From: Life To: You

     I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve questioned why certain things happen. There are times that I know I have the answers to my own questions yet I question in hopes that my answers will be wrong and that someone will give me another answer. I’ve learned the hard way that even though that’s what I want, life doesn’t work that way, yet I still question again and again.

     It seems that my asking is a habit, a bad one too. We cannot change the past, we can only change the future by acting on the present.  Nobody said life was easy, but no one ever told me life could be so hard either. Why? Because you learn on your own after you fall time after time, after time.

     I consider myself an optimist, those around me do so as well. Sometimes they ask me how it is that I keep on smiling. Is it because I have a good life? A happy life? Am I just so weird to see the happy side? Or am I just so cold hearted that I don’t care? You can say it’s a little bit of all, the reason why I’m an optimist is because I want a better tomorrow. Cheesy, but true.

     I don’t have the life that many think I do. I like many other people all around the world have my own share of problems. I’ve fallen more times than I can think of, but I always get back up again one way or another. One time I remember I was sitting on a bench when a woman approached me and asked me what was wrong. “Nothing.” I’m sure she knew something was wrong, perhaps my stare at the distance, my expression and she told me “God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.” I wont say that I am the most devoted Christian, nor am I the type of person to go everyday to church. I like to think of my relationship with religion as my own but I never forgot those words that woman said to me a few years back.

     I’m an optimist, I can see the other side. I’m also human. I dislike to question what life throws at us every now and then. Sometimes I feel like life throws thing after thing and I feel like it’s too much to take. The beauty comes when no matter how many things are thrown at me, I find a reason to smile. Today I smile because I’m alive, because I still have someone in my life. I smile because no matter what we’ll get up, it may not be tomorrow but we’ll get up. Life is painfully beautiful.

Smile because you are alive. =)

– Casper

Don’t (Do) Talk to Strangers

     I think that we all got the talk about strangers when we were little. The same hold today, children are told the same thing, and for many good reasons too.

     As we grow older we begin to move away from that as we start to talk to strangers almost on a daily basis: school, store, work, park and even online. I’ve been chatting for a few years now, it might just be me but chatting seems to have changed dramatically over the years. I’m not referring to the new technology that enable us to play games or share pictures as we chat but rather what people look for in a conversation. One of the primary reasons as to why I stopped going into chat rooms was because people didn’t seem to look for someone to chat with who lived who knows where. Some years back people were more into having actual virtual conversations that didn’t start with uncomfortable words or questions. Per haps it was because not everyone had access to the internet, or something entirely different. Not to mention the screen names that are in use, you know those rated R ones.

     It doesn’t matter what chatting service you use, there will always be some rated R screen name user trying to bug you with questions or links or a mix of both and in between.

    There seems to be some sort of ‘hope’, and I say sort of because nothing is ever safe or even bug free 100%. Say hello to Omegle with their slogan as “Talk to strangers!”. it’s a very simple yet effective service. There is no signing up, when you’re ready to chat you are randomly connected with another stranger. If at any point you feel like you want to stop talking to this stranger you just have to click the ‘disconnect’ button. You are then given an option to connect again with someone new.

     The service has been available for a few months now and it seems to be gaining popularity. I’ve used it a few times myself and it’s a fun service. Sure you might meet the weird person who also bugs you but there is also a good chance you might meet someone who actually wants to have a ‘normal’ conversation.

  Of course keep in mind that safety should be a priority. Have fun using Omegle, who knows I might even  come across someone that reads this blog.

Smile because some strangers are nice.

-Casper

Friendship

     I’ve been meaning to write this for a few days now. As some of you may know Friendship Day was last Sunday and it was my first year saying, “Happy Friendship Day”.

     We have many friends, technology has given us an  opportunity to extend our friendship circles with chatting and networking with people from all over the world. This got me thinking of how loosely we use the word ‘friend’. Of course you can say that there are many definitions of ‘friend’ and I would agree with you on that.

     What has come to my attention lately is how many people I refer to as ‘friends’ when in reality I have a select few who I would consider to be my actual friends. These are people that I’ve known for some time, wonderful people that have been with me during times of achievements and times of tears. These are the people that I trust, for me to trust someone is a big deal. When I think of them they never ask for anything in return (except a cookie here and there), they’re always there for me, always.

     There are times that I feel selfish because I feel like I’m always bugging them like mosquitos on a summer’s eve. Not to mention the times my bad mood gets the best of me while I’m with them. But you know, they stay with me even if only to tell me, “wench, get over it”, but hey that actually works.

