Go Big or Go Home

I definitely do not want to be an average joe. Being crazily, insanely famous would be the best feeling in the universe. Actually, I want to be the greatest human being that ever lived for the next 1,000 years or more. However, trying to be a war hero is not the route that I want to go. Maybe be the greatest lacrosse player that has ever picked up a stick, using the plethora of skills and maneuvers that I posess to dominate the game. Maybe I'll be the most influential skateboarder, inventing tricks and performing them instantly making the crowd roar with excitement. My prowess will change sports for all time. Big dreams; big , dangerous dreams that would be nice to accomplish in my young life to be remembered throughout history. I'm not going to be the next "MJ" or the next Tony Hawk. In the future, everyone will want to be the next "Hamer, the Prodigy." Sure, there may be a few people that will try to replace me between now and the next thousand years, but they won't, because I will be the greatest.

A Favorite of my Childhood

When I was younger, between the ages of six and ten, I read many, many books. I read all of the stories with all the interesting little animals that shared wisdom for life, The Berenstein Bears, and Dr. Seuss. To be honest, I wasn't really a book person back in the day; I liked comics better. I was really a big fan of the Archie comics. Archie was cool sometimes, but Jughead was my favorite character. I always liked the comic relief that he provided due to his constant hunger and apathetic nature. Even though I did not understand all of it at times because it was ahead of my time (they spent like six years in high school), there was something about the realism of the comic that intrigued me. Archie gave me a sort of idea of what the future would bring through school, at home and in life. I mean, sure I liked the superhero comics, but they started to become cliche and predictable as I got older. Sometimes when they were not, they just became weird and diluted. I eventually took a break from Archie, and switched over to anime comics. Now, seven years later, I found all of my old Archie and Jughead comics in the back of my closet, behind Naruto and DragonBall, and brought back memories of Riverdale High.

Philosophy in Siddhartha

In my personal opinion, this kind of thinking would be hard to grasp as a westerner because most of us have been raised to think that we have to learn to grow, experience life before we can be wise, in that order. The idea of already containing wisdom and being on a journey toward perfection never occurs to westerners due to the fact that we never try to find ourselves; we don't think that we already embody all of the answers to eternal life. I've never bothered to look deeply inside of myself to find the old man within me. In fact, I've associated old with being crippled and closer to death. I would rather not be a wise old man; I would rather be young and naive until the time comes for me to accept my fate. That journey will be traveled on a slow pace, hopefully, because perfection is not my ultimate goal in life. Its what I do on my journey that makes life worthwhile.

High School

Movies always portray high school to be a danger zone, where to survive you have to be liked, be popular, or have some type of special quality that would be considered cool to others. There are people who spend their entire high school career pursuing the acceptance of people they will probably never see after high school. Then there are the ones who purposely try to be different to be original, an individual, but also end up fitting in a certain category of other individuals. My high school experience is in between. I tried to be friends with everyone and I just sat back to see where that took me. I acted like myself and people either liked me or thought I was "interesting". By "interesting", I mean I didn't fit the stereotype. As a black, male teenager, I was supposed to act and dress a certain way that would make me assimilate into the rest of the "black society". That would have made me popular. That would have been the easy way out. But I guess I had other issues to attend to, like increasing my GPA, studying for SAT, college, things like that. So to all those who have strived to be the most popular, whats next for you?

Icon

When I was in the 9th grade, my mom forced me to watch a biographical movie about Mahatma Gandhi because she said that it would change my way of thinking and my way of life. At the time, I was mad because I had to watch a movie with my mom, and when it was a movie she liked, she talked through it. After awhile, when I heard the dialogue, I started thinking about all the messages he gave throughout the movie that made sense. "It may seem like rulers will never step down, but throughout history, tyrants are always defeated." Then, I thought about Caesar, Stalin and Hitler, feeling like I had been enlightened. His insightful thoughts and position on non-violence in a way changed my life. His mass civil disobedience against the British in India showed me that you don't always have to fight someone to get what you want. No wonder Martin Luther King used him as inspiration.

"One of the great myths of life is that childhood passes quickly. In fact, because time moves more slowly in Kid World--five times more slowly in a classroom on a hot afternoon, eight times more slowly on any car journey of more than five miles, and so slowly during the last week before birthdays, Christmases, and summer vacations as to be functionally immeasurable--it goes on for decades when measured in adult terms. It is adult life that is over in a twinkling."
-Bill Bryson, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

"Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success. "
- Louisa May Alcott

I chose these quotes because they relate to me in an opposing way. My entire life has been spent working; working in school, working at home, summer jobs, etc. My parents believed in staying ahead of the game when it came to education and complete submission towards it was the only way to go. Therefore, I never had many friends, never hung out much, and I haven't had a party at my house since I was seven. All I could think about when I was younger was that I couldn't wait to grow up so I could control my own destiny. Unfortunately, adulthood is just around the corner, and the only glimpse of what childhood is supposed to be is from books and movies. I've spent most of my high school years playing catch up by hanging out as much as possible, forcing myself to meet new people, and even trying to throw parties at my house (that didn't exactly work out). I have transfromed from the super shy guy to a laid-back, friendly guy living through the best years of his youth.