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I believe everything happens for a reason. I recently started believing this statement when I received heartbreaking news on my Kairos retreat.

It was late and snowing when I was packing for the retreat. I was exhausted and wanted to go to bed because I was leaving early the next morning. I was going through each day's outfits when I realized I didn’t have a dress. I was missing my package of dresses that I had ordered for the retreat. In a panic, I went to the mailbox hoping it was there, but no luck. I looked to check where my package was and it said it had been delivered two days ago. I looked at my front door, garage door, through our pile of mail but it was nowhere to be found. I soon realized that I had sent the package to my stepfather's house. I was beyond frustrated with myself. I left my dad's house to pick up my package. I trucked through the snow storm and finally arrived at my stepfather's house. As I walked in, I loved up my two dogs, Copper and Aspen. It was the first time that I had seen them in a while and all my frustrations went away when I saw them. I spent a couple minutes playing with them, but I had to grab my package and get back home before the snow got too bad.

What I didn’t realize was that was the last time I was going to see Aspen. On my second day of my trip I received a text message from my mom saying my dog had passed away in surgery due to an intrusive cancer. We didn’t even know she had cancer. I knew my dog was going to go to the vet but it was nothing I was supposed to be worried about. They discovered that she was internally bleeding and although we could have saved her, she would have been in a great deal of pain. It was best to let her go peacefully.

I fell to the floor crying and couldn’t stop for the rest of the night. I was heartbroken. When I got home from my retreat I was crying with my mom. We were extremely sad about the loss of my dog. I was so sad that I never got to say goodbye.

After some time, I had come to realize that my journey of picking up my package was my goodbye. It was a blessing in disguise. I was able to see her when she was still in high spirits and her same goofy self. Although I was extremely frustrated that I had to go get that package, looking back I am so thankful I made that mistake. If it wasn’t for that time, I would not have been able to see Aspen two days before she passed. I believe that I was meant to make that mistake, so I could see my dog one last time. I believe everything happens for a reason.

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By definition love is an intense feeling of deep affection. I believe in love. More specifically true love. I’ve always loved the idea of being married and having a big, extravagant wedding; just as the princesses I grew up watching had. I mean at such a young age who didn’t want that. Who didn’t want something that seemed so perfect and so pure. I grew up with single women all around me. My mom and dad were never married and broke things off before I was born. Although I was never surrounded by what I thought was true love. Within the past two years I realized that I have felt true love in a way that my younger self could not comprehend. When I think of true love the automatic thought that comes out my brain is between a couple that has a bond that seems impossible to ever break. A couple that would put whatever it is aside and embrace each other. A couple that even though they may see each other everyday they miss each other when they are apart. Yet I have a bond that seems impossible to ever break, I have put things aside and embraced someone, I have missed someone even though I see them everyday. I sometimes start to miss them even when I am with them. This someone isn’t someone I am romantically connected with. This someone is my mom and because of her I believe in true love. I believe that true love is real and possible even when it may feel so out of reach. Time after time I have been around heartbreak. I see it in my mom, my aunties, and my sister. One of the first things my mom ever said to me as I entered middle school and to my sister who at the time was going through one of her first of many heartbreaks is “If a boy likes a girl, he likes a girl”. It was not what my sister wanted to hear and as for myself at that moment I thought “why would I care about this, I haven’t even kissed a boy”. My mom told my sister and I that out of love. Not to keep us ever loving a boy because there was the slight chance he may like another girl but she told us this as a way for us to learn from the things that she didn’t understand at our age. It may be hard to accept that you are loved and  that to be loved doesn’t mean  that it needs to come from a man. In the world we live in, it's important to surround yourself with people who want the best for you and will tell you how it is even when it’s not what you want to hear. Because of the women in my life I believe in love. I believe that loving someone doesn’t need to be a significant other but can be your mom, your auntie, your sister, or even a friend that solely just wants the best for you. I believe in love. More specifically true love.

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I Believe the Only Constant Is Change - Josh Marsh

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I Believe the Only Constant Is Change - Josh Marsh

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I’m a big plant person. I love planting flowers and vegetables in the garden, I have 11 houseplants in my room that I take care of, I’m working at a plant nursery over the summer, and I’m getting a tattoo of my favorite flower on Friday solely because I love plants and flowers. Working with plants as much as I have has taught me two big life lessons: how to take care of something (with 0 consequences if it ends badly) and that change is inevitable and constantly occurring. Yes, in seasons where the leaves fall and come back again in spring, but also from day to day. If a plant gets too much sun and not enough water one day it’ll be wilted. If you water it, it will perk back up again, but if you water it too much, it’ll wilt again. Even throughout the day, some plants will slowly adjust their leaves and flowers to follow the sun.

