How did we get here?

One day, you're a five year old kid.  You study an hour a day, and sleep twelve hours.  Your mom tucks you in at night, you play ring-of-roses with your friends, you find beauty in the world, in your life.  Then suddenly, you're a teenager, your life has turned upside down.  The bright colours, dreams and ideas of a "happily after after" are gone.  Reality's learnt to bite you in the face.  You've been broken, moulded, reshaped and then taken apart again, multiple times.  You've given up so many times you've lost count.  How did you get here?  How did we all get here?

Everyday, a little part of you dies and a little part is born.  Slowly, you turn into something you never could have imagined yourself as ten years ago.  And ten years later, you'll be something else.  People change, and they have to.  If you don't change, you'll be stuck in one place forever.  That may grant you solace, but never satisfaction.  So you change, you find yourself somewhere else.  You take a chance.  You lose something, and find something else.  And every step is worth it.  Because one day, you'll find something that makes up for every single loss.  

You're not lost, you just don't realize at first where you're heading.  That's the best part.

That's how we got here.  That's where we're going.  Alone, with everybody else.  Take a step.  Take a chance.  Change your life and let it change you.  It's worth it.

You Matter

"The magic is all around you.  You just have to find it."

                                                   - J. K. Rowling

There are times in my life when I wish I was born into a different world, a different person, with a different life.  Perhaps a Demigod, a wizard or a witch, or even a Tribute or Time Lord.  Such people have experienced loss I cannot imagine, face death at every turn in their lives, and yet, sometimes I wish I was one of them.  Because they matter.

People who have saved the world matter.  People who are heroes to others, they matter.  And people like me?  We're just ourselves.  Sometimes, I can't help but imagine- If I died tomorrow, would it even make a difference?

Except that it would.  Maybe not to the President of your nation, or an alien species out there.  But know this, if you die the next day, it will matter to your family.  To your friends.  And honestly, that's more important.  It's all right to not be an inspiration to every person on the planet.  Even if you've brought a smile to a single person's face, inspired or consoled someone, in your entire life, you have fulfilled your purpose in life.  No matter what happens, you'll always matter to those people.

That's what magic really is.  It's not a bunch of spells, or learning to fly or become invisible.  It's a feeling.  The greatest feeling in the world.  Being with the people you love, reaching out to your dreams, just feeling content.  That's true magic.  It's not in another universe out there.  It's here, all around you.  And if you can spot it, you're greater than a Demigod, Witch, Tribute or Time Lord.

Because you're the most important, the luckiest, the true human.

Just make it through today...

I'm a normal person.  A teenager.  Someone with normal problems.  Fears.  Fights.  Pressure.  Problems that seem endless, an identity that seems faceless, and sometimes a life that seems lifeless.  But there's a bigger picture.  A new world out there.  A world that could hold anything in store.

Sometimes, ending it seems like a solution.  I don't mean committing suicide!  I mean the subtle method of ignoring your problems.  You turn and walk away, expecting it to help.  But it doesn't.  Because when you run from your problems, they run after you.  And they catch up.  

But you just gotta make it through another day!  Tomorrow may or may not be better, but the hope, that something will bring a smile to your face the next day?  It helps you get through this day.  Its okay to run out of solutions, or even will.  There's just one thing you can't afford to run out of.  Hope.  Even when your life is engulfed in darkness, a ray of hope can pave the way to happiness.  Just make it through today, and preserve some hope for tomorrow.  Just make it through today, everyday.  Just make it through today, because tomorrow is a new day, a new beginning, a new life.

That crazy thing called friendship

"Friendship is the only thing that can match up to family."
                                                        - Don Vito Corleone

So I came across this line while going through the novel- The Godfather, and it got imprinted in my head.  Because its true.  I don't know what we'd all do without friends.  Even if we sometimes want to kill them, even if they frustrate us and sometimes ignore us, we ultimately go back to them, because that's how friendship works.

Friends can be strange things.  You start the friendship with a "hello", and it could end there.  Or it could grow to the point where you're happy to see them.  Or it could grow to the point where you go completely crazy and retarded when you're with them, and you simply can't imagine your life without them to turn to.

Everytime you have a terrible day, you go to a friend and talk about it.  You have a crush, the first person to find out is your best friend.  You kill someone, and your friends are the people whose help you'd take to hide the body.  

You fight, you laugh, you cry, you even feel like killing each other, and ultimately it all turns out to be okay.  You're friends again, because there's just no other way.  You have to talk to each other, because you can't even help it.  Sometimes it feels like an obligation, like your friends are extremely stupid and you just have to be nice to them.  But one day you wake and realize you're just as stupid as them, which is why you need each other.  Because that's how friendship works.  A single group of people, ready to take on the world.

