...on being sick

Personally, I don't ever realize how grateful I am to be a healthy human being (well, as healthy as I am) until the times that I get sick. When I am sick, I feel sorry for myself and vow that I will do the best I can to take care of myself. But it seems that every time I get over being sick and I am back to my normal self, I forget about what it felt like to feel horrible and I continue to go through life without taking basic precautions, such as wearing the appropriate layers of clothing or getting the right amount of sleep. Today, I did not go to school due to my sickness, and I would just like to record my thoughts so that I can remember them instead of always forgetting how I feel afterward: taking care of yourself should be your first priority. Previously, my priorities were always work and success above all else. But now, I know that health matters the most. Without the ability to take care of oneself, how will other things in life get accomplished? By being in a healthy state—physically and mentally—everything will be able to be completed at a higher productivity rate. When I am an adult, I don't want a messed up sleep routine because I didn't get enough sleep during my teenage years. In a couple of years, the homework assignments that I didn't do won't matter. What matters is the person that I will become. I have to learn that it is okay to sacrifice not doing an assignment for better sleep. It is okay to not go to school for a day in order to re-energize. I would rather take care of myself in the long run than fret about things that won't matter in the future.

j.j.

[happy valentine's day!]

deep & meaningful

An important aspect of life that is often taken for granted is communication. Nowadays, in our society, we talk too much about nothing. (And our complaints...Why that could be a separate blog post!) Rarely do I see conversations that involve a deep exchange of words. Perhaps that's because of the setting that I'm always in; which is high school. But even then, I feel like high school is the prime time to think about the more paragraphical answers to life's questions. At this time, our brains are still developing and with meaningful conversations, it will only increase our growth. Partially, I feel like people are too judgmental. In many instances, I've seen students shorten the length of their answers during class discussions because they want to use up the least amount of air time as possible due to the fear of judgment. And it's clear when that is the case because you can see the critical looks between students when someone might be taking a more extensive route on explaining their answers. There should be no shame in explaining yourself thoroughly! I also believe that society has subconsciously forced us to make everything we do concise and to the point. There's always a shortcut. There's always some way that will get you the most success in the least amount of time. There is always going to be a more efficient way. And maybe that's a good thing in some circumstances. But I do not think that vital human connection should be the shortened version that you take. Today, someone said to me something along the lines of "just go talk to him. If you have all the cheat codes to the game, then what's the point?" And I really took that to heart. There are no cheat codes for simple communication. If you want to talk to someone, then just do it. Don't prepare with conversation starters found online or try to find information about them beforehand. (I'm guilty of both.) Even though communicating is so artificial nowadays, we can try to change that.

j.j.