Conclusion of an Ignorant

I am ignorant. There are still many things I have to learn. Things I will learn in today’s years and things I will learn when I get wrinkles and scathes. Each day, each moment a fruit is ripen. It must not be wasted. We must always harvest the day.

Life teaches us many things in many ways. But whether we learn from it or not, this falls under our choice. There are no easy ways. If we want to learn then we have to pay the price, for “everyone who climbs the mountain to summit, has had to cross the valley and bruised the toes going over loose rocks”.

Finally, the most important thing I learned in life is it has taught me that a ship without an end location shall only wander the vastness of the ocean, never finding its island, never achieving actualization.

We must have the vision. We must have our goals in life. And when you know where you’re going, you’ll do everything to get there. It’s not about having the highest goal or the most extravagant dream; it’s about having a direction.

The Art of Failure

Life taught me the art of failure. We all fail. I learned it from the early years of my life. From our first attempt to walk, we fall. And we kept on falling; yet we keep on standing. Failing is such a wonderful thing. The pressure, stress and embarrassment it gives are unbearably sweet. But failure is even sweeter when we fall from a high ground. When we aimed to the sky and have dreamed so high and fail: only the most creative writer can tell of our salvation.

Who said that we should not dream high for we are bound to experience a painful fall? Oh yes a very painful one. But for all I know, a ball bounces back higher when It falls from a higher ground. Success is not measured by your achievements; it is measured by how high you bounce back when you experience that most painful fall.

The Ocean

I’m not Morrie. No, not yet.

20 years of existence in this world taught me so many things. Some I can’t express while some are deemed unfathomable. Nevertheless, these experiences are those that are inevitably embedded in our psyche archive. These are voluminous anthology of experiences and stories that serve as your subconscious framework of existence and, in such a manner, forms our way of thinking and pattern of behavior. Everyday is a new experience. It can be a start of a whole new journey or the end of a previous adventure. Life is unpredictable.

Welcome to the ocean, sailor.

Life is like the ocean. It can be as tranquil as Eden or as harsh as apocalypse. It is unpredictable and deceiving; a peaceful wave can abruptly change to a chaotic tsunami. The ocean caters the deadliest creatures; some monstrous, some are pleasingly deceiving. The ocean is dark and deep; it is impossible to discover its covers.

But for all I know, the unpredictability adds to the excitement of voyage. The giant waves are best appreciated when conquered. The deadliest creatures are won when tamed. And the darkness and deepness of the ocean is the very reason for its beauty. It is the very reason for igniting my passion to discover; for reviving my instinctual curiosity, for activating my thirst for knowledge.

We have our own boat, ship: from a tiny boat to a large ship. Treat your ship as if it’s your own, oh, because you own it. We may not be the masters of everything, but we are the captains of ourselves.

I now have my own ship. I learned from the masters, from my parents, from my ancestors. I have seen their success and failures, their righteousness and mistakes.

I’m ready to sail. I will encounter storms, great waves and perils the ocean can give. Whether I live or perish along the way, I am at peace, I died sailing. I conquered.

Life IS “what IS”

I have learned that life doesn’t have any meaning. Does beauty have meaning? No. Beauty IS. I learned to accept that life IS. But embedded in the IS of life is freewill. And, with freewill, the IS becomes “what IS”, now it has meaning.

Living is difficult, as if life should be easy. But the ability of man to choose; his very rationality of things serves as the ultimate cause of his joy and misery. “what I choose to be, I shall be”.

The concept is simple: life is what our thoughts make. We are not determined. We have been given the gift to think and to manifest these ideas into our own form of actions. We are defined not by how others perceive us but by how we value ourselves.

No.1 Competitor

“If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be lesser and better persons than yourself”

This line from the “Desiderata” articulates the simplest idea of being humble, of living life with no envy or insecurity, of appreciating rather than comparing, of accepting rather than competing.

However, there will always be competition. Our species now exists for we had the highest advantage of survival. We competed with the most dangerous predators for food. We challenged the very weather that obliterated species millions of years ago. Competition is an instinctual pattern for survival. There is always competition. If so, to whom do we compete?

I had to compete with everyone in order to be the best in school. You have to be competitive to be on top, and when others are pulling you down, you have to kick them and let them fall on their ass. It was ego inflating to be on top when everyone else was below you. The recognition, achievements, respect, and fame are valued as much as self-worth. Yes, back then I measure self-worth through how others perceive me, and I bet most of us quantify it this way.

I competed with everyone. Then I met my No. 1 competitor. The “I”.

I learned that competition begets comparison, and comparison begets envy, insecurity and selfishness. It is a great feeling to be recognized by others, but isn’t it better to be recognized by yourself? No matter how others perceive you, you always have the final call, what do I think of myself? You’ve gone from a long war, defeating “enemies” and “foes” it was a happy being victorious, but was it fulfilling? Does the joy of victory stays?

“I” am the number one competitor of “myself”. And this is the only competition where no one loses: for when you lose, you learn, and when you win, you realize. Strive to defeat yourself; this is a life long war.