Looking in the Mirror

Life is truly a fragile existence, throughout which we push the limits of acceptability, morality, and truth.

I recognize my youth, and place a value on that simple reality alone unlike anything else in my life. I have found that I have a natural tendency to abuse this beautiful fact. Unconsciously, I've created a mindset in which I believe that I can make mistakes, do the unthinkable, push down the wrong path at  a million miles an hour, all the while knowing that this is not the path for me and that I am taking strides in a direction that I am likely to regret. Yet I have concluded that subconsciously I had convinced myself that I have ample time to recover and completely revive myself from the misery I may or may not cause myself, as well as those around me who are to be effected by my actions.

I have recognized the fault in this line of thinking, and I am lucky to have done so.

The thing about life is that we only get one. As I write that I think perhaps we may not have only one life, yet who knows more than this life? If there are lives beyond the one we live now, we will not know any better until we are no longer living this one. So we are forced to live life bearing the belief that this is our one and only existence, at least on this earth.

Why then, I ask, should we abuse this life? Should we not cherish this beautiful, vast, limitless state of being with which we have been given?

Yet I see a paradox in the midst of all of these cold truths and ideas. Throughout my seventeen years, I've heard echoes of a single concept which I took little heed of until recently. Some version of the statement, "Some people have to learn the hard way".

So essentially, in this life which is limited only by time, which we strive to make the absolute most of, is doomed by the fact that we as a human race are too stubborn to heed the warnings of others and avoid our own hardships. When I look back upon my life, as I'm sure you reading this can as well, I can quickly discern my failures and dissapointments, and I can easily distinguish a line of reasoning and choices that would've efficiently avoided the hardships I've dealt myself. Despite the fact that I have been able to recognize this fact my whole life through, I've continued to make mistakes, I have continued to deal my emotional and physical self devastating blows. The reasons behind each mistake vary, and each failure has been unique to itself. Whether I did something wrong with all of the possible consequences and results in mind, or I made a terrible mistake out of ignorance, there is a persistence of failures throughout my life.

I propose that this is life's greatest tragedy, and at the same time I believe it is at the core of what makes our lives beautiful. I firmly believe that hardship is the one and only forge of greatness. Only through mistakes, bad decisions, wrongdoing and heartache, are we able to gain the strength necessary to achieve greatness. Men of strength rarely hail from pampered, sheltered lives.

I also believe it necessary to accept your own faults in this journey to success. You will intentionally make bad decisions, varying in degree, with the thought that you can succeed in life while doing these wrong things. You will fail. When you fail it is of the utmost importance to recognize, and accept that you have done wrong, and that you have failed miserably in the pursuit of whatever it may be that you were pursuing. Come to an understanding with yourself that you are a flawed being, and that you are the only one in this vast universe that can and will improve upon your faults. No one on this earth will push you to greatness. Nobody is going to come into your life, come to terms and dominate your demons for you. Your fate rests alone on your shoulders, and the story of your life, good or bad, is up to you.

Consider, and accept, exactly who you are. Then, ask yourself if you are proud of the person you have determined that you are. From there the decision is yours. Do you strive to improve upon your faults? Or do you ride the current of ease and continue on in this singular life accepting that you could be better than you are, and you are the one stopping that reality from coming to beautiful fruition.