Don't give me false promises.
The ones where you say you will pay me back and you don't.
The ones where you say you will help me and you refuse when the time comes...
The ones where you say you will be there for me and you run away when the time comes...
You tell me how real you're trying to be and it turns out you're fake.
You are exactly who I don't want to be in my life.
You are the one who wants everyone to like you by forcing inspiration instead of being genuine.
The one who needs support from someone else in order to be alive,
And the one who will only take someone else's hand and both shove me aside...
I don't need to depend on anyone for my self worth.
I can stand strong on my own.
Be free from those false promises.
Do my own thing and believe in my own power.
I am strong enough!
Showing posts with label strength. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strength. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Friday, May 6, 2016
Story of Growing Up as an Identical Twin and Overcoming Adversity
Story time:
*Note this comes from a standpoint of someone who's met few other sets of twins, was never close with any of them, and they were all fraternal, including my estranged first cousins. I am also in my 20s!
I do not like comparing myself to others, especially my sister, but I've been thinking a bunch lately. I've always wondered how family dynamics worked and in a family with multiple siblings, constitutes a "perfect child" vs a "problem child". Starting with being born and not being able to control who's older or younger, sometimes, your sibling can be a few years older or younger than you. Imagine being born the same day, or even the same hour as someone. From birth, I guess I was always supposed to be the one who got kicked around. My parents said I was getting pushed around inside my mom's stomach. To my not so disbelief, my sister was born a minute before me, making me "the younger sibling" by technicality. I didn't see a minute as meaning anything and saw us on the same playing field. A minute to her meant everything. She stole my toys, was always selfish, and tried to boss me around, and still tries to boss me around to this day. We were both picked on a little in high school, but my being picked on started even before preschool when a boy named Joseph would pull my hair tie and stick it inside the plastic holes in the slide. Her being picked on was brief and mine lasted until the end of college, while I was even bullied by her. I ended up having a worse relationship with my parents, being looked at as the "problem child"; whenever my sister would get picked on by people, it would trickle onto me, and then trickle onto a pen and paper. Unsurprisingly, I've been diagnosed with depression.
I've noticed in a lot of sets of twins, one has a medical problem at birth and the other is healthy. I was obviously the one with the medical problem, but said medical problem is gone thankfully. I was the "expense" because I had medical problems. I felt like I was treated different, and probably was I'm sure. My sister also seemed to have a smoother ride in college. Our grades were generally always the same, we scored similarly on standardized tests and moved up the same in karate as a child. But I ended up being the one who's laptop broke. I was the one who lost several credits, failed 2 classes and had to go to summer school in order to graduate on time, who took longer to get a job and internship, who had the roommate and apartment problems, the mental health problems, the gaining weight, treated poorly by men, etc. The more problems I had in college, the more and more I was the problem child. The more and more I was picked on and treated poorly, the more and more I began realizing I was different and had different heart beat (literally). I had to keep pushing through adversity. Before I finished school, I had a 4 hour conversation with a 37 year old (at the time) marine veteran who explained to me the benefits of being different and how to handle being the problem child. Shortly after that and coming into contact with Belegarth (my nerd group of awesomeness), I began accepting how even though my parents tried to steer me away from being different, being myself will overall make me happy and advance down my chosen and destined path. My sister would conform to my parents and I would still do my own thing (while still trying to follow the rules as much as possible). I did not realize being different would promote ridicule, but as soon as I broke free, I continued to be different and myself. I would end up reading articles with the end result basically saying how the ones who distinguish themselves from others are the ones who were different. I am very lucky to have found the enlightened path at the end of the tunnel of all the crap I put up with from birth to the end of college and then some. Twins, identical or fraternal, are NOT the same people. Who you become is based on your environment. And one measly minute doesn't matter in the end. Hardships only make you stronger.
