warning: wrote this on the plane, and didn't finish because flight ended. i dunno what my train of thought was. posting now before i regret it...
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Summer is over. Kinda. I still don’t have class for another month, but the summer as I’ve known it to be for the past 6 years is over. Everyone continued down their own path; we should consider ourselves quite lucky that our pathes even crossed at all.
(I will not write for others, I will not write for others.)
Summer was good. Great. I really didn’t expect too much from this summer,as I thought most people would be gone and most of the time would be sucked away by working/studying anyway. Working did take a lot of time, but yet again, studying never really pushed through. I need to work on self studying, sigh.
Good friends and new friends. We found many reasons to hangout just watching the olympics, even witnessed some amazing events (the amazing vault for one), went to the beach, Batman, KOP, New York City, meeting Jia’s friends, and more that I already forget.
For some reason you always forget the times you hung out, the specific things you did. I have to try really hard to recall what we exactly did in New York or even the conversations we had, yet I know it was really meaningful in some way. Like when two people who otherwise never would have met, become friends, suddenly you have another buddy in this lonely world, and the world seems a little brighter. A little better.
No matter how great your charisma or your looks, everyone needs a friend. Odd to think about, that even these extraodinary people, take Obama for instance, still need their buddies, still have similar struggles to us. From struggling to wake up in the morning to procrastinating during work, we are similar. Money can’t be your friend and neither can knowing the cultures of multiple countries from having traveled abroad. Who is more loved, a member of a violent gang or Donald Trump? To have friends who would put a bullet to the head of someone who was against you?
Who will fight harder, mercenaries or loyal patriots with a cause?
Up to this point, some might think the whole point of life is to have good friend who have your back. I thank Essence for bringing up a hard topic of really, how does God fit into all of this? I had a CS professor who told the class that he thought the purpose of life was the create your own purpose. If there is no God, I would agree with him. If there is no God, I think you should just pack your life with as many “good times” as possible, how to live those good times is up to one to decide, although I would argue it would invovle other people. I don’t know, maybe someone can find complete purpose just being alone.
But with a God? With Jesus? There’s a goal, there’s a challenge. People are the most important portions of this Earth because they are a reflection of God, because each and every person has a potential to attain the greatest achievement of salvation, regardless of gender, race, or group. OF what you choose to wear, or your social hierarchy or tax bracket. This means the poor and rich have the same purpose, the same yearnings. The same water will quench their thirst.
As creepy as it sounds, I think as you get older, people watching becomes more interesting. I admit that I did some people watching in NYC at a Starbucks as we waited for our friends to come downtown from the subway. A fashionable hipster walked into Starbucks with a sense of rush and purpose, his skinny jeans not able to hold back his stride. A tired woman drinks her coffee as she responds to her morning emails. They collide pathes for a few minutes, but they probably won’t even notice each other. 99% of the time, at least. But that 1% when two strangers meet and hit it off for the few minutes they way together in line? Somehow it’s beautiful. Because you realize that no matter who they were, where they were from, how different they were, people are similar. We struggle with the same things. Perhaps we’re just looking for another buddy in the world because this world is too scary. We drown out the noise with our music, we escape reality with scripted idealistic movies and/or tv shows.
But no one lives like that. One of the weirdest parts about meeting celebrities is seeing that they’re not these perfect creatures you thought them to be. I bet Lil Wayne gets a little excited when he drinks 9 bubbles in a row too.
What is this water? To be loved. To know that you are just not just a random happening that occupy the a 6’x3’3’ space on this Earth for 70 some years, then be buried 6’ feet under, and that’s it. Instead, I have the capability to love and be loved. In fact, I am loved.
I remember a friend saying how fantastic of a feeling it was to have his girlfriend (at the time) know him so well, all his past history, all his inequities, and still want to spend time with him, love him, etc. To be exposed, yet embraced. How many friends would I lose with I made my internet history public? If my thoughts could be seen. It’s amazing when you can share a vulnerable part of you, whether it be a girl you liked, a sexual experience, a drug experience, your sexual orientation, our family situation, your physical insecurities, and still treat them the same. That’s what makes the gospel so powerful. A God that loved you before and after all these things, who knows you completely and loves you completely.
Sometimes following God seems blind. Seems like I throw away logic and everything that science has proved. I’ve tried to tell my mom not to turn off her iPad but rather simply sleep it. Whenever I explain to her why, her mind just doesn’t accept my logic and reasoning, so I wait the 30 seconds everytime I need to use her iPad. At one point I just told her, if you don’t want to look like a ditz using this $500 advanced tool, then just listen to me. Trust me. I know how to use this. Why? Because I’ve read articles, because I’ve used Apple devices myself, because I’m surrounded by it. I live and breathe in this generation of Apple devices, I don’t know how I know, but I’m 100% confident.
I draw this parallel between my mom trusting in me and trusting in Jesus.
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“I’m so happy right now,” she quietly whispered as she smiled sitting in a bustling restaurant at midnight.
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