Today, my sister graduates from one institution of learning to another institution of higher learning. I can’t believe it was 6 years ago that I graduated high school as well. I can’t believe all that time has gone by. Four years from now, she’ll be graduating college, and God only knows where I’ll be. When you leave school, your life becomes sort of a big gray blur. School keeps your grounded. You know where you’ll be tomorrow (in class), a month from now (taking finals), or a year from now (one step closer to graduating.) But when all that goes away, and you’re left with no one to tell you what time to wake up, or what to read or study, or do, life gets complicated.
Although she rarely reads my blog, I want to address this part to her anyway. Alina, the advice I can give you to guide through life (at least for the next 4 years) is simple: Be yourself. I know you’ve heard that a dozen times and seen it on inspirational posters in some teacher’s room, but it’s true. There is nothing better, than to be yourself. Because when you try to be other people, it just doesn’t work. You owe it to yourself, to be yourself. Stand up for yourself. I’m sure that won’t be a problem with you, because you’ve done it all your life, and I’m so proud of you for that. This will come in handy for the rest of your life. No matter how self-conscious you feel, no matter how embarrassed you feel, stand up for yourself. You’ll see that this pays off in the end. Take risks. Take as many risks as you can. Risks are what make life interesting and they’ll not only get to know other people, most importantly, risks allow you to fully understand yourself. Have passion. Passion is what life is all about. Feel passionate about something. Have a fire in you about something, whether it be a class you’re taking, a relationship you have or life in general. Remember Jack Kerouac’s quote:
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes Awww!
That’s all, I think. What I’ve written will only sound like words now, but one day down the line, you’ll think back and realize that they are so much more.