I've noticed in a lot of sets of twins, one has a medical problem at birth and the other is healthy. I was obviously the one with the medical problem, but said medical problem is gone thankfully. I was the "expense" because I had medical problems. I felt like I was treated different, and probably was I'm sure. My sister also seemed to have a smoother ride in college. Our grades were generally always the same, we scored similarly on standardized tests and moved up the same in karate as a child. But I ended up being the one who's laptop broke. I was the one who lost several credits, failed 2 classes and had to go to summer school in order to graduate on time, who took longer to get a job and internship, who had the roommate and apartment problems, the mental health problems, the gaining weight, treated poorly by men, etc. The more problems I had in college, the more and more I was the problem child. The more and more I was picked on and treated poorly, the more and more I began realizing I was different and had different heart beat (literally). I had to keep pushing through adversity. Before I finished school, I had a 4 hour conversation with a 37 year old (at the time) marine veteran who explained to me the benefits of being different and how to handle being the problem child. Shortly after that and coming into contact with Belegarth (my nerd group of awesomeness), I began accepting how even though my parents tried to steer me away from being different, being myself will overall make me happy and advance down my chosen and destined path. My sister would conform to my parents and I would still do my own thing (while still trying to follow the rules as much as possible). I did not realize being different would promote ridicule, but as soon as I broke free, I continued to be different and myself. I would end up reading articles with the end result basically saying how the ones who distinguish themselves from others are the ones who were different. I am very lucky to have found the enlightened path at the end of the tunnel of all the crap I put up with from birth to the end of college and then some. Twins, identical or fraternal, are NOT the same people. Who you become is based on your environment. And one measly minute doesn't matter in the end. Hardships only make you stronger.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Winning Badassery's Emblem
This is the journey leading up to my black belt test (starting a few days before the test) and my journey of the black belt test itself. Enjoy!
=======================================================================
It was the week before my black belt test and I sat isolated at my grey, windowless cubicle each day quivering with anxiety about whether or not I'll pass. My roommates were cheering for me, all of my friends were cheering for me, and everyone in my karate classes were cheering for me. I had to make sure I cheered for myself, too!
I had been waiting to test for my black belt since the day after September 11, 2001, and the day has finally come. I needed to make sure I was in the proper mindset for the test. On the last class before the exam, since in my classes on Thursday nights, we do a “formal bowing ceremony” prior to starting the class called “sei-za”; there’s a meditation portion within this bowing sequence and the instructor decided to emphasize it in class. While meditating, it occurred to me to work from home the next day in order to prevent myself from staring blankly at my computer having thoughts saturating in my head of anything regarding the karate exam. I sought spiritual guidance and direction from a trip to a sensory deprivation tank. When I arrived at the tank, I stripped my clothes off, lied in the neutral bath of Epsom salt water, and opened my arms to take in the world’s positive energy. When you’re in the tank, you feel like you’re having dreams when you’re not actually in “sleep mode”; instead, you’re in more of an induced meditative state. One of the dreams I had was passing my karate exam and becoming super emotional. Once the hour of the float elapsed, my energy was restored; I was forsure ready for my exam and worthy of earning my black belt.
December 5, 2015 quickly approached. I spent all day at home relaxing, practicing a little, refreshing my memory on Japanese terminology, picking up my gi, and picking up one of my roommates from work thanks to him being oh so kind enough to watch my exam. When I arrived at the testing venue, I frantically applied my essential oils for mental balance, chugged water, and waited to be placed in line to test. I was of course the oldest one in my testing session, but that’s because being a 20 something isn’t a very popular demographic in my karate club. While I was waiting for my name to be called, since there were less people than usual in my testing group, I was to either test in front of the dojo owner or test for the most senior instructor who I tested in front of when I tested poorly prior to taking a 5.5 year karate hiatus at the end of my junior year in high school. Testing for the senior instructor would be my redemption to show him how much I’ve grown in the 7+ years since the last time I saw him. When my name was called, it was no surprise to I’d have to test in front of the senior instructor.
