Agent152 sent me this fantastic speech made by a brilliant character on critically acclaimed television show Jack&Bobby- its wonderful for all university students - thought I'd share the wisdom--
Grace McCallister's Moonlight Address to the students of Plains State University
Good evening. I want to welcome you tonight to... a renaissance.
For some of you this night marks a return to your college life, for some of you a new beginning. And so, upon the eve of the tremendous journey upon which you are all embarking, I'd like to offer you a thought to take with you. Listen carefully: you will fail here. All of you. College is not the culmination of your high school career. It is the beginning of your adult life. Only it is a slow sweet beginning that feels nothing like what life and all the attending obligations will eventually bring. So fail here... This is your chance.
Do things you know you can't do, or think you can't do but hope in your deepest most secret hidden heart that you can.
Be bad at things. Be embarrassed. Be vulnerable. Go out on a limb. Or two. Or twelve.
The harder you fall, the farther you'll rise. And the louder you fail, the clearer the distant bell of your future will ring. Failure is a gift. Welcome it. There are people who spend their lives wondering how they became the people they became, how certain chances passed them by and why they didn't take the road less traveled. Those people are not you.
You have the front-row seat to your own transformation. And in transforming yourself, you might just transform the world. Believe that, and embrace the new person you're becoming. This is your moment. Now. Not ten minutes from now, not tomorrow, really now. Know that, truly in your bones, and wake up each morning remembering it. And then keep going.
Agent152: Wisdom shared
the wisdom in vanilla chai tea
There lingers a soft, but tangent taste of vanilla and tea leaves as soon as the cup has been moved. Each sip and slurp enlivens every last tastebud of my tongue.
Thessy begins with a blank piece of paper where several thoughts are formed in thick, black, times new roman characters. Every sentence seems wrong and somehow requiring serious improvement.
As the hot liquid coats the insides of my mouth it allows each taste bud a chance to savour the freshly sugared feel of it.
Each word has serious contemplation behind it - sometimes the words have sprung so quickly from my mind through to my fingers, there has not been a beat between the actions.
Vanilla is one of my favourite things. The scent, the taste, the aroma when it is mixed with tea, each form it comes in: tea, cream, colouring, paint, food. Never am I not biased when it is in the list.
Writing is one of my favourite things. The power of a word, of thoughts expressed well. The feel of a good sentence as it leaves your mind and forms on the page. The emotions others can invoke through the simply complicated tool of language. It is a skill some learn, others command, and few master.
While the fascination with vanilla continues, the fascination with thessy is coming to an end.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..
Faith, Hope & Trick
No more blog page name changes I do solemnly swear on this day at 6:20am AEST time.
Its like finding the comfort zone with a good cup of coffee. You don't just drink it on any old table or chair, there is always that special place where you go with the steaming mug to enjoy a some RnR.
Not that there has been any of that in my recnt past or future few days. But Im sure, we'll get there eventually.
This Buffy episode is up there in my top ten. Faith arrives, Angel returns and Trick causes chaos as usual. What's not to love?
Similarly, Ive got faith that chapter one shall be submitted today. Day. During daylight hours. There's some shred of hope left that I will get to complete that impossible list of aims below this post. And I swear, if Trick was to appear right now, Im fully equipped to deal with whatever chaos he can throw my way.
Way to challenge my karma there. Just throw out the gauntlet and let it fall, let it fall..
25 days to deadline
Not quite a whinge, more a physical note of what this week should bring, apart from hammers in my head and steam trains through my heart.
Two finished chapters
An essay
Between one and another films'
A blog post
Crumplette wages
Some warmth
and a partridge in a pear tree
Im looking forward to writing the third chapter of thessy. Its scary, almost as scary as the first is right now. I finally know what I want to say, just a matter of saying it clearly now. Ahh, structure, how you elude me.
The essay will be interesting. Something else Im looking foward to writing. It isnt about vampires. Its about freedom from oppression under the face of adversity, perhaps through adversity. Cliche a little there, yet..
Flights shall be booked this week. Officially meaning I can escape Christmas yet again. I wonder how many more I can miss before my mother puts her foot down.
Have already started planning next years' holiday. Im sure Lucifer's reserved a special set of chains and hots rods for me by now, I figure why not get a few nine inch rusty nails for my fingers while Im at it.
May just be me, but Im cold. Feels as if a chill has seeped into the tips of my fingernails and trailed its way up through my fingers into my palms, up through my forearms, past my elbows, through by body, shooting straight down to my knees, to settle in the creases of my feet, at the very tips of my toes.
The best laid plans are the ones that lead us unto temptation and misery. I wonder which end of the spectrum I shall be in come next Sunday.
Jealousy and choking on alibis'
Come Wednesday morning, some will be burnt, others removed and some destroyed. Somehow I see myself losing out in each of those scenarios. I think I'll be left to cover the burns, deal with the collateral and pick up after the destruction. Thank Gumby for plum jam is all Im saying. I think after I survive the next two days, Im going to need some serious drowning and plum jam will be my savior.
The deadline- first two chapters of my thesis, or at least an introduction and the first official chapter. All weekend, I haven't been able to do any work on anything, my mind keeps going over certain events and I come back to this horrible realisation that we've moved on from the awkward into the nasty. Im running out of alibis' that help avoid thessy, though.
The death, that remains to be seen. Am I capable of walking away from a friend who has come to mean a bit more?
Honestly? I think, maybe its time I saved him and returned years of the same favour.
After all, isnt that what friends do.