Change is all around us and exists in things that are supposed to be unchanging. A tattoo, which the whole point is that it’s permanent, will fade, move, and stretch with time. While it may take thousands of years, the plastics in our landfills will decompose one day. Even old people, who are so resistant to change, are always changing. When discussing the writing prompt with a friend and brainstorming ideas, I mentioned my idea of change being the only constant. They replied, “Except when you’re old. Because when you get old you stop changing and life becomes monotonous.” I thought that was really sad. But also untrue. Old people can have new experiences, foster new friendships, and even find love in their old age. Even in death, the body (or what's left of it) still goes through changes. But for the sake of the argument, let’s say that life is terribly monotonous for an old person in a nursing home, each day is the same as it was before. Change still happens. Your nose and your ears never stop growing. It’s a small change, but a change regardless. It’s enough of a change, that you are never the same person as you were the day before.

This lesson of change being the only constant has become increasingly important lately. It only recently started to hit me that this is the last week of high school. We are on the verge of a huge change. Whether we are going off to college, going to a trade school, taking a gap year, or going straight into the workforce, our lives are changing in a big way (hopefully for the better). I was driving home from the grocery store last night, listening to “Rivers and Roads” by The Head and The Heart, when the realization hit me that in a few weeks, there are people at this school that I will likely never see again. I’d say that that’s fair for most of us. That’s a sad change. It’s a scary change that the people we’ve shared the last four years of our lives with, will no longer be in our lives. But these big changes also signify something exciting, and the beginning of something new. It’s a new season, to plant new flowers, to grow new and interesting vegetables, and to spend some time in the sun.

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I believe in making the little things big - Grant Foust

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I believe in making the little things big - Grant Foust

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I believe in making the little things big.  For the majority of my life, I was living day-to-day and not really deeply thinking about any aspect of my life.  This all changed late-sophomore year when I grew a new perspective on life and everything that comes with it.  As a kid, my dad would always tell me to checkout the moon or the stars and I would shake him off and say, “It’s the same moon that’s up there every night”.  I didn’t realize that changing my way of life regarding appreciation would open my eyes to a whole new world.

Something that has worked very well for me over the years is to try to celebrate small achievements and tiny positive things in your day just like how you would celebrate a huge accomplishment or something very big in your life.  Any positive thing in your life is worth celebrating because just moving in a positive direction is a success in and of itself. These small things don’t have to necessarily be things that you do or you accomplish, these things can also be something such as a pretty sunset or a cool looking butterfly that you see fly by. There are countless beautiful things in the world that are worth taking time out of your day to appreciate. Maybe just a nice and sunny summer day is something that is worth celebrating because that is a positive thing happening in your life. The more we celebrate every little success in our lives, the easier it will be to deal with hardships and negative outcomes or situations. By using this method I have learned how to maximize my happiness in life and it has noticeably made my life so much more positive.

Every single day I try to take as many pictures of nature and its beauty as much as I can. A cool view, a pretty sunset or sunrise, or an exotic animal are things that can make my day and things that I enjoy, so I try to maximize the effect that those things have on my life. This doesn’t apply to everyone though, not everyone will get so excited about the way the sun looks or a breeze at the park. It may be other things like making a three pointer in basketball or making a good catch in football. No matter if you’re the best player at the school or someone just playing for fun, you should let any positive events have an impact on your day because any movement in a positive direction is a good thing. Letting things easily have a positive impact on you will increase your dopamine levels and will help you cope with tougher times better because you have so many things to look forward to in your day.

If you are someone who truly can’t find something that they are passionate about or that makes them happy in their everyday life, that is OK. Everyone has something that makes them happy, it’s just a matter of when they discover it in their journey in life. Long story short, any size of victory is a victory worth celebrating and any positivity in your life should be milked to its fullest extent. Everyone has a different path in life and not everyone will have the same amount of positives in their day or things to be happy about, but no matter who you are or where you come from, there is always something to be happy about.

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I live my life by the belief that “‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take’ -Wayne Gretzky” -Michael Scott. I take every opportunity that comes my way because you never know if you’ll get another chance. I have been living this mindset since I was in diapers.

