Speak Now , Live Now

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Cory Montieth, 31, died in July this year. Paul Walker, 40, died in a car crash on November 30. Someone else I know, 23, is battling for his life for over three months now. It’s sad. It’s depressing. It’s shocking, really. None of them ever thought this would happen to them… Their age makes me think “For all you know, it could be me..” What if it does end up being me?

Before YOLO became the biggest thing on the internet. Before I knew anything about the internet, an incident.. or should I say disaster?.. changed my life, changed the way I live it.

December 26, 2004.. Earthquakes and a Tsunami destroyed lives, destroyed families, destroyed homes..

I was supposed to be at the beach with my father that morning, but I’d overslept. I woke up and jumped with joy about leaving and my parents told me there’d been a Tsunami. I had no idea what it meant but with time, I understood it and I wished I hadn’t..

I’ll never forget what it did to me. I remember the TV ads asking for help. I remember switching channels because I couldn’t listen to that music, couldn’t watch those images. I remember crying under my blankets praying for those lives and those children who just lost their parents.. I remember my mother telling me about this woman who’d killed herself out of depression, a child who’d had a heart attack because the ads were too depressing. I remember wanting to help those kids. I even took a bag of my clothes and went to the beach, to the families living in tents on the streets because their houses were gone. I gave them clothes and in minutes, my car was surrounded by kids asking for food and clothes.. I was terrified, depressed, pissed with the universe..

How many people woke up that day with plans? How many had had a fight the previous night and told themselves “Today, I’ll fix it..” but never got the chance to? For one second, forget the dead.. Imagine the ones sitting at home who never got to tell their loved ones “I love you” “I forgive you” “I need you” “I miss you”..  Praying they were the ones dead and not the other person.. Hoping that the people searching the waters find their loved ones’ body so they could go ahead and do what they had to? Imagine waking up late on a Sunday morning, turning on the TV and realizing, your friend, your family, someone you know was probably dead by now. I always imagine someone with a coffee cup turning on the TV and dropping that cup with shock..

I swore to myself, it doesn’t matter if the other person doesn’t want to hear it. I’ll always tell everyone – the ones I like, the ones I love, the ones I hate – how I feel about them. I will never miss an opportunity. I will make the most out of my life. As a teenager, all it did for me was get me into trouble. But with time, experience and a lot of mistakes, I’ve learnt to fine tune that attitude. I’ve learnt what LIVE NOW means to me. What SPEAK NOW means to me.

It may not always mean the same to everyone. But to me, Live Now means doing something with my life. Helping myself and everyone else around me. I’ve learnt that Live Now does not mean I have to go bungee jumping and skydiving as soon as possible. It means I need to help the ones in need. So even if I’m gone, I would’ve made a better life for someone who gets to live.

And as for Speak Now, it doesn’t matter whether it’s my parents, my siblings or just a crush, I have and will continue to tell them what they mean to me. I’ll tell them how much I care and how important they are to me. I’ve learnt to keep the hate to myself though – Because if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything..

So here’s a piece of advise to anyone that’s reading.. Do you have a dying need to do something – for yourself or anyone around you? Do it today. If it’s a long-term plan, start working on it. Do you have a loved one? Tell them today. What if you never get another chance?

Daily Prompt : Tattoo …. Me?

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Funny how just this afternoon I was writing/ drawing fake tattoos with a black pen and hey ! Daily Prompt decides to pick my brain..

I don’t have a tattoo yet..

But I want to get a small infinity sign on the inner side of my left ankle .. maybe like a 2cm x 2cm in size..

And my dream tattoo would be on the side of my ribcage..

Something similar to this :

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But with the words :

Thou shall not live

Should thou not believe in

Fairytales

Because..  .. ..well, it never hurts to believe in a little luck, a little romance, a little love and a lot of magic.. does it?

(Pic Courtesy : Google)

Daily Prompt : Fear Factor | Scary Movie Ghosts

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I always scroll through the different topics that Daily Prompt puts up, but today, this topic caught my attention.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/prompt-fear-factor/

I feel like a child as I say this, but my biggest fear – Movie Ghosts. Not the kind that comes covered in a white cloth from head to toe like in Caspar. Definitely not. But pretty much everything else.

Mummy Returns (Or was it just Mummy?) with the cockroaches that came out of his mouth? I think I was about 8 or 9 when I saw that movie and I refused to take the elevator in fear that I would be trapped with no escape incase those cockroaches came out of no where.

Ring was my first scary movie ever ! For a very long time I could always imagine this innocent girl at the right bottom end of my bed with no desire to hurt me but always had a longing look on her face. Almost as if I had something she didn’t. Something she wished she had. As I grew into my teens, I got over it for a while.

Then came Paranormal Activity. “The fear is always of the unknown,” my father used to say. It did not help my case that not only did the movie not have a face for the ghost, but it sat at the bottom right corner of the bed like the ghost I’d imagined did.

