thoughts
At the close of this past lovely semester at the University of Pennsylvania, I feel pretty rotten. Not because of the usual gripes over grades or guys, but because I neglected to send my cousin dearest a letter from Philly. I think I may do too good of a job projecting myself onto others, but the recent tsunami has really made me think a lot. In this international disaster, it's the personal stories that strike me the most. The news of Hindus in India settling for burial instead of cremation because the tsunami had also caused a wood shortage. The story of a mother losing her husband and four children only to remain in the water, clinging onto her 8 month year old, only to have that last piece of faith swept away from her too. Vacationing European children left alone in this world as their sunbathing families are torn from them. A young boy with nothing left in this world but a sign and the hope in his heart. Survival stories of those who clung on to trees and anything else rooted to the ground despite the strong waves.
In the end, we live and we die on our own terms. Mother Nature and fate can throw as many curves as they like, but we choose what to make of it. In the end our lives are no different than the rocks by the beach, there are low tides and there are high tides, and even hurricanes, typhoons, and tsunamis on occasion. Still, it is up to us to pick up where fate throws us, reconcile our differences, and rebuild what has long been given up for lost.
Those who know me better will know that recently there have been several chronic disasters plaguing my family. Hell, we could say for the last 18 years, or even for the last fifty. What I have lost is not luck nor smarts, but the will to fight.
Chin up and get that dirt off your shoulder.
In the end, we live and we die on our own terms. Mother Nature and fate can throw as many curves as they like, but we choose what to make of it. In the end our lives are no different than the rocks by the beach, there are low tides and there are high tides, and even hurricanes, typhoons, and tsunamis on occasion. Still, it is up to us to pick up where fate throws us, reconcile our differences, and rebuild what has long been given up for lost.
Those who know me better will know that recently there have been several chronic disasters plaguing my family. Hell, we could say for the last 18 years, or even for the last fifty. What I have lost is not luck nor smarts, but the will to fight.
Chin up and get that dirt off your shoulder.