(no subject)
So I guess my biggest mistake this year was taking Philosophy 2 Honors. At first everything was just a bunch of crap, but it's all starting to come together in these last few days. I won't go into detail and all the technical terms, but the most important thing I've learned it relativity.
Everything is relatively important. For example, grades. Don't get me wrong. Grades are important they ultimately determine the outcome and success, or lack there of, of your life. Grades are relative to the time. No one's going to be asking you in ten years what your GPA in the second term of your junior year was. While grades are relative, your education is not. What you walk away with intellectually and spiritually and apply later, is the thing that stays with you. Grades are something that is proof of what you've learned, making them relative to the time. But the lessons that you've learned that have no need to be proven, but rather just remembered are invaluable and stand the test of time.
Remember this when thinking of the way you live your life. I was reading something a historian wrote from her own personal perspective when she was employed by Lyndon B. Johnson during and after his presidency to record his memoirs. She was talking with him on the phone a few days before he died and said there were two things he regrets. The first was the way people associate him with the Vietnam War. The second was something much more profound. He said that he was reading a biography on Abraham Lincoln and trying to bring him to life. Not literally of course, but just trying to make a clear picture in his mind so that it would almost feel as though Abraham Lincoln was present. He was sad because he couldn't do it and he realized that if he can't even bring Abraham Lincoln to life, one of the greatest presidents ever, how are people ever going to be able to bring Lyndon himself to life? When he realized this, he was regretful for not spending those years he had spent in all his involvement with politics with the people that really mattered. Of course politics are important at the time, but relatively. Now all he had left of his life was too much time in the White House and not enough time with the people that really mattered.
It all sounds a bit cliche, but think about what you're doing. Think about who you're neglecting for things that are only relative to the here and now and won't really matter later down the road. Those books and teachers aren't going to remember all the time you spent with them, but the people you didn't spend time with are going to remember the absence of your presence.
Everything is relatively important. For example, grades. Don't get me wrong. Grades are important they ultimately determine the outcome and success, or lack there of, of your life. Grades are relative to the time. No one's going to be asking you in ten years what your GPA in the second term of your junior year was. While grades are relative, your education is not. What you walk away with intellectually and spiritually and apply later, is the thing that stays with you. Grades are something that is proof of what you've learned, making them relative to the time. But the lessons that you've learned that have no need to be proven, but rather just remembered are invaluable and stand the test of time.
Remember this when thinking of the way you live your life. I was reading something a historian wrote from her own personal perspective when she was employed by Lyndon B. Johnson during and after his presidency to record his memoirs. She was talking with him on the phone a few days before he died and said there were two things he regrets. The first was the way people associate him with the Vietnam War. The second was something much more profound. He said that he was reading a biography on Abraham Lincoln and trying to bring him to life. Not literally of course, but just trying to make a clear picture in his mind so that it would almost feel as though Abraham Lincoln was present. He was sad because he couldn't do it and he realized that if he can't even bring Abraham Lincoln to life, one of the greatest presidents ever, how are people ever going to be able to bring Lyndon himself to life? When he realized this, he was regretful for not spending those years he had spent in all his involvement with politics with the people that really mattered. Of course politics are important at the time, but relatively. Now all he had left of his life was too much time in the White House and not enough time with the people that really mattered.
It all sounds a bit cliche, but think about what you're doing. Think about who you're neglecting for things that are only relative to the here and now and won't really matter later down the road. Those books and teachers aren't going to remember all the time you spent with them, but the people you didn't spend time with are going to remember the absence of your presence.