When I was young, my mom would often take me to the park. She still remembers this specific park we went to when I was one. I was a pretty small child so when I insisted on going down the biggest slide at the park, everyone was shocked. I climbed to the top of the playground and stood at the edge of the slide. All of the other mothers at the park were concerned. Sentiments such as: “Who’s baby is that?!” and “She’s too small for that one” echoed around the park. But I sat down and zoomed down the slide, and my mom didn’t stop me.

I have never been the person that passed up an opportunity to try something new and exciting. When I was eight I went on a zipline, and when I was 15 I jumped off of a bridge into a river with the encouragement of my grandma. I am extremely afraid of heights. When I was 13 my older cousin invited me to hang out with her friends. They were all older than me and it was a big deal to be invited to hang out with them, at least in my mind. We all went out on this boat that belonged to the oldest one in the group. Once we got to the middle of the lake, he asked if anyone wanted to wake-surf. No one else volunteered, but I wasn’t about to turn down this opportunity. I had never done it before, and I had no idea when I would get the chance again. I was the only one who got in the lake that day.

The fall of eighth grade I had the opportunity to try curling. Yes, the Olympic sport with the brooms and rocks. I went to the workshop and once it ended I joined an official youth team. I got shoes and my own broom, and started playing in tournaments with teams from out of state. I even traveled to Seattle for a tournament. My team came in second place, losing the championship game to the other team from my club.

Sometimes this lifestyle becomes tiring and I occasionally end up kicking myself for getting involved. This past Good Friday I participated in a twenty-one mile pilgrimage from St. Francis Cabrini Catholic Church to Mother Cabrini shrine. I signed up because a few of my friends were doing it. I had also been interested in doing something like it for the past few years, and with college I didn’t know if I would get another chance. It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done and I have no desire to do it again.

I attempt to live my life in a way that will never allow me to look at my past with regrets or could-have-beens. Although I don’t always end up enjoying the opportunities that I partake in, a majority of the time I have a great time and learn something new. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” I have lived my entire life by this principle and I have so many amazing stories from my experiences because of this.

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I believe in taking a break - Owen McCarter

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I believe in taking a break - Owen McCarter

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I believe in taking a break. In today’s society overworking is overvalued. People wake up, work all day, and go to sleep. No one has time to relax anymore. Every single person has and will experience being burnt out. Doing the same thing, every day, all day, over and over and over again, weeks on end. Living like this can’t be good for your mental health, right? My father does restoration work on cars. On top of that he was in charge of hiring new doctors at an urgent care. He worked both jobs nonstop, every day would be buying cars, setting up an interview, getting registration, driving to an office, renewing plates, looking at resumes, finding parts, calling residencies, fixing, conducting an interview, finding buyers, getting the right paperwork, selling, hiring or rejecting. Every day, every week, constantly. Extremely exhausting. I remember coming to the shop one day with my mom to find my dad slumped over next to a tool box, asleep. He had been working every day, all day, the past week and was beyond burnt out. My mom woke him up long enough to drag him to the car and take us home. He slept the next thirteen hours. This continued for weeks, months, and years. I watched my dad slowly break down. He got fat, his cheeks sunk in, and bags formed under his seemingly permanently glazed over, unfocused eyes. He was in a perpetual state of exhaustion. This continued for months. I rarely saw him. Then one day something changed. He quit his work at the urgent care and everything turned up. He started training for a triathlon. He got in shape, looked happy, healthy, and the life returned to his eyes. He talked to his family again, did fun things, and ate dinner with us. He was a new man. Ever since that day eight years ago, my dad has been one of the happiest, easy going people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He had been overwhelmed with work for years and it had drained him. One day he sat me down and told me “son, it takes a strong man to keep working through tough times, but it takes an even stronger man to know when it’s time to step down.” It’s not quitting if you are doing it to take care of yourself. I’ve applied this lesson to nearly everything in my life. If I’m feeling overwhelmed, overworked, or stuck I take a break. I’ll go outside and smell the roses. I’ll take a nap. I’ll read a book. I’ll play some video games. People now think that if you aren’t working you are wasting time. If you can’t make money on something, learn from something, or pick up a new skill from something it is worthless. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Not everything needs a reason. Things can be for fun, or to relax. Taking a break when needed doesn’t mean that you are lazy, or unproductive, or weak. It means that you take care of yourself.