It was time to kick some ass and take some names. I took a deep breath and waited in my ready stance for the test to start. “Downward block assume!” was called. The fire was lit. As we were doing warm up punches and kicks down the floor, of course my contact decided to almost fall out; doing front kicks forward and backward down the floor while having one functioning eye felt like a half blind man trying not to bump into walls. My contact eventually popped back in. “Inward block reverse punch”; “Downward block reverse punch”; “Knife hand block”; “Front kick, spear hand thrust”. I was desperate for water and gasping for air. It also felt weird when the judges were staring at my loud breathing, but I’d rather be breathing loud than not show any fighting spirit. My “kiai” spirit yells were louder than the sound of hearing a firetruck siren from your house. Once the basics portion of the test was done, it was time to do our katas. Before beginning the kata, you announce the name of what you're performing; “Bai Sai Dai”, channeled from my heart through my mouth. The executed kata was successful. Next, it was time for the colored belt katas. Thankfully, we had to do these katas for the tournaments; I completely spaced on having to do those katas for the first degree brown belt going on black belt test… oops! “Heian Godan” gets called and it went very well too of course. After katas were performed, it was time for target tests, to see if we could punch a target and escape in time and kick a target. I hit the focus mitt with as much drive as I could with plenty of accuracy. Once the target tests were over, we were asked Japanese terms and needed to execute the move corresponding to the Japanese term called out. “Kosa Dachi”; “Shuto Uke”; “Mawashi Geri”. All of those were called out correctly. We were then asked how many classes we attended, if we went to any tournaments, and if we went to the kickathon service event fundraiser to raise money for charities involving helping sick children. For the final portion of the test, it was time to do one point sparring, meaning each person goes to the front of the line and does a block/counter technique to the person throwing the attack. When it came my turn, I was luckily presented with opportunities to catch people’s round kicks, spin them around, and followup with a punch. By the time the test was over, my legs were ready to collapse faster than an olympic sprinter who just won first place.
The day after the exam, I performed my testing kata one last time for an audience in a Chicago all women’s variety show called “Beast Women Rising”. Feedback from my karate was thankfully very positive. One long day of work while anxiously awaiting my results elapsed, and it was time to receive my results. I arrived at my class, and it was announced in front of everyone I had earned my black belt. I pictured myself in my dreams crying my eyes out in the middle of class, but instead, I wasn't surprised. Since I went into the exam feeling confident and telling myself I’m worthy of earning my black belt, the results were returned as expected. Victory is mine and I am now worthy of the official title of badassery!
=======================================================================
It was the week before my black belt test and I sat isolated at my grey, windowless cubicle each day quivering with anxiety about whether or not I'll pass. My roommates were cheering for me, all of my friends were cheering for me, and everyone in my karate classes were cheering for me. I had to make sure I cheered for myself, too!
I had been waiting to test for my black belt since the day after September 11, 2001, and the day has finally come. I needed to make sure I was in the proper mindset for the test. On the last class before the exam, since in my classes on Thursday nights, we do a “formal bowing ceremony” prior to starting the class called “sei-za”; there’s a meditation portion within this bowing sequence and the instructor decided to emphasize it in class. While meditating, it occurred to me to work from home the next day in order to prevent myself from staring blankly at my computer having thoughts saturating in my head of anything regarding the karate exam. I sought spiritual guidance and direction from a trip to a sensory deprivation tank. When I arrived at the tank, I stripped my clothes off, lied in the neutral bath of Epsom salt water, and opened my arms to take in the world’s positive energy. When you’re in the tank, you feel like you’re having dreams when you’re not actually in “sleep mode”; instead, you’re in more of an induced meditative state. One of the dreams I had was passing my karate exam and becoming super emotional. Once the hour of the float elapsed, my energy was restored; I was forsure ready for my exam and worthy of earning my black belt.
December 5, 2015 quickly approached. I spent all day at home relaxing, practicing a little, refreshing my memory on Japanese terminology, picking up my gi, and picking up one of my roommates from work thanks to him being oh so kind enough to watch my exam. When I arrived at the testing venue, I frantically applied my essential oils for mental balance, chugged water, and waited to be placed in line to test. I was of course the oldest one in my testing session, but that’s because being a 20 something isn’t a very popular demographic in my karate club. While I was waiting for my name to be called, since there were less people than usual in my testing group, I was to either test in front of the dojo owner or test for the most senior instructor who I tested in front of when I tested poorly prior to taking a 5.5 year karate hiatus at the end of my junior year in high school. Testing for the senior instructor would be my redemption to show him how much I’ve grown in the 7+ years since the last time I saw him. When my name was called, it was no surprise to I’d have to test in front of the senior instructor.
