Personalized

So many things have influence on our daily lives. We have decisions to make, and whether we like to believe it or not, the people around us have the greatest influence on those decisions. I suppose the basis of this blog is to inspire personalized decision-making. Something I strive to do is always make sure that when I look back, I don't have to persuade myself that 'everyone is doing it,' and ultimately rationalize my past actions  to myself. Go ahead and drink if that's what you want to do...But make sure that it's not because you want to fit in or because everyone else is engaging. Go ahead and have sex, but make sure you are ready. Make sure the situation fits up to your standards. If you always knew you would only be comfortable if it was in a committed relationship, don't let some groomer talk you in to it. If you want to smoke, go ahead. But make sure your reasoning is backed up. Make sure you are okay with hurting those around you and giving up a part of your health and possible susceptibility to other bad decisions. It is a SLIPPERY Slope. Once you engage in certain behaviors, know that it is easier to fall into other things. By continually rationalizing your actions [that you don't approve of  yourself doing in the first place] you are giving yourself an excuse to continue on a path you never thought you'd end up on. It is easy to trick yourself into believing that what you are doing is 'ok' even when you don't feel right about it. Always follow your heart & Intuition.

It's a proven fact that peers have the greatest influence on you. Choose who you hang with wisely. Friends have a way of becoming a lot alike. The way they dress, the way they look, the way they talk, the people they party with, the places they go, the way they treat people, the things that they do...I am not saying that friends have 100% influence and that you won't be able to help yourself in a situation. With age comes wisdom, and it becomes easier to do things your own way regardless of how your friends proceed. People always tell me that my roommates and I look alot alike. Although we have some major differences, I've noticed that we have a lot of likenesses. Without even realizing it, the girls I live with have influenced me: even by just observing how they go about their lives. Seeing what they think is okay, how they act, and how they perceive situations and people has impacted my thoughts.

There will always be decisions. There will always be peer pressure. There will always be people you trust. There will always be temptations. The hardest part is making sure that when you decide to do something, that you are doing it because you want to do it, because you are ready for it. If you are willing to accept consequences of your actions, if you can look at yourself and be happy with yourself, that's what's most important. 

Don't be afraid to stand alone. I can promise you, you will feel liberated in doing what you believe in.

It is okay to defy the odds. There are plenty of people out there who do it all the time.

It is important to always stay Conscious of the decisions you make. It you are not constantly questioning, you should be.

We've all fallen from our standards for ourselves at times, but what truly matters is where you go when you pick yourself up.

Never Forget to Remember

Life is confusing. It doesn't ever get easier, because once you figure out what you were unsure of, something else comes along that you don't quite have a grasp on. Sometimes I like to think I know everything there is to know, but the truth is that there is always more to know and be taught about life. One thing I love about life is that no matter what step of it I am in, I never cease to be surprised. I love surprises and something new and exciting always seems to present itself.

Maybe it's just me, but I believe that there is a lot of pattern in life. Few examples: It seems like deaths group together, good things run together/bad things as well, and when I used to cashier I would get certain types of people in a day, and other types in a different day. It was eerie how it worked, sometimes I would get 3 people in one day who would all have the same question, and I would never hear the question again for as long as I cashiered there. Everything groups together.

Tonight, my neighbor was reading to us some of his personal poems he had written,  I was simultaneously talking to a friend who was telling me about the stories he writes as an english major, and I got in to a separate discussion about diaries which sparked a conversation about the past with an old friend. Like I said, patterns. And it made me wonder where my old poem book, quote book, journals, and the latest aphorism book went. I went searching and found my journal from when I spent time living in a campo in the Dominican Republic. Reading what I wrote then, I realized a few things.

-Documenting important pieces of your life is invaluable. Especially if it is something you can share with someone else by living it out. By having this written down you can take the most important thing the mind can formulate [memories] and remember where you were at then. Memories are all we have of our pasts and by reading all the wonderful things I had to write about, I realized how much I had forgotten since then. By rereading it, it brought it back and made me recall what I took from the experience. What made me want to learn spanish, what made me think hard about poverty and how God could allow people to be born into such hopeless situations. It made me differentiate between using the word Blessed ...Am I blessed for having more? Such statements need to be thought out, lest we make such statements and unbeknownst to ourselves, invest in ignorance.

It makes me believe that everyone has their story. If you sat down with someone and truly talked about what was on both your minds...there would be a hell of a lot to say. If you think about how you go about life and how you are able to react and function in certain areas, it is because you have already thought about it prior to experiencing it. Maybe this is 'shock therapy' for life, but seriously, think about it...we all have a good chunk of time every day where we are by ourselves, and what do you do? YOU THINK. Maybe it makes me a nerd, but it's fascinating to think about what infatuates peoples' minds. Do certain people worry about school and think about class throughout their day? Do they think about what they need to get done/haven't done? Do they turn recent-past experiences through their minds in order to evaluate them? Do they think about certain people? Maybe it is a little bit of all of these, but there is a lot going on with memories and thoughts and past-present-future. I still think about people from my early childhood who had an affect on me growing up. Sometimes, Something will happen throughout the day that will remind me of a different time I had already experienced. To this day I dream in my old house because that is where I grew up and had so many memories, and sometimes people I haven't seen in years make appearances in my dreams/memories. I don't know why we think about certain things, but maybe it takes a certain consciousness of looking at what you think about when you are alone and just daydreaming/pondering. I think this could tell us a lot about ourselves--by what constantly invades our thoughts.

This blog is a cluster of messy thoughts, but the synopsis is something like this:

Never forget to remember. Always remember what was important to you then, because chances are, it made you who you are now.