Written in my Sr year of HS

Originally written on Thursday, March 1, 2007 at 4:10pm

"Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted.
A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle."

So which side wins, I ask?

He smiles at me, the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth.

"Love wins. Love always wins."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the end, I believe goodness prevails. Life leads you through certain trials, purposefully, for the sole intention of learning; learning the act of trusting, of letting go, of weeding out the insincerities and ignorance and lack of faith; of knowing who are the people that are really worth your time. Learning that, if anyone ever truly meant something to you and vice versa, any mistrial and miscommunication would have been resolved already, regardless of pride. Anyone who didn't feel that making this effort at amends is not worth your while. And, finally, that although many people are willing to accept the rumors and stereotypes and assumptions rather than taking the time to find the truth, there are many more that will. Life is full of strangers and hypocrites, and friends and family and people who are closer to you than you'd ever imagine.

Life is a tension of opposites, it's true. But just because the allure of the materialistic and the easy and the indulgent calls to us in our ever-tempted teenage years doesn't mean we should give in. We are pulled, never more taut and extended, to our limits every day.

But that is no excuse to indulge in material escapes, to take out one's frustration on the weaknesses of others, to criticize and to back-stab and play petty games with the hurt minds and hearts of others. The little cuts you deliver to people cuts deeper than you think, and one day you will turn around and see in the mirror the scars that you unwittingly delivered to yourself. Life is beautiful, and short.

I intend to escape unscathed.