Everyone Is You

My dad majored in rocket science.

He studied hard on a full scholarship and ended up quitting half way through because he "didn't want to be an astronaut anymore." Despite the fact that he now works for a power-line company, he still graduated with such a degree, so I have the privilege of telling people my dad is a rocket scientist.

He tells my brother and I about a lot of these…theories. I'm not sure where he gets them, but they always make my head hurt. Most of them involve the universe, or time, or paradoxes. I'm going to write about one.

Everyone around you is also you.

Imagine this: every time you die, you're reincarnated. I'm sure you've heard this theory before ("you die and then you're reborn again!") but this is somewhat different. Assume that you're born in the year 2001. You live a long, happy life and then you die in the year 2080.

You're reincarnated. You're born again, as someone else, in the year 2000 (yeah, you went "back in time"). You live a long, happy life – through the year 2001 – up until the year 2080.

Wait! That would mean that there are two versions of "you" on the planet AT THE SAME TIME! What if they meet each other? What if they see each other? Would they know?

Pretend you live out this life (the one from 2000) and then you die again. You're reborn in 2002 and live until 2080.

Maybe you see where I'm going with this. If this cycle has repeated over and over and over…there could be a lot of versions of you on one planet. Maybe 12% of the world is made up of reincarnated you's.

Maybe you've walked down the sidewalk and made eye contact with someone you "didn't know," maybe you thought: cool, hey. Kept walking. But maybe that person used to be you. Maybe that person is who you'll become after you die.

Think about this: If it happened millions and millions of times…wouldn't that mean that everyone around you could be another version of yourself? Think about it. Perhaps you are everyone. Perhaps every time you die, you go back in time and start over as a new person. Perhaps you've lived millions of lives as other people that you don't remember. Maybe you are Albert Einstein and Beyoncé and Donald Trump. Maybe you are everybody.

It's sort of a difficult concept to think about, but try it. Then look around you and study someone else's face. Think: have I been here before?

The idea makes you feel peculiarly lonely. Technically, by these standards, you're alone. You are the single being that exists on Earth, and all people are made up of your being.

Everyone is you.

Emma told me to add this picture.
Courtesy of High School Musical

Flaws In The Education System #1

I plan on writing multiple posts about things that are wrong with our education system. Welcome to the first of (hopefully) many.

Education or Grade?

Photo courtesy

A student walks into math class feeling entirely normal. She/he has just finished conversing with a friend about the geography test next period, something that everyone seems to be stressed about today. He/she takes a seat where he/she is assigned and glances forward. On the white board is written, "TEST TODAY. NO CALCULATORS!"

She/he mentally panics, immediately filling with terror. With the biology test last class and the geography test next class…he/she completely forgot about this one. Math.

The student's eyes scan over the bold words again. No calculators. She/he hadn't practiced multiplying matrices at all. He/she was relying on the use of a calculator in order to pass this exam. So he/she snatches one from the basket and holds it in between their thighs, smiling warily as the rest of the students enter the classroom.

No one seems to notice him/her cheating, but they're very cautious. Sure, he/she feels awful about it, but they have good reason. The teacher doesn't let them retake tests! And the student knows their grade will not be an A after this.

At some point he/she realizes that they have absolutely no clue how to perform this equation. The person sighs, glances up, and glimpses at another students' work (Not even to cheat! They just want to see how far behind they are) only to realize they're on the exact same problem. And his/her neighbor, unlike his/herself, actually has an answer written down.

You may be thinking: How is this a flaw in the education system? It seems like a flaw in the teacher's awareness. However, this is the issue:

The reason students cheat on tests is because their grade matters more than their education.

Why is this, exactly? I think the answer is sort of obvious. From the moment students start receiving grades, the entire idea of them is exaggerated. Once you reach high school especially, everything revolves around your GPA. It's not about being knowledgable. College applications don't look at your brain activity, they look at your transcript.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the original point of school was to educate kids. The emphasis on learning feels like it's been decreased. To me, it's as if the entire point of high school is to get good grades, get into a good college, and get a high-paying job. I don't just want to succeed in school; I want to be intelligent. The idea of learning and knowledge is really awesome, and school takes that away from us.

So screw the grades – aim for intellect. Set fires with brilliance, break hearts with capability, and learn.

The Large Gap Between Where You Are And Where You Should Be

The thing is, you may feel sort of unaccomplished. Maybe you're like me and you spend your minimal free time looking at pictures of dogs dressed as bees. Maybe you're life is a repetitive cycle. Maybe you're slower than everyone else, and maybe you feel a bit behind.

That's sort of okay, though.

