New Years Approaches: Time for Resolutions

Are you ready? Are you pumped? It's an exciting time: right now. The new year is right around the corner.  You know what that means, right? That means we get to kick this perpetually treacherous year to the proverbial curb; that means we get to make new resolutions; that means we get our annual injection of hope. The possibilities are endless. This year will be different. Right?

Do you ever approach a new year and reflect on the previous new year? Do you ever think about how the new year has become somewhat trite as it begins a new, yet unchanging cycle?

This year, I'm going to be happier. This year, I'm going to lose weight.  This year, I'm finally going to make that move. This year, I'm going to be a better person. This year, I'm going to fall in love--or at least fall in like.

We seem to constantly set these incredibly ambitious goals with our sights on the end instead of the means. We tend to neglect the path and think about the gratification of achievement.  We intend to reach the peak but we don't consider the climb.  The new year season is a season of hypotheticals.  Problematically, hypotheticals don't usual turn into realities.

I posit that if we were to reach for the stepping stones rather than the end goals, we'd reach our end goals more consistently. We need to position ourselves to succeed rather than merely hoping/wishing we'll succeed.

Instead of saying you're going to lose weight, say you're going to go to the gym once a week.  Then go to the gym once a week, then twice, then three times.

Instead of saying you're going to get a job, say you're going to find one place to apply to every day. Say you're going to talk to one person a day and inquire.  Say you're going to do something each day to make someone want to hire you.  Don't just desire that job, put yourself into the position for a job.

Instead of saying you're going to fall in love, be more social. Do things to meet new people.  Throw yourself out there.  Why won't people like you? Why do other people have what you want? They go for it.  You don't just get to love; it's a process.

Instead of saying you're going to do better at school, say you're going to study an extra hour each week without distraction. Heck, even an extra half an hour.  Let yourself accomplish that and see the difference it makes.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Instead of making seemingly defined but actually vague goals, shoot for tangibility.  Shoot for ways to get you in position.  We can't leap from A to Z.  It takes steps.  Successful people don't reach success over night.  They work at it constantly.

Payton Manning and Tom Brady haven't sustained success by constantly throwing deep balls and going for the instant score.  They've sustained success by working at getting first downs and moving towards the endzone.  Perfecting their craft.

Similarly, we need to have our goals be to get the first down.

I'll be honest, I often consider myself a hopeless romantic.  I perpetually wish for and desire real connection.  But I never feel it and I never have it.  I yearn for companionship.  I'll see other people who are happy and wonder why not me?  My problem? I want to fall in love but I haven't positioned myself to succeed.  I haven't thought about the process.  Instead, I've neglected it.

I haven't thrown myself out there.  I get in the situation and stay standing.  How can I complain when I don't help myself out?  I'm consumed by thoughts of failure or even worse, success.  But yet I still wish/hope/yearn for it.

At the end of the day, if you want to change something this new year you can.  You don't need a new years resolution to do so, though.  You have the power. We have the power.  It's a matter of how we approach this change.  It's a matter of how much you really want it as opposed to how much you want other people to think you want it.  Talk is cheap.  Life isn't going to just hand out the rewards (for most of us).  If you truly want to achieve a goal, prove it.  Take the necessary steps and position yourself for success.  Be what you want to be. Do what you want to do.

I believe in you.

Challenge: Face Fear and Fight

Fear.

F.
E.
A.
R.

Fear of failure.
Fear of mistakes.
Fear of being made fun of.
Fear of being hurt.
Fear of screwing up.
Fear of spiders.
Fear of people.
Fear of loving too much.
Fear of loving too little.
Fear of it not being enough.
Fear of judgement.
Fear of....

Fear. It's exhausting. It's paralyzing. Everyday, we all face it to some extent; we all face it to various degrees. But we all face it.  Something makes us take a step back and say what if I don't or what if I'm not...?

As we evolve, so does our fear. Each new stage in our lives, each new chapter, brings a new worry, anxiety, fear.  I don't care if you know someone who says they're "fearless." That's bull. They aren't.  We naturally face "fight or flight" on the daily.  I'd argue, that's our body's natural fear. Key word: Natural.

I think many of us are immobilized in some way, shape, or form by our fear. And it needs to stop.  I can't speak for all of you with certainly, but I know it definitely shapes my life. Based on my observations, it shapes/controls others' lives too. A student fears they aren't good enough; so, he or she doesn't try.  One of my favorites: people who won't dance because they "can't dance" and fear they'll be made fun of.  Fun fact: not many people can dance.  It's not about the quality of dancing--it's about the quality of fun.