It was time to kick some ass and take some names. I took a deep breath and waited in my ready stance for the test to start. “Downward block assume!” was called. The fire was lit. As we were doing warm up punches and kicks down the floor, of course my contact decided to almost fall out; doing front kicks forward and backward down the floor while having one functioning eye felt like a half blind man trying not to bump into walls. My contact eventually popped back in. “Inward block reverse punch”; “Downward block reverse punch”; “Knife hand block”; “Front kick, spear hand thrust”. I was desperate for water and gasping for air. It also felt weird when the judges were staring at my loud breathing, but I’d rather be breathing loud than not show any fighting spirit. My “kiai” spirit yells were louder than the sound of hearing a firetruck siren from your house. Once the basics portion of the test was done, it was time to do our katas. Before beginning the kata, you announce the name of what you're performing; “Bai Sai Dai”, channeled from my heart through my mouth. The executed kata was successful. Next, it was time for the colored belt katas. Thankfully, we had to do these katas for the tournaments; I completely spaced on having to do those katas for the first degree brown belt going on black belt test… oops! “Heian Godan” gets called and it went very well too of course. After katas were performed, it was time for target tests, to see if we could punch a target and escape in time and kick a target. I hit the focus mitt with as much drive as I could with plenty of accuracy. Once the target tests were over, we were asked Japanese terms and needed to execute the move corresponding to the Japanese term called out. “Kosa Dachi”; “Shuto Uke”; “Mawashi Geri”. All of those were called out correctly. We were then asked how many classes we attended, if we went to any tournaments, and if we went to the kickathon service event fundraiser to raise money for charities involving helping sick children. For the final portion of the test, it was time to do one point sparring, meaning each person goes to the front of the line and does a block/counter technique to the person throwing the attack. When it came my turn, I was luckily presented with opportunities to catch people’s round kicks, spin them around, and followup with a punch. By the time the test was over, my legs were ready to collapse faster than an olympic sprinter who just won first place.
The day after the exam, I performed my testing kata one last time for an audience in a Chicago all women’s variety show called “Beast Women Rising”. Feedback from my karate was thankfully very positive. One long day of work while anxiously awaiting my results elapsed, and it was time to receive my results. I arrived at my class, and it was announced in front of everyone I had earned my black belt. I pictured myself in my dreams crying my eyes out in the middle of class, but instead, I wasn't surprised. Since I went into the exam feeling confident and telling myself I’m worthy of earning my black belt, the results were returned as expected. Victory is mine and I am now worthy of the official title of badassery!
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Black Belt Status
The journey to me finally earning my black belt (as an adult instead of at 18) in Shotokan Karate. Enjoy!
=================================
After a journey of about 14 years and 3 months, I finally earned my black belt in Shotokan Karate. It definitely wasn’t the same experience as most people in karate have, where they start as a child, progress to their black belt, and go from there. I had to experience having a bad test, finding my identity and myself, and realizing how worthy I am of achieving my goals.
The first day I walked into the dojo, the day after September 11, I was a 10 year old little girl looking for the sport I was to excel in as a child. I tried soccer, ice skating, gymnastics, swimming, dance, and much more. My mom recommended I try karate and I figured it couldn’t hurt, especially with my bullying history, even at the tender elementary school age. I did karate from 5th grade until the end of my junior year in high school with my twin sister. At that point in our lives, we did the same activities together. We also scored the same on every single exam. When we did karate together, I feel like I didn’t take karate as seriously as I should have; each time we’d get partnered together, I wouldn’t exert my full effort. By the time we reached the end of our junior year in high school, we were third degree brown belts (three belts away from black) and needed 2 more black stripes (there’s 4 black stripes to a belt when you’re under 18) to move up to second degree brown belt. After third degree brown belt, there’s just second degree brown belt, first degree brown belt, and then black. We took our exam, returned to class to receive our results, and the instructor pulls us aside and told us we got one stripe. My sister felt super discouraged and ended up quitting. About two or three weeks later, I felt uncomfortable going to the class by myself without her and stopped attending classes myself. Unfortunately, I had a looming cloud over my head, feeling guilty for quitting because I knew in my heart I quit because I followed her and didn’t fully want to quit.
