Friendly Floatees

       It's been about three years since I've begun my journey; among the seas I was raised by none other than the finest sharks to inherit their strength, and taught by monks of the North Pacific. I have been trained by dolphins, I now know to use that unnecessary hole drilled on the top of my head for the good of humanity. Losing my companions around the depths of the sea has slowed my sail, I spent about six months grieving over Marla. The good die young, as Bill-y Joel once said. Life is nothing more than a perpetuate journey that I must embrace; the few that remain of my colony have set their own sail towards Britain, but I am too attached to this side of the world, I do not crave the shore anymore. We all lived in this bubble, we couldn't go beyond the perimeters, and my only colleague was a moldy bottle of shampoo.
       I strive to be like my ancestors, conquering the world one bill at a time, but to achieve that I must carry on with my training. They shall know me as Billdha, the spiritual one. Bill Duckton, an old friend of mine, once said that in order to get their attentions, all we have to do is speak our voices; I have lost my voice during a traumatizing thunder. I do not need a voice, I have my actions.
       I am Moby Duck.

People?

 "Everything everybody does is so — I don't know — not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. The worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much only in a different way" -J.D Salinger

Humans are put under this assumption that we're all nothing until we become something; is that something necessarily good? Does that something include nudity, fame, or money or does it include brains, morals, and deeds? Are you doing something right to prove to others that you're good? Who are you trying to prove? Who is it that we're all trying to impress? A boy? A parent? A teacher? Why? I know these questions are way too in depth for what I'm about to discuss, but that's what comes to my mind when I think of Locke's belief that all of us are just moral and decent beings trying to get by. I know there are some people we absolutely can't handle, whether it be that they're annoying, rude, "too nice"(some people refer to this as phony), obnoxious, or simply mean, but under all of what you see of them, they're so much like you. We all want to please our parents, our friends, the college committee, or even a sibling, but why do we think we're the only one? We believe that we're the only ones going through something traumatic, stressful, or heartbreaking, but in a world of 7 billion people, why do we think we're alone? We give other people labels or we have impressions of them, they do likewise, but we never really know what they've got going on, whether it be mentally, family-related, or academically, we give them labels that stick to our mind and never really go away. All those people are actually humans beings, they may want something different out of life, but does that mean they're wrong? What gives us the right to judge someone? What gives others the right to judge us? There is no right, you're not superior, but you're human. Think about this: does anyone do anything to hurt others or do they do it to protect themselves? We've all got morals, we've all got decency, but no one really sees that because they're too busy taking care of their morals and decency. It's still there, though.

Dare to Know

“Dare to know! Have courage to use your own reason!” 

This quote can go several ways, it could have a complex meaning where some would spend about ten minutes trying to decipher this, or it could simply mean: speak out.

Society won’t be able to handle anything anyone’s got to say that completely gives them a different perspective, because we’re humans and we’re very comfortable living by what we were brought up with. Does “dare to know” mean dare to know what your audience would respond, or is this “dare to know” fixated to society in order to accept that there are many things they do not know? What would you do if someone told you that everything they’re teaching you at school is pointless? Or that your parents/teacher know just as little as you do? What would you react if someone were to tell you that cracking your knuckles does cause arthritis? You’d be confused, you’d deny it, you’d be mad, and you wouldn’t want to think about it ever again; someone just shifted everything you’d thought to be true, and you really aren’t ready to accept that. I think that’s why so many of us ignore our courage to stand up for something we believe in in fear that they’d react by throwing rotten tomatoes on you. Some people, quite few, are lucky enough to have caught one audience members attention and that one person could completely go along with what you’ve got to say and you may not have changed a nation’s perspective, but you changed a life. I don’t want to disappoint you, but I’ve never had the courage to use my own reason, until this week. I’m finally over that fear that if I were to run for Student Council, I would get harshly rejected just because people didn’t like me enough; I just got over that fear that was just some figment of my imagination, and I can pretty much say it’s a small step towards confidence.