The Small Glimmer

“At times the world can seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe us when we say that there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough. And what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events may, in fact, be the first steps of a journey.” ~ A Series of Unfortunate Events

Have you noticed that tons of people say they hate watching the evening news because it shows everything wrong with the world? They say that it is too depressing and they choose not to watch it, because they experience horrible things in their own life and do not need the constant negative news.

I can understand this response. So much of the news that everyone is seeing is negative and shows the horrible things that are happening in the world. The news prevents us from being blissfully ignorant to the wretched happenings on our planet. It can be utterly depressing to see that humanity really hasn’t changed much over the centuries with having bigotry still prevalent, mass shootings, terrorist attacks, innocent deaths and so on. History has not changed and can be depressing.

“At times the world can seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe us when we say that there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough. And what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events may, in fact, be the first steps of a journey.” ~ A Series of Unfortunate Events

People switch off the news before they show a glimpse of humanity at the end. They will show how people are still fighting for the hope of mankind. This small praise of good in humanity overshadows all the negatives.

I know people complain about all the horrible news that are spread, but aren’t we now aware of the injustice in the world? Aren’t we now given the opportunity to fight for change?

And that is what is happening. There are so many organizations that have now come to the forefront to fight against these injustices. People are now feeling convicted to making a change in the world. People are choosing to bring good into the world and creating hope.

I refuse to believe that there is no hope for people. There is so much good happening, but it is done in this underground movement type of way, which I think is perfect. Why, because the people that are fighting aren’t demanding for praise or acknowledgement, but are simply fighting because it is the right thing to do.

These series of unfortunate news and depressing stories are the wake up call, the call to action to make the world a better place. These events are the beginning of a journey to make the world a better place and it is up to us whether we choose to listen to it or just stay ignorant.

You decide what's right you decide what's good

People make mistakes, Holding to their own, Thinking they're alone. Honor their mistakes; Everybody makes; Fight for their mistakes; One another's terrible mistakes. Witches can be right, Giants can be good. You decide what's right you decide what's good. ~ No One Is Alone, Into the Woods

Into the Woods is one of my favorite musicals of all time. It’s one of those musicals that I quote and actually have the original cast recording in my car so I can listen to it as I’m driving to work. I love all the songs to this musical, but as I have gotten older and rediscovering some of the deeper meaning to the lyrics, I have really fallen in love with the song “No One Is Alone.”

The entire song is brilliant with the idea that you have to make your own decisions and that there is a certain point you need to proceed on your own, but that you will never completely be alone. My favorite part of the song though is:

People make mistakes, Holding to their own, Thinking they're alone. Honor their mistakes; Everybody makes; Fight for their mistakes; One another's terrible mistakes. Witches can be right, Giants can be good. You decide what's right you decide what's good.

The part of this that I want to focus on is “Witches can be right, Giants can be good. You decide what’s right you decide what’s good.”

Too often we make rash decisions and categorize people as a good guy or a bad guy based on irrational things. It’s easier for us to say that all “witches” are bad, but we don’t know their intentions nor do we know them.

That’s why I love the musical, because you get to see everyone’s intentions and motives and everything is gray.


The beauty of this song is saying that we are all different and things will be complicated, but we are not alone. There are others on our side, but need to be aware that we cannot just judge and say that one side is better than the other, since it is more complicated than that. It’s such a great for children and adults alike, since we always need reminded of this lesson.

Change the world by starting with yourself

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” ~ Rumi

Change, in my humble opinion, is one of the most controversial words a person can say. Change is a word that so many people will fight against, because it insights new patterns and shifts perceptions. Even with the constant push back on it, change will always happen.

There will be some natural progression of change and then some man-made movements of change. I personally enjoy following up with the man-made movements of change, because I like learning about the human-condition and why people do the things they do and feel passionate about certain topics.

Anyway, people are determined to change the world because they see injustice in the world. This is a perfectly understandable reason on demanding change in the world, because we should fight against injustice.

But with this idea of changing the world, are we choosing the change ourselves?

The wise thing to do is to change ourselves before we even take the endeavor of changing our surroundings. Before going too much farther I want to distinguish the fact that we as humans will never reach the perfect level of self-awareness. What I am meaning is constantly evaluating our motives and our thoughts.

