I wonder

I wonder about the future.

I wonder about the past.

I wonder what would happen if we take things to fast

Should we take slow? Make our love grow

Infinite like a sequoia it’d live forever in our hearts

Nothing would tear us apart.

It’d be me and you no regrets and no fears.

We’d help each other wipe away the tears.

Just you and I. Forever intertwined.

This I wonder for it might not come true.

But at least in my mind there’s a me and  there’s a you.

Seeing as it was my birthday last night I decided to give a quick 23 thoughts on life in general. Here goes.

23 thoughts for my 23^rd year

1.     Life moves really fast. You have to step back and enjoy the things/people that make you happy.

2.     Family is really important. No one else will love you that much for just being you.

3.     Love yourself.

4.     Carry yourself in the manner you want to be treated in this world.

5.     You need a close circle of friends. Life sucks without them.

6.     A change of scenery is important to refuel your batteries.

7.     Try to get out of your comfort zone once in a while and try something new.

8.     Planning ahead is so vital in life.

9.     Without music life would be dead.

10. Kanye West is a psychopath but we love him in spite of and because of it.

11.  Never hate on someone else’s success. Be happy for people and you shall be happy.

12. You need a mentor in any path of life you choose to follow.

13. Make sure you’re thankful in all things.

14. Measure yourself against people you aspire to become.

15. Never let what people say to you affect you unless you feel it’s necessary criticism.

16. Only you can decide what you want from this life.

17. Always try to improve on yourself.

18. Try to exercise. Don’t let yourself become unhealthy and lazy.

19.  Mathematics is the worst subject in the world if you’re not a doctor or engineer or any job that needs math. Like seriously besides adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing what else do you use it for in your daily life? Nothing!

20. Explore the world.

21. Never be too disappointed when someone lets you down. They’re only human.

22. Don’t kill yourself when you make a mistake.

23.  I know now that I know nothing and my world keeps expanding everyday and I’m enjoying that.

Do We Owe It To Ourselves To Be Great?

CHUCKIE: Listen, you got somethin' that none of us have.                                       

WILL: Why is it always this? I owe it to myself? What if I don't want to?

If you didn’t know the above scene is from one of my favorite movies, Good Will Hunting. The movie stars a pre famous Matt Damon as the titular ‘Will Hunting”.  A young man whose rare genius is dwarfed by his fear of realizing his full potential. Will is relatively content with his life as a poor laborer and his Neanderthal friends even though he is clearly their superior intellectually and could use his smarts to get himself a better life if he chose to.

During the final third of the movie “Chuckie” played by Ben Affleck tells Will that he needs to leave his life behind and go do something great as he (Will) is being held back by his friends. In the movie Will decides to say “screw it” and go after the girl he loves instead of trying to become the man that would get a job that would put his talents to full use.

This leads me to seg-way into the topic. Do we really have to be great if we don’t want to? Does great power truly come with great responsibility?

We see these questions pop up in most superhero movies where our protagonists become blessed with extraordinary abilities and they then take it upon themselves to become the saviors of mankind or the protectors of their hometowns.

To be really honest if I was blessed with superpowers I do not believe the first thing to pop into my head would be saving the world. I believe I’d try and better my situation first.

Let’s take a simpler example. It’s Christmas time and your parents give you a brand new bicycle. You ride it all the time until one day you decide to stop. It’s not that you don’t like the bicycle anymore you just don’t want to ride anymore. DO you have a responsibility to keep on riding that bicycle because your parents got it for you? What if you didn’t want a bicycle? (Don’t try that in Nigeria though. Most parents will expect you to ride that bicycle till you break it)

That’s how a lot of “gifts” operate. They aren’t necessarily things we want but we get them anyway. We’re stuck with them. We can’t return them only not utilize them.  So I ask again: must we reach our full potential if we really don’t want to?

Now you might ask, why would you not want to reach your full potential? And that really is a legitimate question. But the answer to the question might be more illogical than we thought. Maybe they’re just satisfied with where they are. Not everyone measures themselves to the high standards set by their parents and society. Should that be admonished? I believe not.

In life we have to do things that ensure we can sleep at night. We need to stop living for other people and live for ourselves. If anything the people that are satisfied with not utilizing their gift should be commended because at least in this life they know what they want to do. They should only be condemned if they keep bitching about not knowing what to do with their lives when they clearly have something in front of them they could use.

Let us try and live our lives for ourselves because that is the first step to satisfaction, which is the real happiness.

Agree? Disagree? Put it all in the comments below

Quick thought

I recently read the Watchmen comic books and I found myself asking this question: Is it ok to do a bad thing in order to prevent an even greater evil? On the one hand there was the “smartest man in the world” Ozymandias who believed in this statement and was willing to break the rules and even kill millions of innocents in order to save the world from itself. Then on the other hand we had the forever living in a black and white world Rorschach who believed to never compromise in the face of Armageddon. Now he was alone in this belief and the other heroes were willing to kill him in order to prevent him from revealing the truth.

So when is it right to “compromise”? When is it ok to not speak up? Is doing bad to prevent bad good? Is the world really black and white and if so why do we choose to live in this figment of our collective imaginations called the “grey area”?

First off I believe it’s just much easier as a society for us to not always do the “right thing” as Dumbledore said “we must all face a choice between what is right and what is easy” . The easier option is always going to be taken by humans, it’s in our nature to allow for the road more traveled on to be allowed to take the best option to suit our needs.

Also the world has allowed for it to be ok to accept the grey area when we don’t understand something fully. As a lawyer I’ve learnt to appreciate the fact that when the law is unsure about something we try to create what would be the most fair thing for the prosecution and defendant. So then what is a fair outcome to pusish a man that did an evil to prevent an evil? Should we punish him? Would it be right to punish a saviour?

Yes it would be. A crime is a crime no matter how we look at it. Why should we lower our standards when it suits us to lower them? Compromise is the beginning of the destruction of our beliefs. I would rather someone went out dying trying to preserve his stand on something than living a life of always bending to the whims of other peoples wishes in order to create fragile peace.

It is never right to not speak up when an injustice is done. Your silence only propagates more injustice in the world. In a world where we are always searching for heroes to save us why not be the person that steps up to be the best they can be. Not all heroes wear capes and our actions to make the world a better place are the only capes we have.  Always be the shining l light in the world that is full of darkness. If you didn’t know those are the lights that shine brightest.

Just a quick thought on something I read recently

Let me know what you think in the comments below.