Grudge (2, I think) had a scene where there were eyes in the walls. That night somehow I slept really well. I was surprised how I wasn’t scared anymore. Until a few days later, I was awake real late at night and I stared right into the glass bookshelf in my room and the edge of a shiny hard cover book shone from the moonlight and thought they were eyes staring at me and screamed.

I should know better by now, but I still cannot turn off the lights if my blankets aren’t covering my face. I cannot sleep in silence because even the smallest noises scare me.

Yet, I love scaring myself. I watch a lot of scary movies, but I still keep away from movies like The Conjuring. I cried with fear after I watched the trailer for that movie and somehow I still went on Google and searched for the real story. The real doll. I guess this is my way of hoping at some point I’ll snap out of it. That if I know the true story and I know that the doll or whatever ghost is locked up somewhere safe, I don’t have to be scared anymore. That maybe I’ll stop the loud music to kill the silence, rip the thick blanket away from my face and look at the dark without fearing that something might just pop up and say “Hello !”
And maybe with time, I will…

..who knows ?! 🙂

Dreamers : The Chasers and The Catchers

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Are you a dreamer? Neverland? Wall Street? Unrealistic? Realistic? Do you lose yourself in those dreams and curse anything and anyone that wakes you up from them? You’re not alone. Peter Pan and Neverland have been my biggest dreams. Unrealistic and stupid for a grown up, some would say. But what do they know?

My inspirations, my role models and the people I look up to have always had one thing in common – they dreamt a dream and they chased it. It doesn’t matter if they caught it or not. It matters that they tried. If you know me, if you’ve trusted me with your dream, you know at some point in your life, I’ve pushed you to go after it.  I’ve told you I’ll stand by you no matter what, as long as you’re trying to do something you love.

I was having a conversation with a man who looked to be in his 60’s, on an MRT, about dreams and he told me how his dream was to be an artist. He never pursued it. What kind of a career choice would that be? How would he provide for his wife and kids? “Don’t be an idiot that goes after silly things. Be smart. Have a secure future. Money in the bank, food on the plate. Nothing else matters,” he told me. Is that true? I think there’s more to life than money in the bank. What about waking up every morning and not wanting to whine about your shitty life? Imagine a life where you jump out of bed because you cannot wait to go live your life.. The racing heartbeat, the wide grin.. that feeling where you lose yourself while doing something you love that you forget the rest of the world? Imagine doing that everyday until you’ve had enough..

It’s never too early, it’s never too late. Dreams don’t care how old you are. Like I told him, “You don’t have to be 20 to chase your dreams. You can be 60 and still go join art school and pursue what you love.” And if for some reason your dream doesn’t work out, you can always go back to that secure future. In today’s world, age doesn’t matter. . You can be 49 and still start a secure life. But at least this time, you wont live your life wondering “What if..” You’ll know what happens. You’ll live with the satisfaction that you chased it, even if you didn’t catch it. And for all those who say “I can’t do what I want. It’s not what my parents/ spouse/ partner wants,” I’ve got ten words for you – People who love you will be happy that you’re happy.

So stop finding reasons. Stop finding excuses. Go dream a dream.. and chase it with all you’ve got. If you catch it, good for you.. If you don’t, it’s ok, there’s always the next one.. Just remember, you’ll never get there if you never try..

The People Around You

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When we’re walking on the streets, wrapped up in our thoughts, we forget that there’s a world that’s buzzing with life around us.. Have you ever stopped and looked at someone and wondered? Have you ever looked at a teenager and wondered what kind of home they go back to? Have you ever stopped and stared at a person in a suit and wondered what kind of pathetic boss they work for? Have you ever smiled at a kid that is enjoying whatever little time he/she has left as an innocent before the big bad world corrupts their brain? Do you ever take a moment of your journey to look at someone’s life other than yours? I did once and it changed every journey I ever took from that day on..

It was a regular day back from university to my apartment and I was so wrapped up with music and social networking that I almost didn’t notice.. You know how we have friends? We laugh, we fight, we giggle, we tease and we make the lamest jokes in the world? I saw a gang of seven people, in an MRT, do that.. through sign language. I might not have understood everything they signed, but I understood that laughter, I understood what it meant when one of those guys shook his head and closed his eyes while laughing uncontrollably.. I looked around me and saw every person around them stare at them in awe and they didn’t even know about it.. I will never forget the tiny tear a woman wiped from her eyes as she looked at these people who have so much more to whine about than you and I do, but yet they were so happy, so filled with joy..

Somehow, since then, I always look around, I always notice.. Those old aunties who laughed so much they had tears coming from their eyes, that cute couple that would not stop staring into each other’s eyes so so lovingly that it started to annoy the shit out of me, that little kid that dangled her legs because her feet wouldn’t touch the ground, that random kid who smiled at me for no reason when standing in line at Starbucks, that girl at the market that always gives me and my mum some extra vegetables out of kindness, that mother who was texting her husband about their divorce while still cooing at her daughter in the pink tutu, the mentally ill homeless guy that wandered near my old house and always had a smile to give, that old woman selling bananas who probably went back to a small house with barely any food to eat and yet asks you how you’re doing..