Once I reached my junior year of college, I realized I needed to establish my own identity outside of being an identical twin. Going to the same school as my twin sister, having the same major, and even sharing most of the same friends, my senses and sources were telling me to break free. After I went on a group trip to Israel with her, seeing as I could tell she didn’t want me around, I knew I needed to pave my own way. Once I returned from Israel, I began shaping my identity by becoming very involved with the IT department club and even ran it my senior year. Unfortunately, once college was over, I had lost my high school sports body and became overweight. Oops! When I realized being in karate was when I was in the best shape of my life, in addition to feeling bad about quitting due to following my sister, my heart told me return and get my black belt. I called the ISKC (Illinois Shotokan Karate Clubs) to sign up for classes again the September after I graduated from college, but missed the start of the session and had to wait until January to start. I had also just missed the testing cycle, which would mean the cycle would start over and I would be on track to test right away after 6 months. In January 2014, I stepped back into the dojo, as a clueless third degree brown belt wearing a white belt due to forgetting 70 percent of everything. Except this time, I was to walk into the dojo, alone, while paying for classes and such with my own money.
During this almost 2 year journey, I needed to restore my confidence, my health, and gain a sense of self. About a week and a half before my karate exam, I went to visit my second family for the holidays in the lovely Davenport, Iowa. While in Iowa, I was not only showered with love, but told how worthy I am of making life progress, facing my fears, and achieving my goals. After my trip to Davenport and another week of work, I ventured to a sensory deprivation chamber in Lincoln Park at a place called Spacetime Tanks, to seek further direction and positive energy towards passing my karate exam. My senses told me I needed to acknowledge my past, accept my past happened and is over now, and leave feeling revitalized. The only thing to possibly hold me back from passing my test is to not believe in myself. I complete the last week of karate classes and get my “test permission slip” signed and go to take my exam. Prior to the test, I had a feeling I was going to have to test for the instructor who gave me the bad grade; surely enough, I did. I told myself to give it everything I have and do my best. It also meant more to me because I wanted to show him I was a mature adult who now fully understands and embodies the meaning and values of Shotokan Karate. *describe karate exam*
When I left the exam, I knew I had a good day. I was the loudest at screaming and huffing and puffing, the oldest one in the room taking my test, I aced all of my Japanese vocabulary this time instead of missing one, I didn’t drop my foot during the front kick to the front, side thrust kick to the front exercise, and left knowing I had done my best and needed to await my results. I even had a dream of me passing my test as I was becoming super sentimental when finding out I passed my test. When I arrived to receive my test results, I, to not much surprise, found out I passed and had finally earned my black belt. The other irony is one of my instructors from my childhood who was taking over for my current instructor on a brief leave for a few weeks, delivered my results to me. Despite seeing much career failure during my time in karate, this was the victory I needed to tell me I am worthy at succeeding at my true passions and even succeeding in general. We are all worthy of success, even when experiencing darkness and/or failure in other areas of life. If you tell yourself you can do it and really set your mind to it, you’ll be unstoppable and see light farther ahead than in distant planets!
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Teachings and Lessons from Failure
I’ve been having quite the eventful past few weeks, and have summarized my recent reflections. I am speaking from experience here. I didn’t get the first, second, or third job I applied for. I failed 2 classes in college. I’ve gotten F’s on exams plenty of times, but still won several scholarships and had a solid GPA. I’ve missed deadlines. I’ve received so many rejection letters for contests and castings I’ve applied for it’s not even funny. We are human and there is no possible way to get accepted to everything and succeed on all the shots you take. Nope, nope, nope! I am currently experiencing a failure in my life right now, and here is what I have to say for myself:
After a very disheartening meeting at work, I was sent a quote this morning which perfectly described my current feelings on life:
Arnold Schwarzenegger once said, "Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."
Not every battle ends in victory. Not every exam in school earns an A, a B, or even a C. Not every audition will land you the lead role, or even a part at all.
Failure is defined as not meeting a desired or expected goal.
Winning isn’t easy, but the first way to be able to do so is to get the fuck out of bed and tell yourself how glorious of a day you’re going to have. Carry that attitude with you to the finish line, and bam, your chances of success increase just with a positive attitude.