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Since a young age, I have always possessed many friends. I always believed that if I loved and cared for someone that would mean they would love and care for me. This has been proven to not be the case.

In eighth grade, I was dating Mia Mowers. The relationship wasn’t taken seriously by any of my friends due to the fact that she was my best friend’s twin. Despite others' opinions, we made it work. I would have my grandpa drive me down to Stapleton every weekend, and we would watch movies, go on bike rides and just laugh together. Life was great. Before long, I realized that Mia had my heart, but even with me claiming so my friends disapproved of the relationship. So, without my knowledge, my friends tried to split us up. They sent photos of me with other girls to her, sent fake screenshots of me cheating to her, and told her friends false rumors about me. They tried about anything possible to pin me and her against each other, and it worked. We fought, argued, and cried which eventually led to the end of our relationship. It was about two months later when her twin brother and my best friend, Will Mowers, told and showed me her side of the story. I saw pictures of me with girls that I never talked to more than once, photos of me from before our relationship, texts that were so obviously not my vocabulary, etc. Instantly, I knew it was the kids from my school. The following day I tried talking to the kids from my school. They laughed and jested about the fact we broke up, and I, finally, saw their true colors. They saw my first important relationship as a joke. That was the first time I realized that I was the only one who cared for me.

Flashforward to the Summer of Junior year, I am about to be a senior in high school. Life is good. One summer night a friend of mine threw a party. Everyone around me was devouring apple juice left and right. They played apple juice pong, took apple juice shots, and even just drank apple juice on the side as they watched others play. If you were there, you drank apple juice. I decided to have some apple juice. Before I knew it, I had lost consciousness and was functioning strictly off of apple juice. I thought I was having fun at the party, until I woke up in the ER. 0.3% of my blood contained apple juice, the fatal amount. My family explained to me that I was found in the middle of the road about two miles away from the party with blood dripping from my almost severed hand. Once capable, I called up my friends to ask what happened and they all responded with, “We saw you run off and couldn’t find you,”. I find out later they never even looked. I am now littered with unknown scars, have a hand that lacks a pulse, and a blank space of what happened that night. This was the second time I was the only one who cared for me.

If I didn’t hand out trust like it was nothing, both of these events wouldn’t have happened. I would’ve known and been in control of both situations, but because I trusted too much I lost vital pieces of myself. I will never let myself lose myself again. I will always stay in control because I am the only one who cares for me.

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A lot of people always dwell in the past or dwell in the future. I, personally, try my best to dwell in the present. You only get to experience the moment that you’re in one time, and one time only. If you spend your present dwelling in the past, it causes depression and regret. If you spend your present dwelling in the future, it causes anxiety and stress. I like to avoid those things. I like to live in the moment.

Life hits hard, and in the moments that it does you have to acknowledge it. Living in the moment allows you to take struggles and hardships that you face and deal with them head on. It helps you realize the importance of them and the effects that they have right now. Things like death, pain, suffering, and sadness will always happen, but these things are not things to be dwelled on, they are things to confront, realize, and overcome. Living in the moment allows you to turn death into a celebration of life. It allows you to take pain and turn it into strength by confronting it. It allows you to face suffering head on. And it allows you to realize the importance of sadness. Just as life has brought hardship, it will always continue to. Living in the moment allows you to not worry about what may happen, but appreciate what is happening right now. The moment you live in will not always be perfect, but you can make the best out of it at any time. You can’t make the best out of the past, and you can’t make the best out of the future. Only the now.

I believe that living in the moment is the greatest thing that one can do for themselves. Having a sense of presence and actuality is essential to well being. I also believe that it is something that does not get taken advantage of. Something as simple as taking a drive and seeing a sunset can become a beautiful moment, but only if one has a sense of presence in that moment. If you’re distracted because you’re worried about the future, or sad about the past, you could miss how beautiful that moment really is. This is not to say that you can’t ever think about the past or the future, because it is important to do so. This is to say that dwelling on those periods in time will never be beneficial, but I believe that taking in the moment always is.

There is a big difference between living in the moment, and just rolling with the punches. These can often be confused. Living in the moment requires presence and a sense of belonging. Rolling with the punches is just taking whatever happens in the moment, saying screw it, and moving on. That can also be unhealthy. You need to realize the importance of every moment, and not just dismiss it, regardless of what the moment might be. Once the moment is gone, there’s no changing it.

Every moment is precious and I believe that Master Oogway put it best when he said, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, and that’s why it is called the present.”

