Round of applause to everyone who makes this show possible… just me? Thank you! Thank you!
Welcome one of ones and ones of many! This week I just want to take a moment to appreciate making it to my tenth post, appreciate the little wonders of my life, take a deep breath, and relax with you all for this special second… and… done!
At this moment many facets of my life are converging. It is stressful, but it is empowering. Having the challenges and experiences in my life give me substantial meaning—this is where I find purpose, so I will take a moment to take the heavy, fresh air deep into my lungs and appreciate the glow of the cool morning sunrise in my heart.
When I think about relaxation or when I think about meditative moments, I think of the sky. I think about watching the clouds on a peaceful day or gazing through the night sky to catch magical dots of light. Do you ever take a moment to look at the sky and embrace its almighty encompassment, to become entranced by the wisdom of the Sun and the Moon, to be serenaded by the artful tapestry of the clouds, to gain humility by the incomprehensible power completely outside of our control, to synchronize with the furiously constant yet seeming slow transverse motion of the heavens above?
Everything has been so fast paced recently that I have almost forgotten one of the principles of why I write this blog, why I work so hard: I work hard so that I can take these little moments to appreciate life. I also work hard so that when the time is right, I can simply and plainly have fun.
I am honestly afraid that a time will come that I will be unable to express my ideas or that I may become lost with words unsaid. A big motivation for this blog is to alleviate those worries. I want to share many things about myself and many of the wonders I discover with the world. Although not all words carry knowledge, the loss of knowledge is a great failure to all of humanity. Whether or not the words I can speak are knowledgeable, I can not say. However, to lose my words entirely would be a loss of something valuable, and I will not contribute to that invisible void, not if I can help it. Words are only an intermediate for knowledge. This preservation of knowledge is expressed in my YouTube channel, in all the work I do, and in all of the interactions with other people I have. All of these are knowledges–knowledges that are stored in work, in memory, in future thoughts, in emotion. While text can be pretty (and I love pretty words), text is only a tool for communicating. Let’s leave nothing unsaid. Let’s leave nothing to the void.
Having said that, I want to enjoy every part of my blogging process while giving you as much knowledge as my words allow.
I haven’t talked much about my last couple of months. In fact, I rarely talk about myself at all. Put starkly, these last ten weeks have been an education in the next chapter of my life. I will refrain from being dramatic, but starting this blog and starting school have been unbelievably formative milestones to take toward the person I am becoming. To those that do not know (I’m not sure why most would), I am a 20 year old college freshman. I am already talking about knowledge and education so much today that I might as well tell you more.
For anyone that is considering furthering their education, I would recommend that you pull the trigger on whatever it is that you wish to study. For too long I worried that I would make a mistake. The irony of worrying about mistakes is that focusing on worries often leads to the most regrettable mistakes. I can tell you something about regret; do not get me started on that topic. I worried that I would graduate with a “useless” degree, four less years of my life, and a mountain of debt. What no one ever told me is that I was going to make—at best—just as many different mistakes outside of college as I would in college. In life, mistakes are inevitable. While they can be minimized, they can not be avoided. I thought that I was minimizing mistakes by not attending university, but I was really avoiding risk. Risk is a complicated and extremely delicate balance. We will continue this conversation more next week. Also I ignored the simple fact that statistically college graduates have better outcomes than high school graduates. I was brainwashed by the many that influenced my old beliefs.
I do appreciate that I took the time to organize myself and make mistakes before furthering my education because now I can go into it better prepared to make the most of the experiences.Now that I am in college, it is like I have opened up a door to deeper maturity. It is like I had been living my life with only one eye open, and now, with two, I can see depth in the future. I have a future. I have new connections to knowledge.
If advice is what you seek from my blog, I will tell you to take my experience with a grain of salt. I will always stand behind education, but your story will likely be different than mine. Finding one’s own path could be considered the conflict of life—then making it life’s purpose. I can not attribute all of my awakening to school alone. This time has been a slow build up and compounding of many factors. If you take anything from this, take away that no one should be afraid to explore the great world before them and make mistakes along the way. Even if we are wrong now (and because we do not know what we do not know, we likely are), we might discover a new path that leads us to that which is right but previously unknown.
This last paragraph might be tangential… Who am I kidding? This week is everywhere, but that is okay!
Two themes keep recurring in my life: numbers and speed. I will keep this idea vague for now, but I want to talk about speed. Going forward, in my own personal development, I would like to become faster. I believe that I progress through tasks and projects with great efficiency, but, unlike the sky, I struggle to maintain a steady pace. I am aware that this post has a major contradiction: I want to take time to slow down, but I also am not satisfied with the speed that I am going. As paradoxical as it might sound, out there I know that there is a way I can achieve both. I know that I can fly with the clouds while running or dance with the moon while moving faster than any star. With trial and experience, I will unlock this skill. This is a mission for me to reflect about later.
One last mention for the week. I need to do more to write down my goals, intentions, and thoughts more clearly. I learned this idea and many other great knowledges from the podcast Modern Wisdom, episode #683. I will likely mention the episode again, and the show itself will become a familiar topic. I can assure you of that, but this is where I will end today.
Thank you all for being here. We can all take a moment to appreciate… and… done! Seriously, I would like to take a moment. This blog has made it to the end of its tenth installment. Even if I am the only person to ever read my words, this is an accomplishment that carries with it a special meaning to me. Ever forward!!! This has been Tristan from HQ. I will see you in number eleven! bye!
Citation
Williamson, Chris, director. #683 – Shaan Puri – 7 Semi-Controversial Rules For Success. Spotify, 21 Sept. 2023, https://open.spotify.com/episode/1Qo3DSAM13GCAaCWGymkhL?si=18d9e1d55d264944. Accessed 5 Nov. 2023.