Old Posts and Memories

There’s a trend right now of bloggers going through old posts on Twitter and re-posting them on their blogs. Hummingbird604 has posted a bunch and so has Michael Kwan. This prompted me to look through some of my old posts and I found a couple gems worth sharing.

I wrote this piece about five years ago, when I was oddly reflective and going through a rough time in my life. Now that I think about it, those times weren’t all that rough – but that’s hindsight.

Here’s the post…

Originally posted July 4, 2004
There’s always some major turning point in anyone/everyone’s life at any given time, but whether it comes sooner or later in their lives, that’s really up to the powers that be… Or is it?

I once said that because they had people up on the moon hitting golf balls, I should be able to achieve those same types of goals… But even as the ever so popular cliche goes, it doesn’t matter if those are your goals, it’s the determination, the ambition, and the committment to whichever task you want to achieve. It doesn’t matter if it’s what you want – you must realize that procrastination’s your greatest enemy. Once you put it off, your actions will bite you in the ass, and it wil keep coming back to haunt you until you realize the simple, stupid fact that procrastination is, simply put, your greatest enemy.

Concerning relationships, you must realize that, while you may not realize what’s best for you, the ones who really care will wait. The ones who are honest about themselves and who they are, are the ones who will persevere in any relationship. Don’t take what they say at face value, at least not until you know you can trust them. Don’t try to overanalyze (and yes, I am guilty of this) either – it won’t work, and will only serve to make you more pessmistic than you already are.

Love and learn instead. Make it so that you don’t regret your choices no matter how wrong they are. Don’t dwell on things, and most importantly, don’t wallow in self pity because that never helped anything. Learning and acceptance is the way to go, and though that path may be hard, you will become a better person for it. You will become stronger and you will understand the differences that set you apart from the norm. You will finally see what your loved ones see in you. You will finally understand why you did what you did, and right the wrongs or make amends. Whatever the consequences, you will see that you are doing the right thing.

Being moral and upstanding isn’t something that’s easy to do. I won’t lie to you and say that it’s the easiest thing in the world… It’s so precarious to want to fall back to being selfish and putting yourself ahead of all other priorities. Realize that being a good person is hard, and oft times emotionally draining. But also realize that the payload is so much greater, in so many unmeasurable ways. Love is not the only power at work here.

I often find myself at a crossroads, wondering which way to take. Robert Frost said it best in The Road Not Taken. Wich one is safer? The brighter, sunny, boring one, of course. Dante’s Inferno captured the inner conflict that people almost always face in their midlife – thus the midlife crisis. Think you’re the only one who has issues? Think again… Your closest friends have secrets too.

The above isn’t written to anyone in particular, but it is more of a reminder to myself (and to anyone who cares to read my LJ) that we’re only human, and we do make mistakes at times. The important thing is to be responsible and take responsibility for your own actions.