, not just have it be somewhat of a routine. How amazing it is when someone helps you up when you’ve fallen down, and didn’t do it just because other people were watching. And how uplifting it is to see a smile directed towards you on a stranger’s face, sincerely wishing you a good day. All of these actions would be futile without the right intentions behind them.
After looking over some of the blogs, I like John Henry’s answer the most. He puts it simply, something I’m having a hard time doing. I too tried to stay clear of the whole religion thing even though I fully believe in God. I like how he kept to generalities because life isn’t always so specific. And I couldn’t agree more with his statement “I have no freaking clue”. That is the story of my life.
I have always believed to live life and explore its journeys in a way where you can be unique, innovative, and clever. For me it is extremely important to stay true to who you are, and not let anybody else affect that. Having positive self esteem will keep you moving forward, opening new doors for which to explore. To some people, those journeys will not be experienced effectively and true. I know for me I like to have a good time and make the best out of every situation possible. But is that one of my core beliefs? I don’t think it qualifies as one, but it is more of how you execute that belief. Then what is my true core belief? I guess, right now, maturing and growing up faster than a speeding bullet, my set of core beliefs would have to be; to be yourself and don’t over analyze situations for that is when shit hits the fan.
Just the other day, I have some real life experience in this belief. One of my friends was in a sticky situation, and she was just making a huge mess out of something simple. I tried to tell her to just let it go, and take it for what it is. I think that you cant really dictate certain things because once you interfere with what destiny has for you, then the whole thing gets screwed up. Maybe this blog seems like im babbling like a 2 year old, or an 8th grade girl going on about her boyfriend, but it is really hard to explain what I am seeing in my head.
Sometimes I wish people would just realize what is in front of their face and how great something may be, but they never take the chance and just use it as a pole, to lean on and for support. To them, they don’t see things the way I do. To me, I don’t see why they see things the way they do. In part, I think that I because of personal interference. As stated before, worrying too much about something simple, and creating a complex web entangling yourself, and now the person you involved, me.
Overall, I think what I just said made no sense at all, at least in sentences, phrases, and similes. But sometimes, does life make sense? No. not at all. And why should we try to make sense out of something that has no sense to begin with? It only ends up in confusion and frustration. To me, fighting the battle of life is never going to end with a victory, so work with it, and enjoy it.
I tried to post this this morning, but wasn't sure exactly what to write. Like Jo, who I think got everything exactly right in her post, said, I haven't really ever stopped to consider my 'beliefs that shape my decisions,' because I have always just lived. However, if I had to pick them out, which in this case I do, I definitely could.
I believe in keeping an open mind, a good sense of humor, and a sense of reckless abandon and spontaneity. I believe it's good to always see the humor in things and not take life too seriously. There are things that should obviously be taken seriously, but above all when one looks at life as a whole, one should see it as it is - funny. To keep a smile on your face is such an important thing.
I agree with Jon when he says that we're never really meant to know exactly where we're going. The fun is in the journey and figuring it out.
I also believe, to some extent, that everything happens for a reason, or at least I like to believe it when something happens I didn't see coming. I think it helps life stay on track, because if things just happened with no purpose (which, admittedly, I do believe sometimes), there would really be no order in the world.
“This I Believe” was the title of the 2007 Drum Corps International field show performed by the Cadets Drum corps from Allentown, PA (originally from Garfield, NJ). Seeing the DCI (Drum Corps International) show live, this summer, was the first thing that came to my mind when I read “This I Believe,” and as I read the question, I kept thinking about how much fun I had had with my mom and my friends and how awe struck I was to see and hear marching band at it’s best on that trip. (I am a band geek at heart. I always will be even though I haven’t been marching of the late.) When I think about it, life is pretty much a really long trip with a destination different for each person.
As I think about my life trip I know that I want to have as much fun in life as I possibly can. I want to be able to laugh until I cry each and every day, and I want to reach my destination with a smile. I know that laughing that hard everyday is unrealistic and that sadness and seriousness are also a part of life, but I believe that when the bad times come, we should work our hardest to get through them with a grin. A negative attitude doesn’t help the situation it makes it feel ten times worse than what it really is.
Another belief I have is that people should never be afraid to take risks. When we as kids learn how to ride a bike, we know we will get hurt the first few times, but engaging that risky behavior at first and learning how to ride that bike without falling gives us another skill and experience that could be useful in the future.
Having a good time and taking chances are the two things that I build my life on. Obviously, these beliefs have put me in some bad situations and I know that they make me sound like a careless, irresponsible person, but I refuse to change my core beliefs because I honestly believe they have brought me more good than bad. For example, I know that in order to have fun, I have to get through high school, and college, and obtain a substantial career that allows me to have a little extra money to have a house where I can enjoy “chill time” with friends and family. As I work towards that goal, I take risks in the hopes that they will be fun or beneficial later. I could be a college prep student and get straight A’s along with a higher class rank and GPA, or I could take a chance in an AP class, where I might get a “C” but I know that I am being pushed harder and ultimately learning more.
As we all go through life, no matter what events take place, we should all just relax and try to laugh as much as possible because as many before have said “life is too short to not take the time to laugh.”