Unfortunately, the path to the finish line isn’t just running across a straight line and whoop, there it is. There’s twists, turns, ups, downs, lefts, rights, and plenty of downs. When you reach a down, you may feel like you’re so far into the ground there’s no way to get up. You lie there, feeling like you’ve reached your pending doom; but lying down isn’t what’s going to drive you forward. The moment you let the light reach your eyes and realize the hole contains a hidden ladder to climb out is the moment you realize you CAN do it. Keep telling yourself you can in the same way the childhood fable characters adapted to struggles, hardship, and adversity, to realize their greatest potentials.
Everybody has moments where they fall short. Everybody has moments when they trip over their shoelaces, or miss a step in a dance, or drop a line, or even make a miscalculation for a major project, present it to the CEO and an audience, and have the entire audience realize your mistake. Failure is a real thing; nobody is perfect. We are human, therefore perfection is the only aspect of life to be deemed impossible.
How do you take failure into your life? Do you let it rule you? Do you let it tell you how much you can’t do xyz? Do you let it tell you the end of the world is approaching? No. You take a deep breath, close your eyes, count to 10, reflect, and keep walking. Giving up, especially without a valiant fight, is your worst enemy, because you only run out of hit points when you die. If you keep walking, you will have as many tries to reach the finish line as your heart desires.
When you fail, think about what caused your result to not turn out as expected, tweak your plan, and try try again. Keep on trying, because success will be achieved as long as you always back yourself up and allow your imagination to tell you a positive result exists. When you fail, don’t just think, “oh, I fucked up”. Instead, ingest this experience and take proper corrective action to learn from your mistakes. Failure isn’t a death sentence. It’s a moment of learning lessons and personal growth and enlightenment. It’s another few paragraphs or even an entire chapter’s worth of juicy content to add to your story.
Society seems to have glorified expectations of what a “successful” person is. You see people already at the top and think they magically appeared there or found an easy route. Nope. They have put in hours of hard work. They have fallen on their ass or fucked up plenty of times. They have been told no enough times to build a tolerance to it.
The definition of success, from General Colin Powell, is that there are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure. When you fail, keep going. Keep on going. You will get there. You have a race to win. You can do it! Everyone believes in you. Now you need to believe in you. Life is yours. Do you want to win?
After a very disheartening meeting at work, I was sent a quote this morning which perfectly described my current feelings on life:
Arnold Schwarzenegger once said, "Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."
Not every battle ends in victory. Not every exam in school earns an A, a B, or even a C. Not every audition will land you the lead role, or even a part at all.
Failure is defined as not meeting a desired or expected goal.
Winning isn’t easy, but the first way to be able to do so is to get the fuck out of bed and tell yourself how glorious of a day you’re going to have. Carry that attitude with you to the finish line, and bam, your chances of success increase just with a positive attitude.
Unfortunately, the path to the finish line isn’t just running across a straight line and whoop, there it is. There’s twists, turns, ups, downs, lefts, rights, and plenty of downs. When you reach a down, you may feel like you’re so far into the ground there’s no way to get up. You lie there, feeling like you’ve reached your pending doom; but lying down isn’t what’s going to drive you forward. The moment you let the light reach your eyes and realize the hole contains a hidden ladder to climb out is the moment you realize you CAN do it. Keep telling yourself you can in the same way the childhood fable characters adapted to struggles, hardship, and adversity, to realize their greatest potentials.
Everybody has moments where they fall short. Everybody has moments when they trip over their shoelaces, or miss a step in a dance, or drop a line, or even make a miscalculation for a major project, present it to the CEO and an audience, and have the entire audience realize your mistake. Failure is a real thing; nobody is perfect. We are human, therefore perfection is the only aspect of life to be deemed impossible.
How do you take failure into your life? Do you let it rule you? Do you let it tell you how much you can’t do xyz? Do you let it tell you the end of the world is approaching? No. You take a deep breath, close your eyes, count to 10, reflect, and keep walking. Giving up, especially without a valiant fight, is your worst enemy, because you only run out of hit points when you die. If you keep walking, you will have as many tries to reach the finish line as your heart desires.
