I need a topic.

whatshouldwecallme:

I need to leave. I need to just go away. Drop everything I have, and simply walk in the other direction. I feel I’ve been working too hard for too long, and for what? I know I’ve accomplished so much, but I don’t feel as such. I need a break. From everything. School, work, responsibilities, obligations, they just need to all disappear. For the first time in my life, I’m tired. My very spirit is exhausted. I can barely rouse myself to care anymore. I need to take a break.

This is gonna be a rough quarter.

“I would rather live a shorter life at 100% than a longer one at anything else.”

I try to live by this statement every day. Do it today, because you may not have a tomorrow. I try to take advantage of every opportunity presented to me and make use of every possible minute of the short time we have. Which brings up…

Sleep.

I sleep alot less than I should. It may not be the healthiest thing, but I think its worth it. Sure, some of the time it ends up being late nights in front of my computer (kinda like right now), but I can usually find something to get into. And I just have so much more time. Think about this (I’m a fan of math, so get ready for some):

The average amount of time people sleep is roughly 7.5 hours. That’s just about 31% of the day, meaning we sleep away 31% of our lives. To put that into perspective, the average American lifespan is 78.7 years, meaning we will spend roughly 24 years asleep. I’m not even 24 years old.

Now my personal average is probably closer to 5.5 hours. Not too much of a difference, but I will spend 18 years asleep, giving me 6 more years of being awake. Imagine what you could accomplish with 6 extra years! The face that I’ve done so much in the past 2 years tells me that those 6 years will be worth the occasional tired day. For those of you thinking, “OK, well that’s all fine and dandy Alex, but sleeping less will cause health problems and shorten your lifespan anyway,” see quote above.

I’ll sleep when I’m dead.

It seems I’ve never really had any. High school graduation, getting into college, being competitive for grad school… those are all fine and dandy, but they’re notmy goals. People and society just tell what I need to work for, and I do. But I’ve never defined a goal for myself.

I’ve been thinking about this more and more as I progress through my college career. I’m just about halfway done, and I don’t really have concrete goals. I know what I want to do, what I love to do, what I’m passionate about, but I don’t why I feel the way I do. I have a career plan set out, but no goals. I want to be a part of this huge Californian and American education system that is currently falling to shambles. I want to fix it. I want everyone to have, and take, every possible opportunity they can. But why?

Inspiration, I want to inspire people. I want to be able to point to the next NBA all-star and say, “I coached him.” I want to point to the person who cures cancer and say, “I mentored her.” I want people to become and achieve something more than themselves. I want people to go out and change the world, and say “Alex, without your inspiration, none of this would have happened.” I could be a high school basketball coach, a motivational speaker, a high-position official at a university, whatever. But as long as I know that I can create a feeling of accomplishment and inspiration within people, I’ll be happy. I’ll know that I’ve found my place in the world.

I can only hope that inspire people now. I simply be the best I can be, and help others follow suit. The few times when I hear someone say, “Alex, thank you for everything you do. You make me feel like I can do anything,” are the sweetest, most valuable moments of my life.

To inspire. That’s my goal.

If only it were that easy…

It could be as easy as giving someone a hug or a smile or a compliment or high five or any number of things. But that’s all it takes. That one simple gesture of kindness that takes up a hundredth of a thousandth of a second of your time could be the thing that convinces someone to make it through the week. So stay happy. Stay positive. Stay optimistic. Its infectious. And you could just save a life.