Smile. I don’t know what to say, what is right or best, so here goes it kid. Singularly, a toast to disclaimer: in the time that I pen this article, my life’s musical default setting has been set to the lyrical genius that is Jason Mraz. Since spring slowly opened her eyes, wrapped up from a surprise burst of frosty weather, pink-eyed from the thick, yellow pollen that confused the hood of your car’s paint-since the weeks trailing after spring, I have found energy for the high school/life-effort from the heart of Mraz music, its content. Scratch, scratch out those previous words, Wildcats. Words written yesterday. My train of thought runs smoother today as it is speaking: through inspired actions and timeless words like priceless pictures, you can bring happiness to any mess. Live mighty.
At this moment, it is exactly 12:03am and I just got home from a rapturous concert that everyone should have driven an exit away to join in enjoyment. After driving swift circles in a restaurant parking lot, friends holding on to spontaneity, I type the next phrase. I feel freer than ever. In clearer terms, I had an incredible night at the Music, Magic and Make Peace concert, which reminded me of something defining significance. There is no shame in being crazy. No shame in living mighty, being a giving tree. Live high.
The four autumns, winters, springs and summers that you spend in these rooms, these hallways and spaces do not have to be aimless and conforming to rebellion that comes with the words ‘high school.’ Seasons change. Embodying any label limits the self, a sense of individuality. You are probably thinking ‘how could you live like that,’ and you are right because one cannot. At the surface, as another looks me up and down, a quick verdict communicated that I do not shed the labels, but wear each piece like a second skin. Nevertheless, there are more than gradients of intrinsic energy in understanding our surface form as walking contradictions. It is the realizing of the materials that we attach to, materials carrying a burden of pop-culture idolism, which destroys its negative core. Ekhart Tolle, a contemporary spiritual teacher said “You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, allowing that goodness to emerge.” Live righteously.
If there is a moment when you feel the calling for a cause of inspiration to create due to Pollock’s splatter painting, so it. Hesitating in doing what the essence inside insists upon misses the mark like an archer missing a target. Why? Because creativity cannot be summoned, it comes when it feels the time is right. Right now is powerful. Meaning, being in the now or living in the moment and not thinking about happenings of the next two hours has a 100% chance of bringing happiness. Anxiety over the events of a following sunrise leads to something like a waste of time. Be happy.
If another car impolitely cuts you off in the parking lot, try hard not to tailgate them beyond the coveted traffic lights. Maybe that person is racing to visit a sick grandmother, lessening lateness for work or maybe he even matches your busy schedule. Maybe not, but you will never know for sure. Know that the endless opportunities in this school are in fact, endless. Get acquainted, become great friends with these opportunities whether in human or Advanced Placement form. Some of the best teachers I will ever have dedicate hours upon hours of their time for us-our learning, growth and understanding. The only way to repay them is not only by aiming to scores fives on AP exams, but by carrying on what you learn, teachings becoming a part of you. Be thankful.
Dear disclaimer, I did not how to completely unify a jumbled mess of ideas into relating words then phrases into paragraphs following the next. After all, the sole concept I am trying to share is that you should not be yourself-one that limits who you are. Limits and labels to shreds, you are the universe. That is to say, eternal. Smile.