Take a moment, look around you.. Look at every life around you.. At all the happiness around you.. At all the people that are probably in way more shit than you’re in right now.. And give them a smile, just because.

For all you know, that’s probably the best thing that happened to them all day..

 

Marriage : From “I Do” to “I Can’t”

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The past three days, the topic around me has been constant. Marriage. As one friend of mine gets ready to seek out his bride, another friend who already found her love just told her parents about it. In another part of the world, a guy I’m acquainted with just got blackmailed into signing his divorce papers after his wife ran away. Three very very different stages of life. The excited, the fighter and the hurt.

I, just like most other girls, have dreamt of my wedding – the dress, the venue, the weather, the jewelry, the guest list and so on. But I’ve always felt like I’ve misunderstood the concept of marriage. To me, it’s when two people, with common goals and interests, come together to share their lives. Caring and loving each other. Becoming the best of friends till death do you apart. Sure there are going to be some hard times. That’s the reason you have each other – to lean back on when the going gets tough. The feeling that you have someone to catch you if you fall will make you aim and rise higher in life. However, every single one of these traits must be found in both the husband and the wife. My father always told me, “Remember, you’re not the only one entering that marriage with hopes and dreams. It doesn’t matter if the other person is everything you’ve ever wanted. You have to stop and wonder if you can be everything the other person wants as well.” I think I’m still growing up on that last sentence. I’m not quite there yet. But are my ideas of marriage immature? Am I fooling myself with a dream of an unrealistic fairytale?

In a world that is now driven by your bank balance, prenup is the shit. Getting married? Lock your money first. I’m sorry, but where’s the love? Where’s the romance? Even arranged marriages are more like blind-dating these days. Surely there must be more to that relationship than “I think it’s going to be a good run.” Why do we start a marriage believing it might end some day? Why do we care more about saving our money than saving our marriage? Is losing your bank balance more tragic than losing your spouse? Don’t even get me started on the running away with your secret lover after you get married part. But as much as I would love to support the guy I know and call the woman a bitch, I’m sure her side of the story is a lot different. Marriage is a two-way street. You get what you give. It’s important to always keep in mind that the other person too has emotions.

In marriage and in life. Treat the other person, any person with respect and love. You’ll be surprised at how many long-lasting friendships and relationships you make..

“You’re not the person I fell in love with”

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My Friend and I were recently talking about his break up and he said to me “One and half years. That’s how long any relationship that’s serious lasts.” But why? I know for a fact that there have been more break ups now than ever, thanks to the Facebook and Whatsapp world. But is that all the reasons? When you commit to someone and you promise to be with them for as long as you live, what makes you take a step back? What changes love to hate? I gave him the one reason I believe is true.

Relationships are everywhere. It’s shoved in your face everyday, reminding you of what a lonely life you live. And us single people who talk about how incredible our lives are, now that we’re single – we’re lying. It sucks. We just won’t admit it. To ourselves or to anyone else. But then there are moments when I’m glad I’m not in a relationship. Moments when I sit on the phone with my best friends and hear them cry about the person they love. Whine about how much that once oh-so-perfect person is now someone so completely different. You can now see the “true colors” of who he/she really is.

But what if that’s not the case? In all the need to get into a relationship so as to stop being lonely and single, a person, girl/guy, tends to pretend. Not in a bad way. But say it’s a girl trying for a guy. She wants to dress the way he likes, talk the way he likes, act the way he likes. She wants to impress him so much that he believes this is it. She’s the one. They start dating. She keeps pretending. But at some point, she stops. She’s unhappy. She’s not herself. This ends in one of two ways –

– Huge tantrums and fights because she believes he ruined her happiness. She rebels from him.

– She stops pretending and slowly starts bringing her old, true self back.

Both of this isn’t ok because it’s going to ruin that relationship. If she rebels, he’s going to think she’s not worth it, she’s changed. She tries to turn back into herself, he’s going to think she’s not the girl he fell in love with, she’s changed. It’s the same when it’s the guy changing for the girl. In some relationships, this is the 4th month fight. This is the first big fight the couple has. “You’re not the person I fell in love with.” Most couples walk away at this point. They believe they deserve better. But then there are the few that say “I don’t care, I love you too much.” But how much can a person adjust to change? How much is too much? A year? A year and half?

There are the rarest of rare cases when the couple lasts a long time. But the couples that truly make it are the couples that never lied. Never pretended to be someone they’re not. Like the saying goes, I’d rather you hate me for who I am, than love me for someone I’m not..

..because that love, it won’t last !

(Pic Courtesy : Google)