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I believe in the importance of being level-headed. I think this lesson applies to everything in life. Personally, it is most applicable in tennis. Tennis, as most people have probably heard, is a mental game. I never really understood what that meant until last year. As a singles player, it’s really easy to get swept up in my thoughts. The minute I forget about being level-headed and let my expectations consume me, I play so much worse. I understood the importance of being calm in times of stress, taking deep breaths before every serve and every point. When I get stressed, my whole body feels it. My legs get shaky, my hands sweaty, and my head dizzy. Reminding myself to breathe and be level-headed flips a switch in my body as well, becoming looser and more prepared to hit the ball in a way that won’t jeopardize my match. This concept applies to schoolwork too. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with the amount of coursework I receive sometimes, and more often than not if I notice I have a lot of homework piling up, instead of attacking it head on I avoid it and procrastinate. The stress and worry takes over and I ignore it until the last possible minute. By being level headed I can understand that I should get my work done early and I will feel so much better in the long run. This was never a lesson that was instilled in me, rather one that I learned over time. Personally I think these kinds of lessons have a bigger impact on me, because I’ve suffered the consequences of certain experiences and then I immediately learn from them. There are some lessons my parents try to pound into my head that have never stuck. It’s so easy to get caught up in a whirlwind of constant activity and stress. It’s like when it’s pouring down rain and you can’t really see anything when you’re driving but then you drive under a tunnel and all of a sudden everything stops. It’s quiet for a split second, your windshield isn’t filling up with water droplets. Being level headed is my tunnel, it’s my relief. Practicing taking deep breaths and repeating reassuring thoughts brings me stability and comfort. I can think more clearly and make wiser decisions when I’m level headed, which more positively impacts me. When my head is fuzzy, when I can’t think straight, when I act out of anger, things go south. Whether it’s relationships or situations, my mindset has a huge affect on the emotions I feel in that situation. By practicing being level headed my relationships have gotten better. I can better be there for others and devote my time to listening to them. When times get busy and overwhelming, I’m able to retreat to my level headed mind and feel calm and relaxed. As I stated previously, this lesson applies to a lot of situations. But in particular, tennis season is most pertinent right now. During a recent match, I was getting frustrated with myself. One major thing about singles is that all the blame is on you, there’s no one to pick up your slack on your off days and there’s no one there to encourage you. As soon as my mindset shifts and I get frustrated, it impacts the whole match. This is why it’s so important to maintain level headedness. This lesson is something I can carry with me through next year, and something that will impact every aspect of my life. I’m grateful that I came to understand this lesson.

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I believe in failure. Growing up, I didn’t have many challenges. My home life was good and my siblings and I did well in school. We were all avid readers, and I can remember reading massive 500 page books like Harry Potter in around a week or less. I didn’t fail much. There would be the occasional rough test or even a hard piano piece, but I would never hit a roadblock and my problems would usually go away as fast as they do in sitcoms. As I started to get older, school began to get harder, and I remember I got my first ever B in my 8th grade Algebra class. It hurt my perfectionistic ego at the time, but that class was trying to teach me a lesson I decided to ignore: mistakes are chances to learn and try again. That fall, I would start freshman year at Bishop Machebeuf High School, but before that, my brother and I started summer practice with the football team. Football was a really rude awakening. 14 year old Harrison had not had to struggle or fight that hard for anything in his life, and he had absolutely no mental toughness or grit. That freshman year of football knocked me down physically, mentally, and emotionally more times than I can count . The older football players seemed like bullies, knocking me down on the field and taunting me whenever they got the chance. I felt helpless. Eventually, there was nothing keeping me on the football team except my older brother. He insisted that it wasn’t that bad, that the same thing had happened to him, but I hated every second of it. But I knew that if I quit, I would be proving everyone right. So I kept my head down, worked hard, and just tried to keep moving forward. I kept showing up to practice, sometimes out of spite, and eventually, very slowly, it got easier. Shocking as it may seem, practice made me better. After a full offseason of lifting and practice, I got to start both ways my sophomore year. I’d learned how to keep going when I got knocked down. I believe in getting back up. That same year, my school announced the academic changes that would cause me to transfer. A few months later, COVID forced everyone into online school. Online school wasn’t much of a challenge at Machebeuf, but it was really difficult to transfer into Mullen and spend less than a semester in person with only half of the school. But this time I was prepared. I kept my head down, worked hard, and kept moving forward and eventually I got through it. There were a lot of times where I could have quit, I could have given up on football or my online classes, or just given up hope entirely during a global pandemic. My high school experience taught me how to keep moving forward in spite of several different kinds of adversity, and getting knocked down has made me a better and stronger person. I believe in getting back up. I believe in perseverance.