What I used to do every couple of months is to take time to self-evaluate myself. I would take a personal inventory of myself and determine whether I was where I wanted to be. This evaluation helps me grow in deep ways. When you start writing out things or listing things about your life, it is amazing how deep you can get. You start realizing where your priorities are and personally, it inspires me to change parts of myself. Once making these personal changes, this new mentality starts to overflow in other aspects of my life. It’s absolutely wonderful and refreshing. The process can be painful if done correctly, because you have to call yourself out on the crap that you are doing. It is being accountable to yourself and the inner change and lead to an enlightened mindset.

So if you want to help change the world, start with yourself and it be easier to help bring change to the world.

Normalizing Panic

I want to apologize for the lack of writing I have done the last number of months. There are still series I want to write and different topics I want to cover, but it has been hard to balance work, grad school, and my social life on top of writing this blog. I am going to try to post certain posts, like Quote Mondays more and will occasionally do a Business Wednesday and/or Random Friday. But let's move on to the actual post.

“Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.” ~ Anaïs Nin

 Since June, my life seems like it has been in a constant blur. There have been so many changes in my life, all which are good, but have had no real time to process these immediate changes. This has thus led me down a destructive road of bottling up my emotions and thus causing panic attacks. If you recall, I wrote a blog post a couple of years ago about my very first panic attack. Since then, I have experienced them more frequently and it is no fun. I'm actually pretty good at picking up on the signs of the beginning stages of this attack. Typically I do not go into full-blown attacks, but every once in a while, I'm unable to prevent it. 

“Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.” ~ Anaïs Nin

I'm not sure if you (whoever is reading this) have experienced a panic attack, but you literally feeling like you are dying. The description that Anaïs Nin gives is a perfect description of what it feels like. It feels like you are being dragged down and have no hope of being able to pull yourself out of it.

Now this is typically the part of the post where I give some type of positive message of how I’m combating this or some self-awareness moment, but not this time. I just think we need to speak more about the fact that people have these types of anxiety.

For example, I have had full on conversations with friends about how normal having these types of attacks are. We have different personality traits and how we react to situations, yet we all have these panic attacks and believe they are a part of life. This is kind of messed up since we are in are early-mid 20s and believe panic attacks are just part of life.

I believe we think this is normal since we have now put extreme pressure on kids at such an early age. Test scores, being the successful athlete, talking about how you need to be in a certain amount of extracurricular so you can get scholarships and be able to get into a good school to then be able to get into a good Master program and so on. This is the crap and pressure that is being fed at such an early age and it is ridiculous.

Pressure is not bad, but the high level is just insane since it takes passion out of people. It kills the love that people can have for learning or the arts or sports or life in general.

Anxiety is the greatest killer of love and passion since it completely drains a person and will sooner or later make them numb.


So maybe there is a lesson in this. If you realize that you are experiencing this amount of panic and anxiety, then you need to step back so you don’t lose you passion and love of life.

Characters Demanding Life

Writers write because they cannot allow the characters that inhabit them to suffocate them. These characters want to get out to breathe fresh air and partake of the wine of friendship; were they to remain locked in, they would forcibly break down the walls, it is they who force the writer to tell their stories. - Elie Wiesel

It's been months since I have written for leisure and I can't stand that fact. There has been a part of me that promised myself to always be able to write. Writing has always been a part of me and helps me be able to focus on other parts of my life since it causes me to self-evaluate in ways that I cannot fully explain. It's a very cathartic process for me and I just love it.

So why choose a quote about characters after months of not writing?

Well, it is simple to be very honest. I have characters who are finally formed who are ready to have their story written. I have a story that I have been working on for years. When I say years I really mean years. I don't think I can really tell you how this is not an exaggeration, but is a statement of truth.

I have a story that I have been working on since I was 15 years old. I originally started this story as a way for me to calm down (remember, writing or telling stories is a way for me to calm my mind to be able to focus). I used to think about this story at night and it would put me to sleep. I used it as a type of bed time story for myself because I would focus on too many things before I would fall asleep and by telling myself this story would ease my mind.

I actually started writing this story when I was 16 and from that point I have dabbled in it. The central heart of the story has not changed, but the characters have changed. I have really been able to get to know these characters from the inside out. I know how each character would react, whether they would eat a certain type of food to understanding their heart. There has actually been a section of my story that I have not written, because I couldn't do it. Not that I was incapable of writing it, but for the simple fact I did not want to say goodbye to the character.