Like I said, it needs to stop. We need to, collectively, overcome our fear. I think the fear of doing things differently has arguably even hampered progress.  But, for the sake of this brief post, let's stick to individual bases.

For too long, I've let certain fears inhibit me from doing things that I dream about doing.  For too long, I've impeded my own happiness because I fear I'll mess it up.  For too long, I've cut out certain fears while letting others grow into uncontrollably poisonous weeds deep within my spirit.

Fear is so odd because it's such an enigma.  With it, I feel like I'm in constant paradox.  On one hand, it's so easy to overcome--you simply must choose fight.  We must act against the fear.  Like with dancing, once you start it's not so bad after all.  Yet, on the other hand, it's sometimes easier said than done.  At the end of the day, you just have to fight. Period.

I recently challenged you all to collect happiness.  Well, I now challenge you to fight fear.  I know it's not an easy thing to do but remember a few things.  One, YOU ARE MORE THAN FEAR; FEAR DOES NOT OWN YOU. Two, AT THE END OF THE DAY, SOMEONE WILL STILL LOVE YOU. Three, LOOK AT HOW HAPPY PEOPLE WHO CAN OVERCOME THEIR FEAR ARE. Four, YOU ARE NOT ALONE. No matter what, no matter how lonely you may feel, you are not alone.  Someone, in some manner, can connect with you if you let them.

So, I challenge you to find a way to challenge yourself to overcome your fear.  Maybe it'll take baby steps; maybe you'll throw yourself into the shark tank.  Just do it.  I think I want to write myself a note that I know I'll see daily that reads: Robert, it's okay to fail. Just get back up and learn.

It's weird because I've learned best from failing.  Like, some people used to think I was so good with computers in grade school.  I wasn't; I just failed until I got it right and learned how to do it right...I digress...

Be brave. Be bold. Be a fighter of fear. I believe in you and others do too. It's time we ditch our excuses and our fears and start believing in us. Let's get it.

A Christmas Question

I know I'll often say that I'm going to keep a post short and then I start rambling.  Maybe that's my version of short.  Anyways, today's post is actually going to be brief, as I don't have an answer.

I have a question I'd love to hear your opinion on.  If nothing else, I hope you'll read this post and it'll make you ask yourself this question.  As the holidays are upon us, I think it's imperative for each of us to do some reflecting.

I was talking to my brother the other day about certain circumstances when endless questions came to my mind.  My questions ranged from how long do parents give presents to kids to how sad should one be if he or she doesn't get a present and is the a societal thing to many others.  All of the questions lead to this central question that I want us all to consider:

Should getting presents (or maybe even the idea of presents in general) matter in the grand scheme of things?

Maybe some of you have faced a situation where you've had to consider that question; maybe some of you have.  Regardless, I think it's important to think about.  Have we lost the essence of the holiday spirit? Have we gravitated towards presents at the price of gravitating away from things like family, humanity, and love? What about all those who yearly don't have a Christmas with presents?

I have some initial thoughts and some deeper thoughts.  Maybe it'll be hard for people to ponder if they cannot empathize with situations where Christmas presents weren't impending.  Maybe it'll be easy.  I don't know.

I just hope for this holiday season, whatever holiday you celebrate, you try to take a step back from the materials and think about what's truly important to you this season. Celebrate the life you've been afforded and the people surrounding you.  If you can't do that, maybe this year you can give yourself the present of a new presence in the everyday.

A Challenge: Collect and Distribute Happiness

The other day at work, I was walking past a colleague's cubicle.  She often pins pictures of friends or from events. As I stopped to look, I noticed she recently added a few new pictures of paintings. Relatively small, the paintings intrigued me.

Upon seen the new photos, I thought about all of the art collectors out there, which made me think about people who collect sports memorabilia. This train of thoughts continued to thinking about the various materialistic items many of us collect to various degrees.  We seem to each have a particular, peculiar taste in some sort of trinket, collectible, etc.

This isn't it, but it's neat.

I often wonder about the reasoning behind one's collection. Is it to ultimately gain money by accruing a unique collection of items that can be sold for a great sum? Is it to show off one's great wealth or keen eye for art, design, or flamboyancy? Is it in hopes of filling some psychological void left from a childhood or life that has thus far left us feeling incomplete? Or is it simply for pure enjoyment?

