Ignorance is Bliss...

I used to live in a happy world, one where nothing could go wrong and everything was colored in pink. (Or in my case, blue.) Things used to be so easy, and I would never have a worry. Sure, bad things happened to me now and then, but it was never anything to change my personal view of the world. And, of course, worse things were happening outside of my surrounding world such as wars and violence. However, I never thought these things would hit me. Call me naïve, and maybe I was, but 2011 has come bearing a very unpleasant gift – a wakeup call.

In what little has gone by of the year, 24 days as of today, so many things have happened that have brought that happy world of mine crumbling down. I always knew that there was violence and criminality, but I chose to ignore it thinking it would never happen to anyone I cared about, including myself.

So far… there are a total of 79 murders in Puerto Rico alone, in what little has gone by of the year. January isn’t even over, and we’ve already got a high toll of deaths on our hand, and I’m only counting those lives that were taken by other people, needless to say the amount rises even more if we count those who have died of diseases, old age, etc.

The first death of the year was tragic, to say the least. “Don’t shoot a gun into the sky on New Year’s Eve to celebrate because one of the stray bullets can end up killing someone.” They say this every year and repeat it so much that you get tired of hearing it… and yet, people do it. The first death this year in PR was “won” by a helpless 14 year old child. How it happened is what makes you feel like crap, though. The kid was celebrating the new year with his father. When they were walking outside around 12:14am, the kid just dropped to the floor. Upon closer inspection from his dad, it was discovered that a stray bullet had penetrated his skull. Sad way to start the year right? Well it only gets worse…

One of my best friends was robbed the other night. Two guys blocked his path down a street with their own car, came out of the car, pointed a gun at him, and made him move over to the passenger’s seat. Needless to say, they stole all of the valuables that he had with him. They even asked him to take them to his house so they could rob there too, luckily, that didn’t happen though.

Just the other night two houses from my neighborhood were broken into and robbed as well. In broad daylight too… Up in a more rural area, where half of my family lives, they reported to us that there have been people breaking into houses and stealing too.

I simply couldn’t believe, or rather said, can’t believe, that so many things have happened in so little time. Why is there so much crime in the world? Why are there so many murders? Robberies? What do people do to deserve these things? I STILL can’t believe how there can be people inconsiderate enough to threaten someone, take all their belongings, and kill the person. I’ve been asking myself these questions a lot lately, and I can’t find a logical answer to them. There is no reason to take another human being’s life… NO ONE has that privilege except for God… and we are not God to determine who dies and who doesn’t.

I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news… but something has to be done and there has to be a stop to this. It’s getting out of control and it seems as if no one was doing anything to stop it. I know a lot of people think the same way I do… but no one does anything. People say there is nothing we can do, and perhaps they are right, but I’m not going to stay quiet. Can no one see what a peaceful world would be like? No murders? No robberies? Everything would be a lot better…

I wish I could go back to the world I used to live in, that happy, innocent, safe world. But I can’t… as much as I’d like to… I just can’t seem to see the world the same way I did before. The world is slowly crumbling, and we’ve only got ourselves to blame.

A Triumpant Return...

So... how long has it been since I last posted here? Quite a while huh? Ah well, at least I came back, even though it might only be for this one post. (Hopefully I'll make this a habit again. xD )

Anyway, a few things have happened recently that made me want to write about something. As many of you know... friendship is very important to me. And, although it's not right... I sometimes think I value my friends more than I do my family. I consider people to be my friends very quickly, and I trust too easily... which can come back up and bite me in the ass, and it has, but I'm a very slow learner on this subject. I don't know why I am this way though. I can consider someone a friend on the first day I met that person. Trusting people comes pretty easily to me as well.

However, I suffer a lot of pain thanks to all of this. The reason why is because people don't see friendship the same way I do, or at least, very few people see it that way. While I could be considering someone a friend, they might be considering me an acquaintance. This happens a lot, very frequently actually... Sometimes I do wish that people would see me as a friend as much as I see them as a friend.

That brings me to another topic: I try my very best to be as friendly as possible to someone. I will do almost anything for a friend, even if it's something that's not good for me. Something like waking up at 8 am when I went to sleep at 6 am, to go pick that person up from God knows where and take that person back home, or keep them company, etc. I may not be able to literally BE there for everyone all the time, but I do try my hardest.

Now... why do I try my hardest to please my friends? Even those that I have just met? Well... it makes me happy to know that I helped a friend. Even if the person doesn't say thank you, or doesn't feel very thankful, it just makes me happy to know that I did something for someone that I care about.

I don't know why I'm writing this here, of all places... but I guess I just wanted to express how I feel about friendship. Even if it doesn't mean anything to anyone... at least I took the time out to analyze this whole thing and write it. I hope that this will also show people who don't know me much, why I am the way I am sometimes, and why I do the things that I do and say what I say.

Inspiration...

So, I'm writing here again. After I've been away for so long. Weird right? XD Nah, I haven't given up on this yet.

Anyway, I was just in my English class, and it was boring... as hell. We did an essay, which I finished early, and had the rest of the class to do whatever I so pleased to do. So I broke open my laptop and began to write. Or... well... look through a few things so that I could get inspired to write. Was I inspired to write anything productive? Not really. It's more like to let you guys (or better said, myself) know that I haven't given up and that I really am devoted to this.

I'm about to go into my next class, which I hate, Ciso. What will I do there? Probably fall asleep as I usually do. Anyway, until next time.

Even the Mightiest Warrior Needs Allies...

WOW... what a way to end the night... So, everyone was leaving church to so we could go hang out like we usually do after church. Jenny and I got into our car and were ready to go, some had already gottena head start. When I put the key in the ignition and turn it, the car doesn't start... at all...