There are people in the world who move really fast – the type of people who are ahead of all their responsibilities, homework, and chores. These are the type of people that have everything planned to the minute; the type of people that text you "hey" and say "sorry I have to go" two minutes later. Treadmill people. They take advice from time and never stop going places. These are the type of people who are rooted into their beliefs. Always on the ground, never distracted. Stable, conscious, fast.

Then, there's everyone else. Possibly you. The people that feel like everything is moving too quickly for them to keep up – like they're constantly running to catch the bus but it pulls away as soon as they arrive. They sometimes feel like they're moving too slow, but that's fine. They take their time on their homework, chores, and responsibilities. They're the type of people that will sit down at the bus stop and accomplish something else as they wait for the next vehicle. They'll text you and ask you how your day went, and (even if they have something else to do) they'll maintain a conversation. These are the type of people who are suspended in the sky. Gentle, free-falling, slow.

There's nothing wrong with moving "too slowly" or being "behind everyone else." Take your time. Breathe through everything.

There's also nothing wrong with moving quickly. Write a final essay in 27 minutes. Check something off on your to-do list and sprint to the next objective.

But:

If you look at other people and wish you were there, stop doing that. I'm serious. Stop. Maybe it doesn't seem that easy ("I can't just stop being envious of people") but you actually can.

Try to compliment someone else without comparing them to yourself. Try to look at people and flood them with admiration. Everything is beautiful and everyone is beautiful. At some point you'll realize that you're a part of everyone, too.

Actually, the title of this post is a complete lie. There is no "large gap between where you are and where you should be." You are THERE. You've accomplished everything you're supposed to have accomplished. This is for you:

Do you think they actually posed for this, just suspending their hands in the air like that, or were they actually mid high five? Anyways, photo courtesy here

A/N: This is actually a fairly inspirational post, which is really unlike me. I mostly wrote this because I was feeling overwhelmed and very behind with schoolwork/responsibility. It sort of made me feel better. I hope it does the same for you. 
Also please excuse the high-five picture. I'm required to add an image to every one of my posts and for some reason I thought it was funny.

The Universe is Too Big

Did you know that we don't matter?

Maybe you're the kind of optimist that thinks everyone is significant to the world's cycle of events. Maybe I've offended you deeply by telling you that you're unimportant. And I don't mean to make your existence feel pointless, but it kind of is.

Here's the thing: the universe is too big. We all live in a city that lives in a state that lives in a country that lives in a continent that lives on a planet. We live on a singular planet among a collection of other planets. This collection of planets live in a galaxy, a galaxy that lives with an abundance of other galaxies. These galaxies form a universe, a universe that is much, much too big.

This is either a good thing or a bad thing. It goes one of two ways:

1. The massiveness of everything inspires you. You look into the night sky and want to become the stars. You learn about the universe and want to discover it; you want to explore it. You want to be the kind of person who makes an impact on everything else. You want to matter.

2. The vast, immense pile of giant stars is terrifying. You glance upward toward the clouds and feel really really small. All you see is a huge, empty space between where you are and where you wish you could be. You want to float into the sky and touch the galaxies, but you're accompanied with the heavy reality that you can't.

There's this picture taken by the Voyager 1 in 1990. It's of the Earth – our Earth – from 6 billion kilometers away. The picture is called the Pale Blue Dot. And it shows, visually, just how minuscule our entire world actually is. We live on a speck.

Image Courtesy of: Pale Blue Dot

Though the whole "we don't matter" concept isn't exactly inspirational, it's nice (and necessary) to regain a sense of perspective.

Have you ever seen Horton Hears a Who? (It's my favorite childhood movie, by the way). If you haven't experienced it, I'll enlighten you:

This is an absurd animation written by Dr. Seuss and some other guy name Jeff. It's about Horton, an elephant, who lives in the jungle with all his jungle friends. One day he comes across this little crumb on a flower and manages to discover that there is, in fact, a little city of people living on this speck.

At the end of the movie, the camera "zooms out" to reveal that Horton and all his jungle pals are ALSO living on a speck. Despite the fact that I was only 8 years old when I first saw this film, it caused me to consider the idea: what if we, too, live on a speck? And the reality is that, when you think about it, we do. We live on a speck. Sure, the world is gigantic in comparison to an ant or a caterpillar. But in comparison to the universe, our world is nothing but a speck. A pale blue dot suspended between the stars.

Whether this matters to you or whether it doesn't, it's certainly something to think about. I used to believe that we, as humans, were too small. I thought that we were too insignificant, stuck here on this tiny planet. In actuality, the universe is just too big. No human is ever going to explore the entire macrocosm, and that's a fairly unsettling realization. The universe is too big. You cannot reach up and touch a star. If everything were a bit smaller and a bit less infinite, then maybe – just maybe – you'd matter a little more.