Blog no.10: A sense of purpose

Dear humans...

  Feeling down? Feeling insignifigant? Feeling lonely? This one's for you!
  Freddie Mercury tells us in the Bohemian Rhapsody, "Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see", and we do just that. What do you see? You see the stars. You see the blue of the sky, with or without little grey and white patches of clouds floating around. You see the moon, providing you with just enough light to be able to see but not be blinded by. And the sun, oh the big bright sun. You can't look directly at it, but you can still enjoy its gifts at the utmost. But you feel small, so very small compared to what's out there. That is not the case my friend, as it's not a matter of matter, it's a matter of mattering.
  Now close your eyes. What do you see? It's dark and scary, I bet. The trick my friend is to not use your eyes. Use your senses, set your mind free. Now, what do you really see? What you are seeing with your eyes closed, that's what makes you signifigant. It's what makes you unique. Remember, you are part of this incredible ever-evolving organism that's called life. You have changed the lives of everyone you have ever interacted with, the old lady you gave your sit to in the bus, the poor little kid you gave your spare coins to, the teenager you bumped into to whom you apologized, the cashier you said "Hello" and "Thank you" to this morning. Every single thing you have ever touched is forever marked by your star-forged molecules. That's why you are signifigant. Your signifigance, my friend, it is not valued by the amount of space you occupy in the physical cosmos, it is valued by the space you occupy in other people's conciousness.
  Make sure you are someone to be remembered, someone to be admired. Your time in the world as a physical entity might be finite but your mind can be as infinite as you make it to be. People cease to exist, ideas do not. That's why what you should strive for is not to be remembered by the expendable body of yours, but rather by your indestructible mind. Treasure this limited time you have. Don't waste it.
   You say you can't change the world no matter how much you try. You're probably right, you can't. The idea of one person making a change is, nowadays, rather utopic. However, it's not how much people try, it's how many people try. Like molecules, we are all tiny bits of existence, which when united form a bond that's so strong and so fierce, it breeds life from within itself. Pink Floyd say that we are just another brick in the wall. I agree, but not quite in the way they meant it. Take a few bricks out of the wall and watch it collapse upon your feet, or build it strong and tall and create things far beyond your imagination. Brick by brick, bit by bit we will eventually change the world, I tell you this one for sure. You might not be there to witness it, but knowing you were part of it should clear all your worries. "Be the change you want to see in the world". But don't let the world change you. You might not be the special snowflake in a sea of sand grains, but you are the sand grain that will eventually become part of something bigger, a sand castle perhaps, which no tide will ever be able to destroy.

"Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars."

                                                       - Serbian proverb

Yours sincerely,
Stelios Zesiades.

P.S: I hope I helped you out.

Blog no.9: Do disturb

Dear insomniacs,

  You know that feeling you get sometimes that renders you completely counter-productive and forces you into a never-ending cycle of procrastination? Yeah you do. Everyone does. That's what's been going on lately, so bare with me. I'm writing today because why the hell not, I have exams in a few days and this shall be my gateway to communicate with other human beings, even if I'm the only one who's doing the talking. Hey, that happens in real life as well. Not as fun when you are expecting a dialogue and end up rambling on to keep the awkwardness levels low. Anyway, let us begin fellow humans, shall we?
  Everybody around me is telling me I spend too much time on the computer. Is that right? You're damn right that's right. Am I sorry? Kinda. Can I do anything to change that? Glad you ask! I certainly can, but more importantly, I certainly won't. My best excuse is really plain: it's easy. It's easy to converse where nobody knows your name. It's easy to find people who share the same opinions as you, no matter how far off they might seem to the people near you. You see, I'm not just scrolling an endless array of cat pictures and "I bet you can't watch this without laughing" videos, I'm not stalking exes, I'm not wasting any time. I invest on the computer to catch up on things. I take part in meaningful conversations with strangers, I discover music I would otherwise not be able to discover, I educate myself with the most random pieces of trivia which will probably never come in handy in my life. And whenever real life rejects me, I find comfort in the digital hands of strangers. It's indeed sad when you think about a piece of machinery being there for you more than the people around you but unfortunately that's the way things are. I'm not blaming anyone for this though, it's not their fault my reflexes opt to answer "I'm okay" to anyone questioning my wellbeing because it would be too complicated to explain something you can't understand.
  Of course I'd love to be able to do all these things away from a computer screen. Who wouldn't want to share all these experiences with people that he can actually interact with? And on almost every opportunity I have, I step away and experience the real thing. When I'm sure that I will enjoy myself, I take every bit of time I have to rest my eyes. The thing is, I'm surrounded by people who don't like the same things I do. They don't like discussing, apparently. The few times I was able to discuss, and I mean really discuss with someone on a personal level, they found out that I'm not a wannabe metalhead who wears a piece of hardware for additional style points (talking about my white on-ear headset). And the reason I wear my white headset is because I'm almost better off listening to my music rather than having meaningless chit-chat with people who don't even know me. They don't like going for random walks to just sit somewhere and talk. The Parthenon has been sitting there since I came to Athens, as far as I'm concerned, and nobody even mentioned going there to relax and savour life. If you have ever seen the sunset from the view of Acropolis, you will hate yourself every time you miss it.
   You might say that I'm pretentious since I can go watch the sunset whenever I want. It's true, I can. Do I want to witness it by myself? Hell no. There are things you just can't experience alone. I've been alone this New Year's eve and I got to tell you, it's pretty ugly. It's stupid, of course New Years is just a day like any other but it wasn't that way for me. New Years has always been a day to celebrate with my family, with our card-playing and coin-sharing and gift-opening, even though these traditions faded as soon as we grew up. Never in my life had I felt so depressed, watching everyone in the square being with their loved ones, and me listening to "Bones" as the ball dropped for whatever reason and wondering what the hell I was thinking. A few beers and a failed pickup attempt later, I found myself promising to never to do this to myself again. So yeah, some things you either have to experience surrounded by people you love, or you don't have to experience them at all. I can watch the sunset by myself a few times and it's all gonna be alrightbut one day will come when I will realize I counted so many sunsets spent alone that I wouldn't want to do it again until I've found someone to share it with.
  In the end of the day, I don't ask for a lot. I'm not asking for money or fame (even though I wouldn't mind some, ofcourse). I'm not asking for new memories. The memories will come, whether or not I want them to. The real challenge here is finding people to share these with. Without good company, life is like a roadtrip without good music. Even though the nature is daunting, the view is impeccable, the air is refreshing...you won't be able to enjoy it.

Leaving you with not a quote from a movie, but instead the most accurate description of myself

"I like drinking coffee alone and reading alone. 
I like riding the bus alone and walking home alone. It gives me time to think 
and sets my mind free. I like eating alone and listening to music alone. But
when I see a mother with her child, a girl with her lover, or a friend
laughing with their best friend, I realize that even though I like being alone, 
I don't fancy being lonely."

Keep on keeping on,
Stelios Zesiades.