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I believe that time is the most valuable thing in the world.

For as long as I’ve lived, Sunday nights have been designated for family dinners around the dining room table. My dad would spend his afternoons making our family a yummy meal that would be gone by the end of the hour. After finishing, we would stay there and talk about whatever subject came up that night. After bouts of silence, my dad would frequently leave us with a few words of wisdom. One that often came up was the question: “what’s one thing you can never get more of?” My sister and I, after hearing the answer over and over again, would respond, “time.”

At that point in my life, the reality of that lesson wasn’t applicable, but I still thought about it often. When I was a kid, I would scare myself so bad while thinking about how fast-moving time was, that I ended up crying in bed about how little I had left. I reflected on how much had already passed, and how the next 10 years of my life would do the same, and the 10 after that, and the 10 after that, until I would be gone. No one would expect a ten-year-old to have an existential crisis, but there I was.

My existential crises have subsided as the years have gone by, despite the reality of that lesson getting more and more clear. With each birthday that passes, I realize just how old I’m getting. And it wasn’t until I began working at a preschool, that I felt it in full-force. One day, while I was standing out on the playground, it hit me that the kids I watched were born when I was a freshman in high school. While I was figuring out how to navigate the halls of Mullen, they were learning how to crawl. And now, three years later, I had learned the ins and outs of high school, and they learned how to run, dance, and ramble on and on about their brand new shoes. With kids that young, time shows itself much more clearly. This finally allowed me to apply the lessons I had been taught about the value of each second.

Today, as a senior in high school, I’ve said a number of times that each year has gone by so fast. That the time has flown. As college decisions approached, time became something I couldn’t get enough of, and after deciding on where to go and what to do, I am now hopelessly trying to make the best of the time I have left before my future really starts. Before I have to grow up and leave my childhood behind.

As my final days of true childhood close in, all I can do is look back on my memories and to what lies ahead because, of course, once time is spent, you can’t get it back. I’m unsure of how the rest of my life will play out, but through it all, I know I’ll recognize the importance of each second that passes. Each day, each hour, each second is valuable. I see it now while looking back at the past 18 years I’ve lived, and I see it in the next 10 years I live, and the 10 after that, and the 10 after that.

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Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace- Kassandra 

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Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace- Kassandra 

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Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace. - Family. I believe one should forgive others, not because they deserve your forgiveness, but because you deserve peace. There are moments in one's life where forgiving others makes one feel like we are giving up on themselves. But on the contrary it makes one a stronger person.

People come and go, and unfortunately we don’t get to know who stays and who goes. There have been people in my life that I have chosen to keep my blindfold on even though I knew they were no good. In the moment one gives so many excuses in order to reassure ourselves they are truly meant to be in your life. Just in the past year I have chosen to let go of friendships that have truly only been hurting me. They were only there for the vacations or the food or simply the work I could help them with. I was being used and I refused to accept it. These people never hesitate to let me know that “We will be friends for our whole life” “ You are going to be my children's godmother”. Simple things but that had me looking to my future. I understood that I was the only one making an effort and they were always making excuses. I have chosen to forgive them but not because I believe that they deserve it. The reason why I decided to forgive them was because it would keep my mind at peace. If I could be the bigger person in any scenario believe me I will choose to. It is the way that my parents have raised me. They have always said it is good to forgive but never forget because one learns from one’s mistakes. This has been evident throughout my life. I have learned that not forgiving ends up hurting you more because you don’t forget. Not forgiving is a constant reminder of that person who hurt you and it keeps hurting you defeating the purpose. Ironically it keeps breaking you down when you want to break away and be stronger.

Reflecting on the fact that we are stronger when we forgive will be a blessing not only to ourselves but other generations as well. I can say that this is being taught to me now by giving me the ability to help my brother forgive. He has been in a “kiddy fight” and him coming to me for advice is the best I can give him. Starting out young with not holding grudges will allow him to grow and be a better person than those who hurt him.

This is really just a message that our whole society needs to hear as well. Our society turns bitter because they don’t know how to forgive. So if I could leave my imprint in the world I would tell them to forgive others not because they deserve to be forgiven but because you deserve peace and happiness.

