"What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?" - John Green

If you read a recent front page story of the San Francisco
Chronicle, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had
become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was
weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to
struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope
wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her
mouth. A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands
(outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for
help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined
that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and
untangle her. They worked for hours with curved knives and
eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in
what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and
every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently
around as she was thanking them. Some said it was the most
incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the
rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole
time, and he will never be the same.
Source: pretty-bird.tumblr.com

Reading posts like this makes me question my direction in life. Most of the time. Even in older posts, I keep asking myself over and over again; What am I doing, really? Why am I following in everyone's perception of what life should be? Because I don't want to and yet once in a while, I forget... and I find myself being helplessly pulled along into this never ending race, where we believe that as long as we reach the line, we'll get whatever we have been wanting and that we'll be happy. But we will never be happy, you know. It will make us want more and more. I know this. And I'm still doing it. Which makes me mad at myself. What I just read... that is what I want to be doing, honest to God. I want so badly to be doing what I feel is right. I want to help. I need to help. The environment, the animals, needy people. I'm so mad when I think about the times I was busy complaining about having a lot of assignments and no time to read, that I don't think about the people who will never know what reading is because they're illiterate, people who will never go to college, and have a chance to complain about assignments. What are we all doing, really? Have we ever thought about that?

It sucks to be helpless, you know. Because right now, I'm not at a liberty to do anything for anyone when I can barely help myself. I can only yearn and wish I could do something, anything. So I should still try right, little help though I may be. I may not be able to help the environment or animals yet, but I can help the people around me. I will never dismiss another person's thoughts and feelings so carelessly again, I will listen more, be kinder, more attentive, understanding, helpful and forgiving, less spiteful, less.. whatever, you get my drift. I can't ever forget this, even for a moment.
I'm an idealist and this is what I want to do with my life.


Quotes inspired by a book I recently finished, Looking for Alaska by John Green;
Francois Rabelais - "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." In the book, it was referred to as searching for a meaning to our lives.

Simon Bolivar (Gabriel Garcia Marquez's The General in his Labyrinth) - "How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?", referred to as the 'labyrinth of suffering'. In my opinion, the suffering encompasses all the things we've done, things we wished we did, things we want to do but somehow, couldn't.

The book is really good.