I believe a core belief of mine is “be honest to thy self”. Unlike Devon this belief wasn’t one set by my parents. I actually can’t remember one time they said “Niah don’t forget be honest to thy self young lady!” I sort of developed this principle by seeing that people who do lie to themselves have more problems and will never be able to find peace within them, and if anything I need peace with myself if not anywhere else.
I find in many situations that in order for me to truly make a sound decision I must first evaluate me. I ask myself questions like what do I truly want? Or how do I truly feel? It’s easy to lie to others and create this facade that everything is perfect, but at the end of the day you’re the only one who knows the truth and you must be able to live with the decisions you make.
I first recognized truth as being my most significant principle probably this year. Though I’ve always carried this principle I never realized it was one. I sort of saw it as being normal until I noticed that must people don’t posses the ability to be honest to them self. A lot has happened this year and I had to really dig down deep it opened my eyes to my core principle. Sometimes I’m too honest with myself! But I really want to discover true happiness and I figure that lying to myself isn’t going to allow me to follow a path leading to that happiness.
I find it incredible when people lie to themselves. It is one thing to lie to others but another to lie to yourself. My guardian angel told me that when you lie to yourself you lose a part of your soul. I have come across a lot of people whose souls are dead because of it, and for that I try hard not to make that mistake.
Of course my guiding principle in life would be revolved around me right? But that’s not it. By allowing yourself to know the truth you not only become stronger but you have the ability to be more in touch with your goals and even your fears. Living in denial is a good way to dig your self in a hole. Also it’s allowed me to follow a path set by me. I don’t want to wake up thirty years from now and say “Damn why didn’t I listen to my heart?” So I like to think that even though my life is governed by adults at the end of the day I have the last word.
oh and thanks gary. a hole.
So I'm finally posting this blog, almost a day late. But I have an excuse, I was away since about five o'clock on Friday and have only recently returned home. Normally I would have been able to bang out the blog on Thursday night and have done with it, but for some reason I just couldn't seem to realize exactly what beliefs I hold dear. I can definitely think of things that I believe, that’s quite easy, but determining which of those beliefs determine who I am and why I do thing s is a little more challenging. So after giving much thought to the question I realized that my most important belief is my belief in the importance of the pursuit of knowledge which sounds really corny, but one of the few things that really irks me is not knowing why or how. Which brings me to second important belief which is to avoid getting upset over stupid things, I have never been overly fond of high school drama and spend most of my time trying to avoid it and be left alone to read my books. After having read what I just wrote I have to say that I agree with Jon’s number 2 “I have no freaking clue” I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing with my life I can only act on the moral information given to me by my faith, what I’ve read, and what my parents have taught me. I must also agree with Gary’s point about understanding the past. This is similar to my point about the importance of acquiring knowledge especially knowledge about the past, of course that might be the history nerd inside me talking. So many things that are happening today have curiously similar mirrors in the past and so I feel that having accurate knowledge of the past is the best way to deal with problems of the past. And my most important truth I live my life by is you can never have to many books. Since I was five I have been making almost weekly tricks to the local library, in fact my whole family has, everyone from my mom to my dad, even the cat loves books, okay maybe the cat is a bit of an exaggeration but still our house is full of books and I love it, if I have nothing else to do I can grab one of the many books in the house and sit and read.
My mother and my sister shape a lot of the decisions I make. Mainly, it was my mother's morals that I adopted as a young kid. She has given us the ability and consciousness to be contributing members of society. Which I really think is the most important life. To contribute to this vast, growing book of knowledge and everything else, like an encyclopedia, like Wikipedia. Because of my mother and my sister, I do well in school. Even if I fail, I still did a good job and that good job is what counts to her. I believe that everyone should have a person like my mother in the lives. When a new freshman tries to play some crazy percussion instrument in band, I try to show them and allow them to mess up (unlike Mr. T who would just yell at them). While because of Mock Trial, we flaunt the saying Your Best just ISN'T Good Enough as a joke. When we first saw that poster, we all thought it was absurd that someone best just couldn't be good enough. So the first thing I believe is that my best is good enough even if I fail.
Own my own, I have, for whatever reason, developed this moral that drugs and alcohol are bad. So I stay away and I did for a long time until about last year. It started to get harder to not associate myself with people who did these illegal things. The one occasional paper that I started to write was about this very topic: how I developed a tolerance yet I still don't participate. This moral standing I have has been tested time and time again, and has gotten to the point where it has almost torn apart friendships. While my feelings towards alcohol have changed a bit, I still hold one moral. Drugs are bad, and I will not do them. Period.
Du said how I feel in a perfect sentence: "I feel as though from the morals that are embodied in us help us form our own that we will carry with us and also try to instill in our children to help them form there own morals and values." I fully believe that parents who exhibit bad behavior, morals and values will inadvertently pass them onto their children. Parents, like mine, who try to provide an environment that allows their children to flourish from an early age will see that happen. Some outside factors HAVE to influence of the behavior of a child, which is linked to the behavior they show as an adult that has been obtained from their parents.
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