The Dying Habit

Its something all teachers, and even parents complain about. Its the dying habit of reading.

Now, I've been reading since, well, since I learnt to read.  Sometimes I think I was lucky.  I found all the good books.  I can't imagine my childhood without that pile of Tintin comics.  

This may seem a rather exaggerated description to some people, but a book is my own personal universe.  It takes me to another world, helps me forget about my problems.  It shows me people with problems far worse than mine.  If I had not read Harry Potter, I might never have appreciated that nobody wants to kill me.  If I had not read Lord of the Rings, I would probably never have understood how horribly, horribly addictive and dangerous power can be.

About two decades ago, reading was the only source of entertainment for most people.  So they read.  Now, we have televisions and computers and play stations which are great fun.  Computer games teach us too.  Perhaps they don't teach the values that society wants children to learn, but they do have a message for us all the same.  (And now, since I believe I have successfully established that I am not some orthodox hater of change, I shall get back to my original topic).

But just because we have other sources of entertainment doesn't mean we can shut out books.  Reading is...beautiful.  Nothing matches a good book.  Books such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Narnia...they were my childhood.  Harry Potter taught me more about friendship and bravery than anything else.  Don't ever give up on reading, because every book has something new in store.

And if you don't enjoy reading, you simply haven't found the right book yet.

Revenge

Well, I don't know how many people watch it, but there is a tv show called "Revenge", in which there was a quotation,  "Two wrongs can never make a right, because two wrongs can never equal each other."

In the movie, "Batman Begins", Rachel Dawes says that revenge is about us trying to make ourselves feel better, and therefore revenge and justice can never be the same.  But can anybody really define justice?  Can anybody really define what is right and wrong?  Does anybody know perfectly well what is best for people, and how they can have it?

Revenge is for us, its what we choose to do because we want to.  Justice is what we should do.  If these two co-incide, it is rare.  Yet whenever we are wronged, the first thought that comes into our mind is revenge, not justice.  Why is that?  I think its because we feel that if we are the victims, there is nobody else to fight for us.  We have to do it all ourselves.  So we just do what we need to do for ourselves to feel better.  

But if we want to fight for a better world, then justice is our only revenge.  Because revenge cannot be justice, but justice is the best revenge.  Yet people tend to be more satisfied by revenge, because they mould their own revenge.  Justice is justice when it is decided by somebody else, who can form a fair and unbiased opinion.  Again this is tough, but if you believe in what is right, then this is your path.  People may not be satisfied by justice, because sometimes what they want may not be just.  That is why we choose to take revenge.  But revenge is a cycle.  We get hurt too.  

It is a rather tough choice to make for a victim.  Sometimes, we really don't have a choice.  Sometimes, justice is judged by the wrong person.  The question is, can we really tell for ourselves if it is right or wrong?  Can revenge make us feel better if we get hurt, or hurt innocent people in the process?  Does anybody have a good enough understanding of justice to decide it?  Do we ever manage to have an unbiased opinion?

Half empty vs Half full

You know what they say about trying to please everyone...about how that's impossible?  Well, I suppose it is. After all, everyone seems to have some enemies, some haters.  Let me take the example of myself- I have friends, I have enemies.  Or take the example of a man who nearly everyone knows- Mahatma Gandhi.  While my entire nation seems to respect him, let us not overlook the fact that even he was shot dead by one of his fellowmen.

So why is that?  Why is it that no one manages to please everyone?  I believe its because of one thing which differs in everyone- perspective.

Any situation can be twisted by its viewers according to their perspective.  Its up to you- whether you want to see the glass as half-full or half-empty.  The reason interaction with others often makes us wiser is because it allows us to see things from a different perspective, which we may not even understand, but is important all the same.
Basically, any situation can be made from good to bad, or bad to good, depending on the way you look at it.  The power of speech, which every politician, every leader and every revolutionary uses, works only if you force the people to look at the situation from a particular perspective.  Perspective is an aspect of the human mind which is so simple, yet so deep that it has the power to alter reality.  Yes, alter reality.  Because a change of this perspective is what calms down a panicking person, fills a person devoid of hope with the energy to fight, and causes the most violent, impulsive person to analyse a problem coolly.
So try to get different perspectives of a situation before judging it.  No perspective is right or wrong.  The glass is both half-empty, and half-full.  Yet it is important to form a perspective, so why not form one which would yield the best results?