Hey man. I haven't heard from you in a long time, so I'm a little worried about you. I just want to let you know that you continue to inspire me and offer something in this community that no one else does... it's hard to put it into words, but you enable people to be free and believe in themselves and in their limitless potential.
Truly, I love you as a friend and I wish you the best. I cannot thank you enough for the guidance I'd have never gotten elsewhere, and without which I would not be who I am and who I am becoming.
Remember that life-story essay you helped me write at the beginning of last semester? My teacher, at the end of the semester reccomended me into the Mass Comm school at my unversity and said that she believes I "have a natural talent, and you know it too."
But I know that this talent would never have been able to flourish, and I'd never have discovered my potential to do ANYTHING I want to do in life if it wasn't for you and your un****ingbelievable ability to reach into the very core essence of your readers and pull out and present their potential to them.
You're right that potential lies in every one of us, and "all you do" is help us discover it.
But if it weren't for you, guys would have wasted years of their lives searching in a murky haze for that which you can and have illuminated in a single paragraph.
What's my reason for writing this?
I just read your post "Securities vs. Mistakes." My little cousins are here (all girls ages 2, 6, and 10), and, through them, that wild, intangible free-spirited willingness to make mistakes poured over me. I see it in the mischeif of the 6-year old's eyes.
Doubt, to them, is not something real. I still remember when I first learned what the word "doubt" meant.
I asked my mom what it meant, and she said, "Its a feeling that you don't think you can do something.'
It didn't make sense to me. Why would somebody think that they can't do something? Everyone's done everything already. If somebody else has done it, why not me?
My little cousins embodied this.
And yet my dad is ever-correcting them. "Watch out. Sit right, or you'll fall. Slow down! Don't do that. Do this."
All the while stripping them of their freedom and slowly extinguishing their innate sense of adventure...killing beauty.
He walked in on me while I was singing a favorite song of mine and gave me a weird, surprised look. I see how he has become jaded... he sees life through a narrow tunnel of how "one should behave."
The beauty of life is that the way one behaves, thinks, and acts is entirely up to each individual. And I resent other people's attempts to control that flow and direction of another person's life, be it myself or my little cousins.
This is an epiphany to me... a reawakening of sorts. That I really can do as I please and be who I want and no one can control me. If I resent anyone's control attempts, it's not my problem, for they should never have tried to control me in the first place.
I exert all power and influence over myself, and that is that. I shall be slave to no one, but do things only because I want to.
When I go to work, it's not because I'm a robotic paper-pusher. It's because I want to be there and I want to get money to support my interests.
When I go to school, I go to LEARN, not because it's what my parents said is best for me.
When I do what I do, it's on MY terms and not on anyone else's. I clean my room because I like a clean room, not because my roommate *****ed about it.
This feeling of complete control over one's life leads to serenity that's hard to put into words.
And I think that this is something that your posts drive home. The scientific researching of seduction techniques clouds that which is at the very core of happiness and fulfillment. Yet, most will not realize this except through their own mistakes.
Which is perfectly fine, because mistakes are absolutely necessary to learning and growing.
And I'm okay with that.
)
Wishing you the best...
-Duke
Truly, I love you as a friend and I wish you the best. I cannot thank you enough for the guidance I'd have never gotten elsewhere, and without which I would not be who I am and who I am becoming.
Remember that life-story essay you helped me write at the beginning of last semester? My teacher, at the end of the semester reccomended me into the Mass Comm school at my unversity and said that she believes I "have a natural talent, and you know it too."
But I know that this talent would never have been able to flourish, and I'd never have discovered my potential to do ANYTHING I want to do in life if it wasn't for you and your un****ingbelievable ability to reach into the very core essence of your readers and pull out and present their potential to them.
You're right that potential lies in every one of us, and "all you do" is help us discover it.
But if it weren't for you, guys would have wasted years of their lives searching in a murky haze for that which you can and have illuminated in a single paragraph.
What's my reason for writing this?
I just read your post "Securities vs. Mistakes." My little cousins are here (all girls ages 2, 6, and 10), and, through them, that wild, intangible free-spirited willingness to make mistakes poured over me. I see it in the mischeif of the 6-year old's eyes.
Doubt, to them, is not something real. I still remember when I first learned what the word "doubt" meant.
I asked my mom what it meant, and she said, "Its a feeling that you don't think you can do something.'
It didn't make sense to me. Why would somebody think that they can't do something? Everyone's done everything already. If somebody else has done it, why not me?
My little cousins embodied this.
And yet my dad is ever-correcting them. "Watch out. Sit right, or you'll fall. Slow down! Don't do that. Do this."
All the while stripping them of their freedom and slowly extinguishing their innate sense of adventure...killing beauty.
He walked in on me while I was singing a favorite song of mine and gave me a weird, surprised look. I see how he has become jaded... he sees life through a narrow tunnel of how "one should behave."
The beauty of life is that the way one behaves, thinks, and acts is entirely up to each individual. And I resent other people's attempts to control that flow and direction of another person's life, be it myself or my little cousins.
This is an epiphany to me... a reawakening of sorts. That I really can do as I please and be who I want and no one can control me. If I resent anyone's control attempts, it's not my problem, for they should never have tried to control me in the first place.
I exert all power and influence over myself, and that is that. I shall be slave to no one, but do things only because I want to.
When I go to work, it's not because I'm a robotic paper-pusher. It's because I want to be there and I want to get money to support my interests.
When I go to school, I go to LEARN, not because it's what my parents said is best for me.
When I do what I do, it's on MY terms and not on anyone else's. I clean my room because I like a clean room, not because my roommate *****ed about it.
This feeling of complete control over one's life leads to serenity that's hard to put into words.
And I think that this is something that your posts drive home. The scientific researching of seduction techniques clouds that which is at the very core of happiness and fulfillment. Yet, most will not realize this except through their own mistakes.
Which is perfectly fine, because mistakes are absolutely necessary to learning and growing.
And I'm okay with that.
)Wishing you the best...
-Duke