Let Me Tell Ya 'Bout My Best Friend

I decided to show my appreciation to my best friend on campus Erika Gray. For those of you who don’t know her she’s the hippie looking thing with blond dreadlocks. I’m a music major and she’s a music performance major. We have multiple classes together, we’re the same age and we’ll be roommates next year. She just laughed at me the entire time. I knew she would. I told her how much I valued her and how proud I was of her in all of her accomplishments. But I really did like voicing that sort of opinion to her. I don’t hear it enough as don’t most people. It was nice I could do that for her. I’m sure it actually meant something to her as well. She didn’t know how to handle it. Most people don’t. The reason for that is because people don’t voice appreciation enough. Sometimes we buy presents or cards for someone to show how much we appreciate them but people do not voice their appreciation. It’s become a material thing just like everything in this world it seems. I’m pretty old fashioned so voicing this to Erika wasn’t awkward for me. Voicing it to my family or anyone else wouldn’t be difficult for me either but I’m not sure how I would take it. I think I would welcome it. Who wouldn’t want to hear they’re appreciated in such a sincere way from someone that means something to them? It can’t be an empty appreciation as indicated by Chopra. People don’t like talking about their feelings though so when they finally do, it’s best not to lie. Be honest and completely true with how you feel. That way your true thoughts are voiced and those receiving your thoughts are able to know exactly how you feel about them. Erika knows exactly how I feel and because she does we’re able to build an even stronger relationship that it going to rock the socks off of next semester. 

Fiction Suits & Nostalgia

I've been sick the past few days. I’m up coughing practically all night long and my sinuses are draining. So today I've decided to go to drug store and pick up multiple cold medicines because I’m running out. While at the drug store three armed masked men rushed towards the register and demanded all the money along with all the narcotic drugs to sell on the black market. It was terrifying. The store was full of elderly patients and sick children who were waiting for their medicine. Suddenly the Incredible Hulk busts into the drug store demanding cold medicine (you see he has also been suffering from an annoying cold as well). Upon seeing the robbery he also demanded the robbers drop their weapons. Of course they didn't immediately comply but after a little rough housing the robbers willing left the store. The young and elderly patients along with myself and the Hulk then toasted with large shots of cough syrup.

Just last night I experienced a large dose of nostalgia. My friends from home and I used to listen to certain songs of certain genres a lot. A friend of mine tweeted lyrics to one of the songs. I then youtubed a few of those songs and thought about how we all used to be friends and always hung out and got into ridiculously innocent shenanigans. I’m not in touch with half of them and I never make it down to the river to see the ones I do still talk to when I am at home. I know that I was longing for the feeling of ultimate belonging again. My future may hold arguments about feeling wanted and or a sense of belonging. It may also cause me to reconnect with the friends I’m still in touch with. I can say that I’ve been having wavering feeling of belonging. I’ve been informally rushing a sorority and arguing with friends about a full sense of belonging. This present feeling of not being wanted caused my feelings of nostalgia and can explain the actions I’ve taken since feeling those nostalgic feelings. 

Law of Power

I fell in love with Chopra’s Law of Power chapter. After reading this chapter I wanted to loan out this book to a few people who need to realize the true definition of power. There was a single paragraph at the bottom of page 61 that summed up power:

“On the contrary, the truly powerful live in a state of never-ending calm. They are not fearful of the future, but rather comfortable with uncertainty and prepared at all moments with the infinite choices at their disposal provided by the unknown. They do now stew in regret, feel guilt over the past, or get trapped by old conditions and habits. That’s not to say they are not thoughtful and reflective, but they’re not imprisoned by emotions and circumstances that have already come and gone and cannot be changed. As a result, their body language demonstrates the ease with which they interact with the world. Powerful people are comfortable with themselves, prepared at any given moment and confident in their ability to react with creativity and grace to every situation. Who among us doesn’t want to master this skill?”

It’s almost hypocritical of me to want to make others read this chapter. For me, as I can assume for many others, power means control. Not once does Chopra mention control.  One could argue that a person with power as defined by Chopra has the control to be comfortable with themselves, has the control to be prepared, has the control to react, but there’s a difference is having these sort of controls and being in control. More often than not, being in control is seen as being powerful like in the instance of President Obama or your boss. Chopra has set my head straight on the definition of power and I wish I could share it further.

Of course Chopra’s characteristics of powerful people have limitations. For instance you have a “powerful” person who is too comfortable with themselves, over prepared, and overly confident. I wonder, except for the few Superheroes, if it’s even possible to be considered powerful. One needs to be comfortable enough, prepared enough, and confident enough without overdoing or underdoing it in any one of those categories. How can one even try to achieve all those characteristics while still living “in a state of never-ending calm” ?? Power must be a power within itself only attainable by our superheroes.