To help visualize my view on the world, think about the stars in space. There are billions and billions of stars in the sky. It's very hard to decipher a difference between the stars from our point of view. Tell me, could you look into the sky choose a star, then the next night point out that same exact star?Yet, in the abundant amount of stars, there a few in particular that stand out. The constellations are the "celebrities" of the stars. The ones that stand out and a person could pick right of the sky. Ones that you could look up at the and tell that individual shape in the sky.
We sit in this systematic way of life. For us students, we wake up and go to school. Then do some minor things, then repeat the next day. People will try to differentiate themselves from the pack by doing things like, putting themselves into more advanced classes, or extracurricular activities. And in no way I am condemning people for wanting to push themselves, but when I really looked at it. There are so many other people who are doing the same thing. So many other people following this regimen, then that idea that was so original becomes not so original. So then what really makes me different?
Your post is really thought-provoking, Silas. Coincidentally enough, last year I actually wrote an essay that touched upon your very question. It was a cause and effect essay, and I was talking about the effect that the music of my favorite band, which is the Taiwanese band Mayday, had on me. Here's the relevant paragraph from that essay:
ReplyDeleteAnother Mayday song that I really enjoy is “有些事現在不做 一輩子都不會做了”. Although the name of this song has no official English translation, the title roughly translates to, “Some things, if not done now, will not be done for the entirety of your lifetime”. The central idea of this song is that one must not let fear stop oneself from doing things that are out of the ordinary; otherwise, one will feel regret when the opportunities to do these things are over. On the left are the original lyrics to my favorite verses from the song; and on the right is a translation based mostly on my personal interpretation of the lyrics.
"想像你的白髮 皺紋 緊貼你的輪廓
你最終的朋友 就是此刻 那些最瘋 最愛和最痛
每次衝動留下的 都有所不同
然而有天你會懂 就是那些 讓你不同" (Mayday, "有些事現在不做一輩子都不會做了")
Imagine your white hair, wrinkles
Attached tightly to your outline.
Your final friend
Is this very moment,
Those things that are most crazy, most loved, and most painful.
The things left behind after each impulse
Are different in their own way.
But one day you will understand
It is those things that make you unique.
For most of my life, I was a very risk-avoidant child. Whenever somebody asked me to try a new thing, I would usually reject the idea unless I had nothing more typical to do. For example, during a trip to China in the summer between my eighth and ninth grade years, my brother, my mother, my aunt, and I visited a mall. There were numerous shops selling unusual items that are difficult to find in the United States, and numerous places of entertainment that showed unique aspects of Chinese culture. Because of my very risk-avoidant philosophy at this point in life, however, I instead decided to play video games on a bench while my family members went and did interesting things that made their day unique and different from other days. During the beginning of my tenth-grade school year, however, I was rapidly shedding this philosophy. At the same time, I began to listen to this song. This song taught me that it is not the carefully planned actions of an individual that makes that person unique, since carefully planned actions are too heavily influenced by one’s environment. Rather, it is a person’s impulses, the actions taken right in the moment, that make each person different from the rest. This realization caused me to leave my comfort zone and try things that are new to me. For example, although it is difficult to write an essay about the impact that a band that sings in a foreign language has had on me, I have still decided to write this essay, because I know that expressing to others the meaning Mayday’s music has given me is a task worth the difficulty. Although I know that trying new things can bring me failure, this song has taught me that in many cases, failure is still better than never having tried at all. After all, when I am dying, and my final moment becomes “my final friend”, it will not be the mundane tasks of my day-to-day life that will be rushing through my head. It will be the things that are out of the ordinary, the things that are “most crazy, most loved, and most painful”, that I relive in my final moment alive.