As a writer, sometimes you believe you know exactly where the story is going and to a certain point, you do. I have known how this story ends when I was 15. I have never told anyone how it ends, but since I have been working on it for close to a decade, there have been times of doubt about the ending. This is due to the fact that the characters have developed to a point that I originally did not plan. It's honestly brilliant when you are writing something and a character does something you did not plan. It's like when you are writing you are not 100% in control because you are letting the characters think for themselves.

So how does this exactly relate to this quote? I have not written in months and I have characters who want their stories to be told. There are times I literally feel like I am going to burst because they are demanding their stories. This quote reminds me of a past post I did about Maya Angelou's quote stating "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." 

There is a story that I have and has been in my mind for almost a decade and I know what each of the characters well enough that it is time to finish the story. It's a little bittersweet to have this story to be almost finished, but these characters refuse to be silent and deserve to have their stories told.

What's in a Quote

Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we're quoting. ~ John Green

 Ironic, isn't it? A quote about quotes for Quote Monday. I find it a bit funny, but I also find it very revealing. Think about it, I write or try to write about a quote every single Monday (I said I try). The quotes that I choose are my favorite quotes that I am able to find. It takes me a while to find a quote to write about. Seriously, it takes me at least 30 minutes to find a quote that I feel like I can write about and find some type of meanings.

For example, with the quote that I am writing about today, 4 pages in to a search that I did. There were at least 25 quotes on a page. I scanned through at least a total of 100 quotes and this is the one I chose to write about. Choosing a quote that I want to feature on my blog is really hard, since I want something that will inspire me.

I don't always go into detail about the people I'm quoting or the piece of literature that I quote, but I try to squeeze out some type of meaning to share with whomever reads this blog. It's giving insights on how I view the world and my need to share my thoughts with people. Quotes help focus my stream of thoughts since I want to speak specifically on what I'm quoting or at least carry on a constant theme.

Your favorite quotes give great insight to the type of person you are. That's whey we have that quotes section on Facebook, it gives us a better idea of who we are.

So I have to agree with John Green; the quotes that we love say more about us then the people we are quoting.

Let's Have a Chat

I am sure you have seen this commercial at some point this summer. If you haven't seen it, watch the above video, because the next couple of Saturdays is going to be spring boarding off of this concept.

"Like A Girl"...

This  phrase has been on my mind since the first time I saw this commercial and have been debating on whether or not to write something about it. To be honest, I actually wasn't going to be writing about, until I went to this church carnival this past Sunday where a guy in his 30s harmlessly asked a little boy if he threw like his mom or his dad (the guy was in a dunk tank). What this 30 something year old guy wasn't deliberately meaning to be insulting women, but really he was implying that this little boy's mom can't throw and throws "like a girl." After hearing this, I became annoyed by this phrase.

Before I go on, I want to say that I am not being hypersensitive on this subject, which me even having to say this is utterly ridiculous, but I know there may be someone who reads this and is thinking that I am being too sensitive with this and... uhm... what's the phrase I'm looking for... Oh, "like a girl." I also want to clarify as well, that I know that women are built differently than a man and cannot perform athletically in the same way. My point of this is not about athletic ability or how each gender is built, but about a concept.

So that led me to believe that I really need to cover this concept of "like a girl," which also led me to believe that I need to cover some other areas as well.

Now if you have followed my blog, you know I label myself as a feminist. As I mentioned a feminist is someone who fights for equal rights for all sexes. That's the definition, yet people consider this such a negative label, which is no surprise that that use  of "like a girl" can be perceived by some as an insult.

 There is nothing wrong with standing up for your rights, having a voice, leading and bringing on change. Women have the rights to do anything a man can do. That's what I believe and I will have specifics in upcoming weeks.

If you couldn't tell, I am planning on writing a series on this, because I find it interesting how polarizing feminism is, especially how it is polarizing between women (another area I will be discussing in the next couple of weeks).

 Here's a tentative layout of what I will be doing the next number of Saturdays:

I plan on covering the idea of women in leadership, polarizing effects of feminism between women, perceptions that women often have (and how we continue to have these stereotypes stay alive), and a couple more that I have been debating whether I will write or not. I am not sure the exact order and there may be some weeks that have gaps, since I do want to ask some people I know what they think.

And yes, I will be trying to find people who have different perspectives on this subject manner than I do. I was speaking to a good friend of mine about this topic and she is absolutely correct that I can easily  skew this blog series to make one side look horrible and the other side look wonderful. I do not want to do this and hope to have equal representation on each side.

So that's all I have for this week.