In my opinion...

All work and no play makes Danz a dull boy. That's a lie, I was always dull.

Hopefully that horrible joke on me would be enough for you to forget that I haven't written in over two weeks; I've been busy okay! Still I'm here with yet another rather insignificant thought of mine, hoping that you can relate.

So lately I've been under the impression that everyone loves to get their own two-bits in. Let's face it, people love listening to themselves, so whenever they get the chance, they shove their own views and perceptions wherever they go.

Now this generally isn't a bad thing. By all means, I feel that getting advice from as many people as possible is vital for a sound decision. Still there are limits even for advice. People like to think for themselves sometimes and don't always need to be spoon-fed. In today's world with everyone telling you what to do and how to do it, I feel that in the big picture we're all a bunch of robots without individuality.

So now when is enough, enough? See, I feel that opinions are divided into two categories; the views that benefit, and the views that vent.

The views that benefit are the sincere ones made by people who have decided to take an unbiased approach to your situation and therefore are offering you advice out of genuine concern. These people weirdly enough aren't often the ones closest to you. Those people are too involved in your life to offer an unbiased decision. More often than not people listen to those they are closest to and take advice on views that have a set agenda. These people want your life to follow a path that 'they' feel is best for you, not what is best for you overall. Yes I get that this is confusing but let me ask you this, if you're a person who regularly goes to friends for advice, don't you get a bit irritated once in a while when they refuse to have an opinion that actually matters and instead they rather choose to agree with whatever you have to say. That's not advice, that's a yes-man *Movie Reference :)*

The views that vent are something you have to look out for. These are people who will take your situation and somehow change it into their own. It's like going to someone for advice about your own particular situation only to have them relent on about what happened to them. I get that experience matters, but really once in a while I'd like someone to just shut up and listen. I'm probably the biggest hypocrite for writing about this seeing I too tend to go on about my life every now and then *understatement of the year* but this is just basic advice for those that are reading this. A different kind of 'views that vent' are those which somehow seem to make any difficult situation you encounter, entirely your fault. These are the people who are of the opinion that when things go sour, you're the one to blame. Now not only is this unfair but it kinda sucks! So watch out for the ones that have always had something against you, and are waiting to stick it to you the moment a situation arises.

Wow didn't think I could actually write that much, okay no wait I did. Consider this making up for lost time seeing as I'm probably going to get super busy now that I'm leaving for university. Still this is my life, and I'm sure I'll be able to squeeze in time for this somewhere. Till then enjoy some random photo that does not even remotely go with the title, that I've grabbed from my phone :).

To New Beginnings (Part 2)

I'm going to start this week's post with a story. It is a true story but I'll be using attributes here and there from people I know.

There was once a very, very lonely boy. He spent all of his time by himself completely disconnected from the world around him. He thought he could never trust anyone around him since he was always the one getting picked on. As a result he thought he didn't require friends; he believed that people were fools if they felt that they needed others to help them get on with their lives.

The years passed on and this boy grew up lonely and miserable. His joy came from degrading others since he felt he was superior to them. He was the king of his own world yet he didn't realize that the population was only one. As the years passed his hatred was channeled towards other things. His greed to prove himself better at everything made him work harder than anyone else at everything he set his mind to. He prospered, and for a little while he was happy at the top. However, he soon realized, that when you're better than everyone else, there isn't anything left to chase after. Unhappy even with his new found success, the boy vowed to change himself.

He first tried being a person of multiple personalities. The air of mystery surrounded him and people were curious as to see who this person was. However personalities are only as good as their consistency and the constant lashing out to his friends pushed them away as he tried to once again dominate a group he felt he was better than. He didn't realize that there were aspects to life that even with all his determination he couldn't become good at. So he fought and argued and pushed those who cared for him further and further away; so much so that whatever concern his friends had for him was dissolved into a sea of hate. Clearly things weren't going the way they planned so the boy abandoned these people and chose a new group to find.

For his next attempt at climbing the social ladder, the boy chose a different route. He made a great success as a mentor to others, using his knowledge to make friends with those he felt his intellectual equals. However his jealously grew whenever he was outperformed and a rift was created that he felt wasn't worth repairing. He engaged in gossip as a hobby and found great happiness in interfering in other peoples lives. This would be okay to an extent if the reason for inquisitiveness was out of genuine concern rather than the boy's selfish desire to know more about others than everyone else did. His smug look of all-knowing was what brought fear into many of his friends who were afraid by what he could do with the information he knew about them. However, once the gossip was used up, the boy grew bored and moved onto the next group of unsuspecting individuals with a different idea as to how to be popular amongst them.

For his final try at popularity. The boy chose to be the complete opposite of the person he actually was. He tried to seem friendly and kind to those around him, and was perfectly willing to open up about his life to anyone who chose to ask him. Yet no one could actually say that they truly knew what he was thinking. Nobody could understand what sort of person the boy actually was and to an extent that intrigued those around him even more. He was mysterious, fun at sometimes, and quite appealing to anyone around him. However, there were those times when he seemed unhappy for no reason whatsoever and when questioned by his friends the boy simply blew them away telling them it was nothing at all. Now since a relationship is a give and take job, those around him were unhappy by the way they were being treated and chose to distance themselves from the boy. Depressed by how everything in his life seemed to be going wrong, the boy cursed the world for bringing this upon him and chose to simply abandon everyone and start anew.

Our story ends here.
If you're wondering what happened to the boy, twenty years down the line he was found by all three groups of his old friends and they were amazed by how he had changed. For the first time since they had known him, they found the boy happy. Genuine happiness, the kind without a single drop of greed, hatred or envy hidden underneath. When asked what brought about his drastic change he simply replied, " I stopped trying to be what others wanted me to be and simply chose to be myself".

For this story there are 8 different people I've used for inspiration. Each of them had their own personal share of demons and these have been molded into the story that I've created.

If you're wondering why I'm writing this post it's because for many of us a new year is dawning. As we know every year we promise that this one will be different. Yet halfway down the line we give up on our promises and resort back towards our old comfortable versions of ourselves. After all if change were that easy, then staying constant wouldn't be considered a word.

However, I'd like to give you a bit of advice that a lot of people have told me over the years.

Be 'humble'

There's not much more of itself I can say. Seeing as humbleness is the most difficult thing to achieve in this world, it's no wonder so many of us claim to have achieved it. Let me tell you something, if you thought to yourself after reading the above line, that you were humble, then definitely you are not.

Being humble comes without realization and it is probably one of the greatest gifts one can receive. While I am by no means an expert on this particular topic, heck I'm not even a novice, I do know what happens if you aren't humble and trust me it isn't all that great.

I wanted to write more but I think I'll stop now. Seeing as most of you probably have school the next day, I've probably made you late for your first day. Still I'm glad I could share this with you, seeing as the true significance of this post is far more than what it appears to be. Till next time.