     I’m not an easy person to understand, I’m sure my own friends don’t understand me sometime but boy do they try. I’ve heard many say that they have the best friends in the world, maybe in their own little worlds. Me? I claim to have the best friends anyone can ask for and here are a some reasons why:

1.     You ask your friend to make you cookies but they end up as “pookies” (a giant burnt crispy pancake looking blob of what was supposed to be a cookie) but you eat them anyway because they’re “pookies”.
2.     Your friend volunteers to help you stand on your hands by holding your legs. It’s not their fault you look funny, so they let go and you fall on your head leaving you with bruises and aches for many days.
3.     Your friend lets you throw ice cubes at their head. Did I mention water balloons? Oh and they also let you win games to make you feel like you feel good.
4.    When your friend joins you on a mission to scare people off elevators.
5.    When your friend joins you for a doughnut that you stuff with candy, drink chocolate milk and have ice cream on a winter’s day all in under ten minutes. Did I mention sugar crash?
6.   When you fall on your face after chasing a squirrel to have your friend laugh at you till they cant breathe no more and ask you an hour later if you’re ok.
7.   When you feel like making a fool of yourself by dancing like an idiot on the sidewalk of a big street. Oh and your friend doesn’t wan you to be the only dork in the city that carks honk at.
8.    When you go on a 4 hour trip by bus (when it takes 20 mins by car) to go to a mall (when you can go to a mall 5 mins away) on the hottest day of the year but your friend doesn’t want you to be the only dehydrated lunatic in the state.
9.    When you talk about cheese and your friend understands you. You know, because cheese is not cheese or cheese.
10.    When your friends bring up that one thing you said in high school that made everyone turn to look at you (which you’re still trying to explain why you said it in the first place).
11.    When your friend didn’t care how cold it was outside because they wanted to see a shooting star with you.
12.    When you talk with your friends for hours and hours and yet you can think of a million things to keep talking about.
13.    When you or your friends get you addicted to something e,g Facebook, games, etc.
14.    When you and your friends create “code words” and you laugh when other people say those words and you or your friends say “You don’t get it.”
15.    When your friend thinks what you’re thinking in a very scary way, e.g. dressing almost if not exactly alike, saying the same things, etc.
16.    When your friend says they will: throw a shoe at you, poke you, kick you, or even eat you when you say something lame.
17.    When you get cheered for leaving Quack Quack town, and hugged if you return. Just for knowing what Quack Quack town is.
18.   When you have a friend who will listen to your problems, even if your friend is the problem.
19.   For smiling and finding some sick/weird/silly/smart way of making you smile/laugh when you are more emo than emo Elmo.
20.  When your friend is not just a friend but considered to be your family.

     It doesn’t have to be August 2nd to say Happy Friendship Day. If you have a wonderful friend let them know how great they are. Be creative! At the very least send them an email with some things on why they are great and important to you. Might not be the biggest or brightest thing but it I bet it will make them smile. Hey that’s something they’ll remember and cherish.

Smile because you have a friend.

-Casper

It’s August

      Seems like it was yesterday when I was celebrating the new year. Well would you look at this, it’s August. More than half the year has passed by and a new year is just around the corner. Fall for some reason seems to go by quickly, maybe its because of all the holiday smoosh that goes on at that time of the year. A new school year is about to start as well and with that comes more hours awake trying to solve problems that I assigned to myself the moment I registered for classes. I just finished my two week mini vacation. Most of my family had what you would call an actual vacation, me I stayed home.

     Staying home was lovely, who am I kidding? It was GREAT. I cleaned the house from floor to ceiling the first days and the rest I baked cupcakes, practiced my cooking, watched movies with full blast surround sound (left me a little deaf), had a sleep over, went on random trips for ice cream, and the best of all I had time for myself THAT is what I call vacation.

       I do admit that a small getaway to somewhere farther would’ve been nice but I needed time alone to think, to reflect, to try and understand things that well I still can’t. I’ve come to a small conclusion that there are things in life that just cant be understood at least fully. Who knows I might change my mind about this later (I tend to do that).

     Anyway originally I was gonna write about the fact that I couldn’t or rather didn’t know what to write for these last two weeks. Funny how I started to write right here. So I’ll keep it short for tonight and wish all who read this a happy August. Hopefully you started this month happy and on the right track and if you didn’t you’ve got a whole month to try.

Happy August, and Happy Friendship Day!

Smile because a new month brings a new start!

-Casper