I think it's some sort of combination on a case by case basis.  I've never really been into collectables.  I mean, I guess when I was younger, we'd collect baseball cards, but I didn't actively seek anything--it was more look we have baseball cards. Being a somewhat frugal individual, I've often questioned why people collect such superfluous things.  Why spend so much on materialism? When looking at those pictures, after this fairly rapid succession of thoughts crossed my mind, a new conclusion surfaced: What if we collected something more?

For some odd reason--I really don't know why--looking at those pictures made me smile.  I felt, momentarily, a certain sense of happiness. BOOM! We should collect happiness! We should become collectors of happiness.  Maybe all of these collections are procured for more than the aforementioned reasons.  Maybe people collect things that make them happy.  Note: I'd argue there is a difference between buying something TO make one happy and buying something THAT makes one happy.  If you're doing something TO make you happy, it insinuates inorganic and contrived instead of something with an organic, innate quality.

I don't think each instance of collection is for the purposes of collecting happiness, but I think that's something we should strive for.  We should strive to have more things THAT make us happy rather than things we think are going TO make us happy. Ya dig? For instance, my dad's a collector of CD's. His collection seems endless and it's perpetually growing.  He does it because music brings happiness to his life.  It's a part of his being; it's a part of who he is.  Better yet, music allows him to do something I think collecting happiness should allow us to do: music allows him to be a distributor of happiness. That is, through music and sharing music he can bring happiness to others.

Someone who buys, for instance, a bunch of clothes for the purpose of looking good and being accepted as fashionable in society is looking to bring themselves happiness.  The clothes don't actually make them happy (in this instance), but instead they're being used as a potential facilitator of happiness--they hope the clothes will gain acceptance, which they hope will make them happy. It's a gateway to the unknown with a hope they'll bring what the person desires.  Someone who is looking to facilitate happiness can't possibly distribute it with any vigor or authenticity.

What's great about this notion is it isn't limited to materialism.  For instance, we could consider time as a  currency. Many times, we'll spend time superficially with the hopes it'll make us happy.  I'm not sitting here saying things like video games or tv or texting is bad, but....think about it this way.  We spend time texting each other to stay connected and feel a sense of togetherness, yet for some reason our generation is more depressed than past generations.  For some reason, the texting leaves us feeling lonely because it makes us desire constant gratification.  Television and video games are great ways to relax, but what value to they really add to our life collection? On the other hand, you could be spending time with people who make you happy or doing things that make you happy.  Instead of sitting around moping watching TV, we could be visiting with loved ones, seeking loved ones, doing something impacting, bettering ourselves, etc.  Heck it could even being dancing in the rain or sitting under a waterfall.

I can't speak for you but I can say for myself all the TV shows in the world cannot compare to a good night with friends.  All the video games I can play cannot compare to going to the gym or writing.  When I do things that naturally make me happy, I'm able to spread that happiness.  I'm able to be a quirky, witty jokester that spreads joy to friends.  I'm able to write posts like this post that people (some at least) actually read and take into consideration.  I'm allowing myself to be both a collector and distributor of happiness.

I understand a lot of my notions sound good but are much harder to put forth into action than to conceive.  I just think if we could sometimes take a step back and reevaluate some things we could collective make the world better. If we stopped trying to facilitate happiness by doing things like going on diets to fit societies standards and instead exercise or eat right because it makes you feel happy, we could be better.  Random tangent, that's why I respect (and many others respect) Jennifer Lawrence so much.  She just does what she wants and doesn't give two F***s. But I think it's important to note that she does what she wants, but because of that she distributes happiness.  She's not a Bieber, who doesn't give a f is just a jerk-off to the world.  She actually wants to let people know that things are going to be alright if you'd let them.

I challenge you, my friends, to become collectors of happiness and therefore distributors of happiness. You can collect it through various way: photography, basketball, music, volunteering, art, etc, etc, etc. In the end, isn't that a major goal of life? Don't do it for others do it for yourself because only when you can achieve happiness, not the inorganic superficial stuff, can you really relay such happiness to others. You can't take care of others if you can't take care of yourself.  Let's get collecting.

