Believe

 

To believe is to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so, as defined on http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/believe. In order to believe, you must have faith. This one word alone has changed my outlook on life; without it I don’t think I’d have the assurance that everything in life happens for a reason.

            I believe in the good in others, even when their faults may bring you down. We’ve all recovered from a downfall because we know we have to pick up where we left off and continue our journey in life. I believe that everyone will achieve something in their lives; it all depends on how you want your life to turn out. Only you can make that choice for yourself. I believe that love is something everyone will experience; this love can come from loving yourself or if you’re willing to open up and allow others to love you. I believe there is a cure for all diseases, but it’s a matter of extensive time and research. These may be farfetched opinions, but if we don’t believe we’ll never succeed.

            The word believe can be applied to many aspects of life, and if we encourage one another to believe, it may catch on like rapid fire. I guess you could say that I look at the glass half full, but it’s never too late to be an optimist.

It grinds my gears

Selfishness forms in many different ways. We are exposed to it on a constant basis and sometimes we don’t even realize. America is the land of the free and we take what we have for granted. Unfortunately, this is not the case for all countries throughout the world.

            We live in a first world country where anything we want is at the tip of our fingers. We have the necessities, food, clothing, and shelter, but don’t realize how lucky we are to have this. Third world countries struggle to feed themselves, let alone their families. Along with malnourishment, their homes are huts and electricity is extremely uncommon. In the U.S. however, we can come up with as many reality television shows and give large quantities of money away for a small amount of work put forth. It seems we have an endless amount of money to put towards entertaining our lives, but forget about those who struggle to live.  

            Just recently msnbc.com posted an article about hunger in Haiti http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27826184/ ; children as old as five years old are struggling to weigh 20 pounds, yet here in America childhood obesity is at an all time high. Neither situation should be neglected, but how can one world vary in such extreme degrees when children’s lives are at stake.

            I may only be one person, one voice, but it’s a start. If one person does something good for another, a chain reaction occurs, and that one good deed can perpetrate into a change; a change for the better.

Hope

I’m going to take this week’s post in a different direction. I will base it around one word–hope. By its very definition, hope brings opportunity and chance; the opportunity to do better and the chance to make a change.

 

We’ve all seen a change this week due to the presidential election, and for some, a change that has been long awaited. The outcome of Barack Obama becoming the 44th president of the United States has brought hope to many individuals. This hope is for the future, for individual reasons, and hope for one another. I believe Obama said it best “America is strongest when we are united, not divided”.

 

Living in the twenty first century can sometimes be scary. Things happen in our world that one may never think could be possible, but oftentimes the inevitable happens. Turning on the news each day becomes a depressing time because more bad news is delivered and the good news is cut short. Despite all the downfalls that occur in our world, I do hope for a better future, and even   if we hit rock bottom, the only way out is up.

 

I want to leave you with a poem by Emily Dickinson, “Hope”

 

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

A hurtful encounter

One of the worst things to experience is a feeling of betrayal and hurtfulness. I personally do not enjoy experiencing either, but I feel that it is more common then I hope it to be. I also do not like to see my loved ones hurt or betrayed by others, especially when it becomes an ongoing occurrence. No one deserves to feel down on themselves because of what others say or do, but as much as one tries to avoid it, sometimes the situation is inescapable.

An uncontrollable situation is hard to cope with because you think of millions of ways on how you could have done something different. Unfortunately, there will never be an outcome as to how it could have all been changed. Seeing someone close to you lose a loved one is hard to swallow, but it becomes even harder to watch the hurtfulness within them. Sometimes we feel that what we say or do is not enough, but we don’t realize that just being there is enough in its self.

I’ve also seen scenarios where one continues to go back to the ones who hurt them the most. I do not feel a sense of sympathy for these individuals because they are allowing it to continuously happen. It becomes a burden within them, but they need to learn how to free themselves from it all. In most cases it deals with the issue of love, and I believe love is a strong word, but you cannot always help who you love. Often, we don’t realize that for every one person who hurts or betrays us, there will be someone else who will help and love, no matter the circumstances.

Betrayal becomes an issue of distrust, and I feel that without trust no good can come. Trust is something to begin a relationship with. If this is the case, then why do we see so many people hurt everyday? Is it a part of human nature, or are we just hurtful people all around?

It pushes my buttons …

We have incorporated judgment into our everyday lives. It’s not something that an individual chooses, but has become second nature to us. We judge based on looks, appearance, first time encounters, word of mouth, and even by association through others. Why are we the first to criticize when our own insecurities make us feel judged by others?

 

Too often, physical appearance has been greatly emphasized through the media, and has taken a negative toll on individual’s lives. We are all guilty of judging how someone else looks through the public eye, but why do we criticize others? Does it deal with flaws we personally have, or does it make us feel better about ourselves? Young children of today are growing up in a society where comparisons are constantly made. We compare ourselves to the perfect image, but who’s to say what the perfect image is. Young girls are growing up too fast and looking older then their actual age. Has the fun of childhood been replaced with a judgmental society?

 

We also judge a person based on their friends. If a friend is disgruntled towards an individual, it almost becomes an obligation for others of that particular friend to have negative indications as well. I was always taught to never judge a book by its cover, but the reality of it boils down to peer pressure. It’s not direct, but almost an obligation to your friend in order to prove your loyalty. However, true friends accept you for who you are, not who they want you to be, but if this were true then why are we afraid that they may criticize us for the friendship choices we make?

 

If we want to feel accepted and comfortable within ourselves, then we need to start treating others the way we want to be treated. I am just as guilty as the next person to know that I make everyday judgments, but I also know that being aware of what I do can help me change my criticisms, both about myself and others.

It stirs my emotions ..

We all live a life we’ve chosen for ourselves; whether it’s due to outside influences that include friends, family, peers, or even acquaintances, our lives are molded from both internal and external experiences. We’ve become who we are for a reason. However, I find many people who are a part of my everyday life wanting to be someone they’re not, usually pertaining to stardom. Entertainment in the “Hollywood life” is what they thrive off of, and I find it upsetting that they feel their lives are too boring to pay attention to.

Everyday something new happens to celebrities, and we are continuously informed because they are in the public eye. They are regular people just like you and I, but instead they’re lives are broadcasted for the world to see. I know for myself, and probably many others, that something new occurs in my life everyday. It may be good, it may be bad, or it may not affect my life one way or the other. The difference is my life is not broadcasted for the world to see. I feel that for those who prosper off celebrities would rather have a life in the spot light then be an average Joe.

As a 21 year old college student, I find my life to be exciting and entertaining. I am not looking for others to judge who I am and what I do, but we are all guilty of judging celebrities. It makes us hypocrites because some of what we do may parallel with what a celebrity does, but pictures and video clips of ourselves are not released to the media. It’s not against the law to critique an individual, but why pass judgment on celebrities when we’ve all been guilty of making a mistake at least once in our lives. We are our own critics and should know where to draw the line. Celebrities are regular people trying to live a normal life like us, but if we try and change our lives to be similar to there’s, then we’ve lost who we truly are.

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