Liberation of Flying

it's a big world out there!  well, that's what they say often enough for me to think about and write about it.  i think when most people say that phrase, they mean that there are a lot of dangerous things in the world, or there are many risks and challenges.  but today i had this feeling, powerful yet brief, that i have all the opportunity in the world!  i felt that my possibilities are endless, that i could hold the whole world in the palm of my hand.  i truly felt like i could do anything i wanted to as long as i set my mind to it and worked hard.  i felt like i could fly!, that i was free from all the constraints of the world, of school, of work, etc.  the words that would best describe the feeling that i had would be "it's a big world out there!"  there is so much that we can do, so many different people we can become.  sometimes we get discouraged with our day to day things that it's hard to have dreams, but look to the sky and shoot for the stars!  if you work hard enough, you'll make it.  i hope that you, the reader, by reading this can feel a little of what i felt today.  

The Supply and Demand of Life

i didn't know this many people were actually reading my blog!  well, i hope you like the things that i have to say.  

it's often said that this is the most important time of a young person's life (college).  i'm beginning to understand the magnitude of the decisions that i will make/am making at this point of my life.  what i choose to major in will most likely choose the career that i will be in for 35-40 years of my life.  right now is the perfect time for a young person to start/build habits for a righteous life.  also, the most important decision of an eternal spouse is one of the decisions we make in this time of our lives.  because these are some of the most important decisions we will ever make, they take a lot of thought and preparation.  no one wants to make the wrong decision, especially with these ones!  i've been thinking about how to make the best decision in these important matters.  

this is a different take on making decisions than normal.  most of this i learned from my economics class.  there is one reason, and one reason alone that people make decisions and do things.  people do things because they are the things that cost them the least and give them the most benefit.  this cost doesn't have to be in money, it could be in time, effort, stress, talents, etc.  for example, a person might fall asleep in class because they value sleep higher than they do paying attention to the lecture.  either that, or they valued something else (doing homework late into the night) higher than sleep earlier.  

however, most or all of this information is useless in making a choice for a spouse or a major.  the reason for this is the lack of information of the future.  even if you decide to major in something, that field might not be most beneficial.  even if you decide to marry a certain person, you might regret it because of something that couldn't have been foreseen.  in these circumstances, there are only a few things you can do.  you can guess and take a gamble, not take a risk and do nothing, or ask God for that future information.  of course, in order to make a good and rational choice, you must be completely informed on the matter.  think about what choice would be most beneficial to you, as far as you can know.  then rely on God to tell you the things that you need to know in order to make the choice.  yet there are times when God doesn't see it fit to tell us these things.  it is at this point when we need to show a step of faith, and start to go along the path that we think is best.  if we have relied on the Lord about this and start down the wrong path, He will tell us by the Holy Ghost that we need to go down a different path.  this will often come after we have started to act on our own.  

this was quite long-winded, but in summary, we must study, pray, rely on God, and act on our best judgement in order to make the right choice.  

what did the boy octopus say to the girl octopus?  i wanna hold your hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand!

A different kind of beauty...

a few weeks ago, i did an interview with one of my friends for one of her classes, and she asked me several questions about the definition of beauty, and what makes a person beautiful.  i hadn't really thought about it before, but some of my responses were fairly insightful, at least to me.  there are several things that make a person beautiful, and they are different than what most people think.  

one thing that makes a person beautiful is their ability to be themselves around everyone.  they are confident about who they are, and they don't let peer pressure drill on them and force them to change.  when i think of the people i consider beautiful, i can never imagine them unhappy!  always having a smile on their face and a cheerful attitude is a sign of beauty.  righteousness is another indicator of beauty.  whenever a person does something that Christ wouldn't do, it damages their appearance, and makes them less attractive.  the final point i thought of was the ability to love.  when a person loves the people they come in contact with, they are beautiful.  in summary: personality, confidence, happiness, righteousness, and ability to love make a person beautiful.  

these were far different from conventional ideas of beauty.  but they are definitely true.  and i think it's applicable to both guys and girls.  

On intrinsic and extrinsic affection:

why do we get so depressed when things don't go the way we want them to?  why are there no perfect endings?  the unfulfillment of our dreams and expectations is so utterly devastating.  it's so hard to recover from broken dreams.  motivation just won't come.  because of these broken dreams, it's almost impossible to have dreams again, for fear of them being broken again.  most of the time, we don't want to give up on those broken dreams, so we cling to the pieces like a mother would cling to a fallen child.  we squeeze ourselves of every last bit of hope that our broken dream could somehow come true.  so what's the solution to all this despair and anguish?  what's the cause of these feelings?  

i think that the cause of these feelings is that we fall in love with something and that love never comes to fruition.  it may be a person, it may be a thing.  it may even be a certain situation that we imagined the future to be.  of course, we may get lucky and the thing that we fell in love with could return the love.  but in the event that this doesn't happen, i think that there is only one thing we can do.

learning to love our current situation, especially who we are is really important.  when we love who we are at this very second, we cannot have broken dreams, because they are being fulfilled every day!  i think that a big source of depression and self-discontent is lack of self-love.  loving who you are also helps you be happy and content every day.  

this is a very weird topic.  sorry if you got bored or depressed reading this!  