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A lot of people always dwell in the past or dwell in the future. I, personally, try my best to dwell in the present. You only get to experience the moment that you’re in one time, and one time only. If you spend your present dwelling in the past, it causes depression and regret. If you spend your present dwelling in the future, it causes anxiety and stress. I like to avoid those things. I like to live in the moment.

Life hits hard, and in the moments that it does you have to acknowledge it. Living in the moment allows you to take struggles and hardships that you face and deal with them head on. It helps you realize the importance of them and the effects that they have right now. Things like death, pain, suffering, and sadness will always happen, but these things are not things to be dwelled on, they are things to confront, realize, and overcome. Living in the moment allows you to turn death into a celebration of life. It allows you to take pain and turn it into strength by confronting it. It allows you to face suffering head on. And it allows you to realize the importance of sadness. Just as life has brought hardship, it will always continue to. Living in the moment allows you to not worry about what may happen, but appreciate what is happening right now. The moment you live in will not always be perfect, but you can make the best out of it at any time. You can’t make the best out of the past, and you can’t make the best out of the future. Only the now.

I believe that living in the moment is the greatest thing that one can do for themselves. Having a sense of presence and actuality is essential to well being. I also believe that it is something that does not get taken advantage of. Something as simple as taking a drive and seeing a sunset can become a beautiful moment, but only if one has a sense of presence in that moment. If you’re distracted because you’re worried about the future, or sad about the past, you could miss how beautiful that moment really is. This is not to say that you can’t ever think about the past or the future, because it is important to do so. This is to say that dwelling on those periods in time will never be beneficial, but I believe that taking in the moment always is.

The main instigator of this belief for me was when my Great Granpaw, who I worked for in his garden last summer, passed away. I took the job because I was paid $25 an hour for planting and watering crops, and just talking to my Granpaw. The little moments of me pausing my work, and sitting down with my Granpaw on his chair outside, and just talking with him, is one of the most important memories that I have. Had I not lived that moment, been present, and realized how this job that I had taken on was so much more than that, these moments would never have had the same impact.

Every moment is precious and I believe that Master Oogway put it best when he said, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, and that’s why it is called the present.” Let’s all live the gift of today as we move forward in our lives.

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I believe that we control our happiness. It is up to me, the individual, to see the good in everyday life. I am the root of my emotion. I believe that I am the only person who can truly make myself happy. By chasing fixations outside of myself, I will never seek full comfort. For a while I sought happiness through others, the faults of a people pleaser. I chased the satisfaction of someone enjoying my presence or acknowledging an act of service. However, it often led to disappointment. I cannot rely on a person. It is important to love others and reassure them you are grateful for their presence in your life but their being cannot be your only joy. I believe to find happiness we must be happy with ourselves. We cannot fully love others if we do not love ourselves. It is to be content with ourselves that brings fulfillment in our relationships with others.

I struggle with finding happiness within myself. But by understanding that I am the only person I truly have in the world has led me to put less emphasis on the emotions of others. I am a super empathetic person which gives great weight to how others are feeling. I just want people to be happy with me even if that is sacrificing my own happiness. I always wanted to be the funny friend or the friend that everyone went to. That was an expectation that could only be fulfilled by others and had nothing to do with me. Of course I can be a good friend and show love to my peers, but how they choose to accept my friendship is completely on them. I have had many failed friendships over the course of my life along with some very successful ones. Both friendships share great differences. At one point I had friends that made me happy, but the happiness began to be chased when I was seeking validation from them. I started to feel like I needed reassurance that they appreciated my friendship. That made me feel very sad as I was already discontent with myself and now my friends didn’t even seem to make me happy. But this taught me something. This taught me that if I were only confident in myself and confident in who I was as a friend then I would not be disappointed if others disagreed. I know I am a good friend and if others cannot appreciate that then they don’t deserve my effort.

I finally have time. I have time to be happy with myself. By no longer seeking happiness in things outside of myself, I feel like I can finally breathe. I can live without fears of dislike or disappointment. This is true happiness. Being so content with yourself that you get to actually control your life. I struggle with anxiety and depression so the negative isn’t always gone. And that’s life. However, I work my hardest everyday to choose happiness. I now make my decisions regardless of how I think people will perceive them or how they’ll make others feel. I now determine my happiness.