When you fail, think about what caused your result to not turn out as expected, tweak your plan, and try try again. Keep on trying, because success will be achieved as long as you always back yourself up and allow your imagination to tell you a positive result exists. When you fail, don’t just think, “oh, I fucked up”. Instead, ingest this experience and take proper corrective action to learn from your mistakes. Failure isn’t a death sentence. It’s a moment of learning lessons and personal growth and enlightenment. It’s another few paragraphs or even an entire chapter’s worth of juicy content to add to your story.
Society seems to have glorified expectations of what a “successful” person is. You see people already at the top and think they magically appeared there or found an easy route. Nope. They have put in hours of hard work. They have fallen on their ass or fucked up plenty of times. They have been told no enough times to build a tolerance to it.
The definition of success, from General Colin Powell, is that there are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure. When you fail, keep going. Keep on going. You will get there. You have a race to win. You can do it! Everyone believes in you. Now you need to believe in you. Life is yours. Do you want to win?
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Speak Out
In light of a recent sexual assault incident within my home base community, as well as whatever other crap is going around, here is what to do if this ever happens to you:
(Speak Out)
In a world of being trained to keep your mouth shut to everything,
Unless you are going to drop the f bomb several times at someone for no reason,
Speak out of hate or vengeance,
Or just have something insanely nasty to say to someone,
Open up!
Even if your parents rejected all of your attempts to express yourself as a child,
And you were taught to mask your thoughts and opinions out of fear and lack of safety,
To a point where you never learned the ability to stand up for yourself,
Say something anyway, without looking back or holding regrets!
As a woman especially, the culture of sexual violation stigmatizes coming out of the closet.
You don't want to have a giant neon sign flashing "victim" over your head.
Fear surrounds you as you don't want the enemy to retaliate,
Causing a mental blockade
And getting stuck in the shade.
If you have an army behind you, justice shall prevail,
Especially in a supportive, open, and welcoming community!
Any retaliation will be shielded by the army,
While the rest community will scoop you up with open arms.
It's time to be brave!
If you're stuck in a junction of going for the kill to protect others
Versus letting the enemy run loose and cause more casualties,
Go for the kill!
The army will protect you and help to start a movement
To ensure everyone else's safety
And consequences for the villains.
You will be appreciated more than you think for representing the side of justice,
Because bravery always wins,
And evil shall sink into the fire!
(Speak Out)
In a world of being trained to keep your mouth shut to everything,
Unless you are going to drop the f bomb several times at someone for no reason,
Speak out of hate or vengeance,
Or just have something insanely nasty to say to someone,
Open up!
Even if your parents rejected all of your attempts to express yourself as a child,
And you were taught to mask your thoughts and opinions out of fear and lack of safety,
To a point where you never learned the ability to stand up for yourself,
Say something anyway, without looking back or holding regrets!
As a woman especially, the culture of sexual violation stigmatizes coming out of the closet.
You don't want to have a giant neon sign flashing "victim" over your head.
Fear surrounds you as you don't want the enemy to retaliate,
Causing a mental blockade
And getting stuck in the shade.
If you have an army behind you, justice shall prevail,
Especially in a supportive, open, and welcoming community!
Any retaliation will be shielded by the army,
While the rest community will scoop you up with open arms.
It's time to be brave!
If you're stuck in a junction of going for the kill to protect others
Versus letting the enemy run loose and cause more casualties,
Go for the kill!
The army will protect you and help to start a movement
To ensure everyone else's safety
And consequences for the villains.
You will be appreciated more than you think for representing the side of justice,
Because bravery always wins,
And evil shall sink into the fire!
Friday, March 27, 2015
Warrior's Spirit
The warrior’s spirit plows through the shadows
Lighting up the room with pride,
Steadily learning to fly,
Fighting through every last breath,
To never stay down after falling.
Lighting up the room with pride,
Steadily learning to fly,
Fighting through every last breath,
To never stay down after falling.
Slashing through adversity with every tip-toed stride
The warrior must embark on a journey through jagged roads
In order to seek the ultimate powers from the shrine:
Strength, bravery, resilience, and love!
The warrior must embark on a journey through jagged roads
In order to seek the ultimate powers from the shrine:
Strength, bravery, resilience, and love!
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