School: What a Jerk

While perusing Facebook and Twitter today, researching companies for my work, I ran across a post that read something along the lines of, "School prevents me from having a life." My gut reaction was to roll my eyes.  Then, I thought about how many times I've heard that line, or a similar line before, and how many times I read it nearly daily.  Not only do people complain, presumably sometimes tongue in cheek, that school ruins their lives but I'm pretty sure it's too difficult, it asks for too much, etc.  Considering these qualms and complaints, and the volumes of them, made me wonder if it's true.

Let's discuss...

First let's talk about the statement, "School prevents me from having a life."  We must begin by defining "life." Obviously, the individual did not literally mean life, so I'll work under the presumption s(he) was referring to a social life. Okay, fair enough.  Sure, school keeps you busy so you don't have time on the weekdays to do much more than study or participate an extracurricular (IF you even have time for that).

But wait.

Isn't school the reason you have a social life to begin with? Didn't your first friends because of school? Didn't you learn how to socialize with others in a school setting? How dare they make you learn to function, or try to function, in the social world. Jerks. Without school, it's hard to say what kind of social life you'd have to begin with.  Sure, you meet kids at daycares and learn some social skills there, but is it really the same? You might learn to play with kids, cool, but what else? If you can speak with someone on an intellectual level it runs the conversation dry.  One can only build so many legos.

Well, elementary and middle school weren't tough.  Plus, I didn't have a need for a social life. Now that I'm in high school/college, school just gets in the way.

Life is just too tough, isn't it? Being afforded the opportunity to get an education, what a drag.  Again, you gain a social life through school.  You want to hang out with your high school/college friends, yet they wouldn't exist if you never went to school.  Want a social life instead of school? Fine, drop out.  Good luck supporting yourself, though. You'll just get a job at McDonalds? That's a helluva a life to shoot for. School is a necessity. Is a time consuming necessity? Yes. But put it in perspective. You know what comes after school? Work. At work, you don't get snow days, spring breaks, summer vacation (sans teachers), etc. You work and work and work and work. And depending on your job, you just may have "homework" to do to get paid. Can't live without that green. Furthermore, guessing such people are between 16-20 (as many 21/22 year olds realize they'll miss that meandering thing called school)..you have PLENTY of time to not have school.  You're barely statistically a quarter way through your life, if that.

Okay, but why do we have to take such difficult classes or classes we don't want to take?
Cliche time: Life isn't easy. It never way, never is, and never will be. It's a challenge; a wonderfully frustrating but ultimately satisfying challenge. You want to complain about school? Go talk to a homeless person struggling to find his or her next meal. You think they'd like to switch with you right now? These classes are there to shape you into a tougher person who can face adversity and not end up on the streets. These tough classes are there to push you to open your horizons and see the world from a broader scope.  These class are there to help you find your strengths and your weaknesses, and to help you find what you like.  These classes are there to help shape your life.  Did I enjoy taking history classes? No. But it helped me understand that I wasn't meant to be a historian.

People who succeed aren't successful merely because of skill.  They work hard everyday to achieve their goals--regardless if the work is easy or not.

Is college expensive? Yes it is. But how many people do you know don't get nostalgic when reminiscing about their college years? How many people do you know who have good jobs yet didn't get to college? I'd wager not too many.  We live in a world of instantaneous gratification--I want it now.  Don't stay the course, stay YOUR course and wait for the more satisfying gratification.  People want to blow off high school or college now to live, but I can guarantee you being able to live a gratifying life in your adult years will be much more impacting and lasting than having great teenage years.  Do you really want to live paycheck to paycheck, but say, "hey, my teens, those were the times"? I certainly hope not.  You have a great opportunity to not only impact your life but others. Take it.

Martin-Incognito: A Mess that Spills Over into Society

I'm always looking for new topics to blog about though, truthfully, I shouldn't ever run out of ideas because each day presents something absolutely fascinating.  The other day, a friend suggested that I write about the whole Jonathan Martin-Richie Incognito ordeal.  As I told him, I think this situation is so incredibly interesting yet equally messy.

If you, by chance, don't know what's going on you can search the Internet and find no dearth of articles.  Problematically, while an investigation is currently underway we still don't have the hard facts.  Situations like this one can be sticky because it often comes down to he said she said (or in this case he said he said).  Here's what we do know for certain: Jonathan Martin has left his team, Richie Incognito has been indefinitely suspended, both are looking for justice and vindication, and both have supporters. What makes this case so interesting: Jonathan Martin claims he was bullied by multiple teammates but the main focus is on Incognito, rumors have circulated Martin was lazy and didn't show much work ethic, Incognito is an undeniable d-bag, and many teammates have come to Incognito's side.