You got served!

have you ever seen the movie "pursuit of happyness"?  it's really good.  the other day, i learned something really profound about finding happiness and what we must do to be truly happy.  i came to the conclusion that the only source of happiness is serving others.  i think that is also connects to all other methods that give us happiness.  for example, living together forever with our families is true happiness, but the only reason it's true happiness is that we serve them and sacrifice our time and energy to make their lives easier.  this is why we normally love our family the most.  some people may argue that following the commandments of God is the only way to be happy.  i would have to agree, because keeping the commandments is serving God!  service, or being selfless and thinking of others needs, is the only way to be happy.  

what do you get when you have two peas fight?  black-eyed peas!

Priority 1: Bananas. Priority 2: Zucchinis. comfort over appearance.

the things that we do always directly reflect our priorities (or desires), whether or not we intend them to or not.  this is especially evident right after we get home from school and/or work.  what's the first thing you do?  that thing is without exception the thing with the highest priority in your life.  think about what you did after you got home today after school.  did you sit down and do homework?  did you get on your computer and check facebook?  did you go get groceries?  did you sit down and watch tv?  did you come home and start to clean?  all of these actions would show everything about our priorities in life.  if you get home and immediately start on homework, it obviously shows that you hold school in high priority, even if you say that you want to get it done first so you don't have to worry about it later.  if you come home and get on facebook right away, it shows that you hold your relationships with other people in high priority, whether it be a desire to find friendship or build another friendship or romantic relationship.  i could go on, but i think that the point is clear.  

do you ever find that you do the same thing every day when you get home (except maybe laundry or groceries)?  we might have different priorities with different deadlines and things like that, but our overall priorities rarely ever change order on their own.  i believe that we can change our priorities by changing what we do.  if you come home and normally watch tv, but force yourself to do homework first, you are on your way to changing your priorities.  this could also be called creating a habit, but what is a habit but doing something in high priority.  in a gospel sense, we pray and read our scriptures every day to make God first priority in our lives.  that seems like a really common sense statement, but the habits of reading and praying change our priorities from things of the world to God and his ways.  

looking back on this post, i really have no idea how i wrote all of those things, it just came out of my fingers.  isn't it just crazy like that sometimes?  

coming soon: a risque spin-off of the children's show "bananas in pajamas" called "zucchini's in bikinis"

Weird means Wired Differently

people are weird!  there are so many different people with different desires, causing them to do different things.  motives are what drive us completely.  mainly the reason for me talking about this is that there's this guy sitting next to me talking to these 2 girls all about himself, and the girls don't look interested at all.  i guess this guy's motive is to impress these girls, but at least to me it's not a good way at all.  however, if i really knew how to impress girls, things would be a lot different than they are right now!  

i really think that there are only two motives (that may be divided into smaller motives) for doing anything at all.  those two are selfishness and selflessness, greed and love, self-interest and interest in others.  of course, money, power, acceptance, revenge, substance, etc. are all valid motives, but fit into the category of self-interest.  it seems to me that all of the self-interested motives always lead to misery!  in the pursuit for power or money, a man may compromise his standards, causing him to do things that bring unhappiness.  power and money are not bad things, but mankind will eventually be judged by their motives!  

why was everyone so tired on april 1st?  they had just finished a march of 31 days!

Just like in the movies!...?

life just isn't like the movies!  we watch movies sometimes with the hopes that our lives would somehow turn out like it is in those movies.  but you know it never ever works out that way!  movies are good for entertainment but they also sometimes give us false hope and expectations for things in life.  one song by the postal service got me thinking about this.  it's called "clark gable" and here's the lyrics:

I was waiting for a cross-town train in the London underground when it struck me
That I've been waiting since birth to find a love that would look and sound like a movie
So I changed my plans and rented a camera and a van and then I called you
"I need you to pretend that we are in love again" and you agreed to

I want so badly to believe that "there is truth, that love is real"
And I want life in every word to the extent that it's absurd

I greased the lens and framed the shot using a friend as my stand-in
The script it called for rain but it was clear that day so we faked it
The marker snapped and I yelled "quiet on the set" and then called "action!"
And I kissed you in a style that Clark Gable would have admired (I thought it classic)

I want so badly to believe that "there is truth, that love is real"
And I want life in every word to the extent that it's absurd

I know you're wise beyond your years, but do you ever get the fear
That your perfect verse is just a lie you tell yourself to help you get by?

there are very few things that are constant in this life, most of them discouraging.  pain, sorrow, temptation, death, taxes, etc.  but one of the encouraging constants in our lives is love, more specifically unconditional love.  it's so rare, but so treasured.  one of the greatest sources of this type of love is family, somebody you can always fall back on for love and a listening ear.  i truly believe that's why we're sealed to our families and not our friends.  sometimes we might have a stronger friendship with friends, because we spend a lot of time with them and have fun with them, but there are very few friendships (meaning spend a lot of time together) forever.  you eventually get married and spend time with that family.  in the end family is the most important!