I found a quote that truly depicts the life of someone who seeks happiness in others and that is that,

“Sometimes you don’t realize you’re drowning when you’re trying to be everyone else’s anchor.” And this I believe.

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My beliefs are always bouncing around and changing as I go through everyday life, for example my belief on religion has shifted and changed multiple times throughout high school. My first view of religion was formed freshman year as we learned about the New and Old Testament. I honestly got a little freaked out through learning about the Bible which led me to try and be a better catholic; not that I was going to pray every night and read the Bible. But at least try to believe in God more and be conscious about my actions and morals. This belief was honestly fueled by the fear of sinning that the Catholic Church exemplifies. That faze lasted mid way through sophomore year, where my beliefs and views changed as we learned more about reasons for faith and philosophy. By the end of sophomore year my caring for religion trickled away and I got carried away with living my life. Then came along morality junior year, which reignited my belief in religion. I honestly didn’t care for the class at all and found it to be a little absurd at times, but it did influence me to be a better person morally. What made this belief different from my others was that I took God, heaven and hell out of the equation, and followed Jesus’s teachings. This caused me to get really invested in giving to the poor and being the best version of myself.  That lasted through the last half of junior year and into the summer; But I ended up giving to others just to feel self gratification, and not because I actually cared about their well being and ultimately gained no happiness from it. Through this belief I also let others take advantage of me which even further decreased my happiness. As senior year rolled around I finally made the realization that my belief was flawed and this helped me transfer into what I believe now. What I believe now is to pursue your passions and simple pleasures in life. What I have found out is that as long as your passion doesn’t hurt yourself or others it can help provide lasting happiness that isn’t in the form of fleeting pleasure. I got it all wrong in believing that I should believe in religion and that I should give to others. Because for me it didn’t provide true happiness, For me my passion comes in the form of fly fishing. Nothing else matters when it's the river and me, I’m truly contemptuous when I’m doing what I love. Finding something you're truly passionate about brings meaning to your life. I plan on pursuing fly fishing wherever it may take me, and hopefully not get caught up in a 9-5 job. Because you only live once and death is unknown; so I believe you shouldn’t sacrifice your life towards religion as well as working your whole life in pursuit of a comfortable life and or afterlife. I know not everyone has the privilege to pursue a passion, but I believe if you're able to, you should dive head first into what you l
My beliefs are always bouncing around and changing as I go through everyday life, for example my belief on religion has shifted and changed multiple times throughout high school. My first view of religion was formed freshman year as we learned about the New and Old Testament. I honestly got a little freaked out through learning about the Bible which led me to try and be a better catholic; not that I was going to pray every night and read the Bible. But at least try to believe in God more and be conscious about my actions and morals. This belief was honestly fueled by the fear of sinning that the Catholic Church exemplifies. That faze lasted mid way through sophomore year, where my beliefs and views changed as we learned more about reasons for faith and philosophy. By the end of sophomore year my caring for religion trickled away and I got carried away with living my life. Then came along morality junior year, which reignited my belief in religion. I honestly didn’t care for the class at all and found it to be a little absurd at times, but it did influence me to be a better person morally. What made this belief different from my others was that I took God, heaven and hell out of the equation, and followed Jesus’s teachings. This caused me to get really invested in giving to the poor and being the best version of myself.  That lasted through the last half of junior year and into the summer; But I ended up giving to others just to feel self gratification, and not because I actually cared about their well being and ultimately gained no happiness from it. Through this belief I also let others take advantage of me which even further decreased my happiness. As senior year rolled around I finally made the realization that my belief was flawed and this helped me transfer into what I believe now. What I believe now is to pursue your passions and simple pleasures in life. What I have found out is that as long as your passion doesn’t hurt yourself or others it can help provide lasting happiness that isn’t in the form of fleeting pleasure. I got it all wrong in believing that I should believe in religion and that I should give to others. Because for me it didn’t provide true happiness, For me my passion comes in the form of fly fishing. Nothing else matters when it's the river and me, I’m truly contemptuous when I’m doing what I love. Finding something you're truly passionate about brings meaning to your life. I plan on pursuing fly fishing wherever it may take me, and hopefully not get caught up in a 9-5 job. Because you only live once and death is unknown; so I believe you shouldn’t sacrifice your life towards religion as well as working your whole life in pursuit of a comfortable life and or afterlife. I know not everyone has the privilege to pursue a passion, but I believe if you're able to, you should dive head first into what you love