When analyzing this situation, I don't see how one can OBJECTIVELY say one person is more wrong than the other.  From the various stories and tidbits percolating the interweb, it's hard to side with either person.  Jonathan Martin is being painted as a wussy by some folks and as a role model by others.  The big issues I have with him, based on what I've heard, is that 1) teammates have said that Martin had the main piece of evidence in question (a voicemail from Incognito that poses death threats and uses obscene and defamatory words) for a while and laughed about it, but now suddenly it's a problem, 2) he's acting like he's the first person to go through hazing in the NFL, 3) it's certainly strange that his own teammates, generally speaking, aren't backing him (makes me wonder if this coup is a copout).  On the flip side, how could I or anyone really side with Incognito? 1) He's recorded saying these words, 2) I've heard stories ranging from him prodding a woman on a golf course with his club to demeaning staff members, 3) before this story broke out I knew him as the lineman who was always picking fights.  The guy is an awful person. Period.

I really want to wait until the investigators reveal more information until jumping to conclusions.  I think this situation plays out one of two ways: either Incognito gets the hammer dropped on him and is made an example for NFL locker rooms or Incognito gets acquitted of the accusations, gets his grievance, and Martin has a tough time latching on with a team.

While the overall situation is interesting, I think it's prevalent in more ways than just football; it highlights a lot of issues with our society today.

Media, Privacy, and Bullying
NOTHING IS PRIVATE ANYMORE.  Privacy is virtually non-existant. I really don't think this situation is the first time a problem like this has arisen in an NFL locker room.  In the past, though, it's remained in-house and dealt with privately.  Many folks within the Dolphins organization are irked and vexed that Martin took it outside the "family."  We don't believe in private matters--with the convenience of sharing everything from our food to our pets to how many breaths we took in the last minute instantly, it's like everyone knows everything about everyone.  It's super strange but how our world works now.  I think this lack of privacy or secrecy really hinders relationships as often people have nothing to share with one another in person and thus have no reason to interact physically (but that's a whole different issue).

If we weren't bad enough, the media takes it to a whole new level.  I believe I've said it before, but I hate the media so much.  It's absolutely overkill most of the time and it makes the world seem full of vitriol. I understand that bad things happen, but when you hear about it constantly how can you not be a little depressed? Matters get overanalyzed to the point where people are afraid to live at times.  Obviously, the media plays an integral role in keeping us knowledgeable, but it's just too much for me at times.

It's not the only factor, but a big core to this problem is bullying.  It's a difficult situation we're trying to grasp better today as a society.  It's a truly dicey and touchy topic.  On one hand, we see a sweeping movement to stop bullying, which is great. No one deserves to be bullied--there's no need to bring someone down to build yourself up.  On the other hand, we live in a society that overcompensates for this type of treatment and creates thin-skinned individuals, which leads to our pampered and entitled generation.  It's well known that rookies get hazed.  Should it be so intense that it causes people to become depressed? Probably not.  Should people get depressed if someone puts them down occasionally? Probably not.  It's a tight rope for me as someone who has experience in this area, but I think the fact that the term "bullying" is being used, it takes it to a new level.  We definitely have more work to do to resolve some of these issues.  Personally, I'm guessing the NFL will crack down on these hazing rituals to protect what's most important to them, their pockets.  I foresee many lawsuits arising if they don't.

N***************
What's also super troubling, to me, is Incoginto's use of the n.  Side note, Louis CK did a bit noting how when people say "the n-word" they're just putting the actual word in someone else's head, which I found interesting. Anywho...

There has been a lot of news, a lot of questions, a lot of opinions, and a lot of articles recently revolving said word.  As you may or may not know, Terry Foster wrote a piece not too long ago about how Tony Scheffler (a now former Lion and white individual) used the word somewhat freely with teammate Louis Delmas.  Many non-African Americans are questioning why they can't use it more freely as they argue it's become the norm in popular culture.  Well, here's one more opinion for you...

I'm going to try and keep this brief because I'm admittedly not an authority to talk about this subject but I do believe certain things should be noted.  What people do in their private time is theirs. As I stated above, privacy is at a minimum nowadays so people absolutely must be conscious and careful.  If people in the locker room of the NFL are cool with Incognito saying such words, as one teammate deemed his as a "non-racist and a honorary brother," that's their business.  But the second you record it on a voicemail or publicize it, you're overstepping boundaries.