So we're sitting there, hoping it's something silly or stupid that we could fix quickly so we could catch up with the rest of the gang that had already taken off, luckily, two or three of my friends were still there. In fact, one of them knows something about cars, though his specialty is in air conditioning...

Anyway, we tried everything we could to get the car started, but let's face it, besides Angel's (the guy I just mentioned) knowledge of automobile air conditioning, there's no one else that knew much about cars.

So, another friend calls me to see if we were already on our way. My point in this blog starts here, one of my friends actually called me just to see if I was on the way there or not. So, I tell him what happened, and he told that to the person next to him. I get another call in a few seconds, from the person who was driving that car, and he tells me that he's coming over to see if he can help with the car. By the way, everyone else had left church except for us, who were still messing with what little we knew about the car.

To my complete surprise, I don't see one car coming toward us to help... I see everyone that had already left, everyone that was already almost to the destination, come in at the same time. My point? They ALL came back, just to see what they could do with my car.

As soon as I saw all of those cars returning... I thought to myself: "Wow... instead of one or two people coming to help and the rest staying to have fun, they ALL came to help... I have REALLY good friends." As soon as I thought that, a slip crawled up on my lips.

So we're all there, staring at the inside of my car the way a bunch of non-educated farmers would look at a highly technological alien space ship... None of us had ANY idea what to do with the car. It didn't matter to me that none of them knew what to do to help, in fact, it made me feel better because I knew I wasn't the ONLY one there who didn't know anything about car mechanics. It only mattered to me that they were there to at least give me moral support.

In a worst case scenario, they were prepared to take me to my house (sure, I don't live too far apart from them, but it was still almost 1AM...) Some of them started to play soccer (at night...) with a ball... (which they lost...) but I didn't mind at all that they were having fun, in fact, I preferred it. It meant that I wasn't taking away all of the fun that they were going to have.

And that's all I wanted to say. I'm proud to say I have GREAT friends who wouldn't ditch me in my time of need. Thanks to you all. :)

The Soldier Returns...

I promise, I haven't abandoned my blog, and I really hope I don't either. I'm hoping this thing lasts a good long while. :)

So, lots has been going on lately, including college, Perfect World, reading (yes, I'm actually reading.)and even writing. I'm going to submit a short story into a contest in college, problem is, I only have about a week left to write it... well let's see how that goes.

So, once again, I promise, I'll write here again sooner or later. Though that promise is more to myself than to anyone else, considering I barely have any readers. ^^;

The Storming Brain...

I've been meaning to post here... no really... I have. I just haven't gotten a good topic to write about. And I've been doing so much stuff lately that I can't find enough time to sit and actually think up of a good topic to write about. However, I have a few good topics I would like to develop within a bit of time. :)

For example, how someone who's born into a rich family and provided everything they want, will ultimately be a failure compared to someone who has to work for everything they've gotten in their lives. (Of course, there are some exceptions, I just wanted to state the topic) It came to me during my Humanities class because the professor was talking about something similar.

Hopefully I'll further develop what I want to write about that topic, and wrote some other things up here soon enough.

To be or not to be…

So, who here has seen James Cameron’s Avatar? (Don’t worry, there will be no spoilers.) So, if you haven’t seen the movie yet, what are you waiting for? It’s a great movie and I highly recommend you watch it.

Now that that’s over, I’ll get on to what I really wanted to state here. I heard recently that lots of critics are blaming the movie for quite a few suicide cases lately. See… the thing is, that apparently there are some people that see the movie, and love it sooo much they wish they could live IN the movie. What happens is, they tell the world that they’re going to commit suicide because they can’t live in the world of Pandora (the planet from which the Na’vi ((theblue people)) are from.) They fall so in love with the animated world that when the 2 and a half hours of the movie are over, an immense depression comes over them because there is no way to live in Pandora, because it’s all fiction.

Now, my opinion, is that this is all just crazy. I mean, I respect other people’s opinions and thoughts, but are you really going to commit suicide just because you’re living in the normal world? How many other countless movies have come out with fictitious worlds and universes? Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc. Just because we can’t live in them doesn’t mean we should kill ourselves.

I admit, Pandora is surely an insanely pretty and awesome place, and the Na’vi, though I found them kinda ugly at first, become more attractive as you get used to the movie, and the entire world that is Pandora becomes VERY addicting and lovable… but that doesn’t mean you should lose sight of reality.

Whether it’s all a scam to get people to stop watching Avatar (though, I don’t know about the U.S. and other countries, but here in Puerto Rico, three weeks after the release and even today, the tickets are still sold out for that movie…) or whether it’s really happening, we can’t really blame the movie or James Cameron. He did an EXCELLENT job directing the movie and the animators did a wonderful job creating Pandora. I must admit every person who pitched in to that movie should be rewarded accordingly.

The whole reason for this post, is that I can’t seem to believe that some people would actually consider suicide just because they want to live in a different world. Trust me; committing suicide isn’t going to get you anywhere pretty… We need to keep a grasp on reality and keep in check with the world that we live in. We can love and dream about places like Pandora and other fictitious worlds from movies and books, but that’s all we can really do, dream, wonder, and imagine. We can’t really pretend the world to be something like that, because reality will come crashing down on us pretty badly. If you TRULY want to live in a world like that, I suggest a number of things, write about it, make your own fanfiction, draw, draw yourself as a Na’vi, etc. There are countless possibilities to express your creativity and to “live” in that world, all you have to do is keep a hold on reality while leaving a small space for loving these places.