I think people are becoming desensitized to the word and forgetting it's roots--slavery.  Following that thought, people are forgetting to contextualize the distinct fact that the ending has been changed in use from er to a.  It's not cool for me to say that word; it's not cool for Richie Incognito to use that outside of private conversations (that his peers deem okay). Period.

I read an article, I believe it was from NY Times, about the new movie 12 Years a Slave. The author stated that it was the first movie he could remember in some time that didn't glorify and desensitize slavery, but instead it painted it in a mortifying, truthful picture.  Basically what I'm getting at is sort of like how many songs like "Wade in the Water" were used to turn something negative into something positive (forcing religion on slaves turned into cryptic messages for escape), n was turned into something that wasn't in the white slave masters' control.  People need to stop the petty crap and let it go.

We are trying to simply a complex issue.

At the end of the day, this situation between Martin and Incognito is and will remain a mess.  It digs up many ugly skeletons we have been trying to keep in our closets.  How it's dealt with could shape how future situations are handled. For now we must wait and see.

Love is Blindness and We're Trying to See

Last I checked, the current season is fall.  Now I could be mistaken, but judging by my Facebook feed, it's currently the season of love too.  Within the last week alone I've seen multiple articles talking about love or marriage--one saying marriage isn't for you, one was a priest's rebuttal (which I currently can't find), and another was about the girls guys should go after.

The articles I've seen have created a lot of buzz, sharing, and commenting. People genuinely think these articles hold the answers (or at least tangible answers). What's been most interesting to me is how young these knowledge-droppers are.  It's amazing the knowledge they've amassed in such a little time. From their years of experience, they have qualitative knowledge to bequeath to the mass.  Sarcasm aside, the mass is listening.

Maybe the fact the this younger generation blogs more frequently sends these articles viral, but it seems to me we are desperate for a youthful voice to show us the way.  We want to know that life is going to turn out alright and our fears can be calmed.  I find it slightly ironic, though, that this particular guy has been acclaimed for his insight yet his insight was discovered via his father. Anywho...

For me, the information spread has been fascinating, but obvious.  Almost too obvious.  We are looking for a utopia that simply doesn't exist. We want to find that unlocks the impenetrable gate.  It's this innate desire that keeps us striving towards a dream yet slows our reality--we want perfection.  It's like we're on a journey to quench our insatiable thirst for the end all be all answer.

Life hasn't, doesn't, and will never work like that. What works for one couple isn't guaranteed to work on another.  A "HEY THIS HERE IS HOW TO ABSOLUTELY HAVE A SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE" guide doesn't exist.  Theoretically, yes, I'm sure a perfect formula may exist, but theory and practicality are two very separate existences.  People consume droves of self-help books daily; people mindlessly follow leaders who claim to hold the solutions to their everyday struggles; people endlessly hope that the next solution will be the medicine that cures their disease (metaphorically).  Note the surplus of quantity and disregard for true quality.

Reality check: If such a thing existed, we wouldn't have so many answers percolating and so many uncertainties remaining.  If said solutions existed, they'd be going viral by now.  Each person's snowflake existence makes him or her impervious to ubiquity. It's romantic and fantastic to believe someone has it right, but it's equally foolish to live under the pretense that his or her footsteps have marked your path.

Maybe the concept of marriage can be simplified to the notion of bettering your partner, or maybe even centering yourself around God; however, as I've said before, how can you make such a matter of fact claim when so much variety and mercuriality exists in the practice of marriage or life in general for that matter?  How can we say, other than stemming from our subjective pride, that our practice is the right practice? How can we preach to our peers when we've so many failures of our own? But, then again, how can I opine in this blog and then expect you to consider my words when I'm trying to disprove others' preachiness? There in lies the question that keeps life so interesting: What should I believe?

I'm such an enigmatic person.  I find myself to be so cynical at times while simultaneously searching for  optimistic conclusions.  I guess, in this case, I'm just warning that though our peers or elders might have great stories, they aren't the stars of our plot.

I believe, momentarily, that we are puzzle pieces looking to find the piece that fits. Not every piece will fit with us, but more than one connecting piece exists--it's our journey to find the piece the fits best, which will allow us to continue solving the puzzle.

I'm still searching.