truth

“Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”– Howard Thurman

You ever look a picture of yourself, and see a stranger in the background?. It makes you wonder how many strangers have pictures of you. How many moments of other peoples life have we been in. Were we a part of someone’s life when their dream came true or were we there when their dream died. Did we keep trying to get in? As if we were somehow destined to be there or did the shot take us by surprise. Just think, you could be a big part of someone else’s life, and not even know it. 
Lucas, One Tree Hill

Be Happy For No Reason

Saw this on Facebook and it just brightened my day. Literally impossible not to smile at the sight of a gleeful baby in a Marilyn outfit. 

When it comes to living our lives, we really ought to take our cue from children. We were all children once, why have we forgotten?

Officially Ravenclaw

The Sorting Hat has spoken. I am a Ravenclaw, just like I've always wanted to be. Yey! I've always thought the word "Ravenclaw" sounded pretty cool and besides, I want to be in the same house as Cho Chang. Also, I'm extremely glad the Hat considers me smart enough to get into such a brainy house.

The Sorting Hat asked me a series of questions ranging from choices between black or white, river or forest, which mystical creature I would like to study, what scent would draw me in, etc. Finally, the sorting hat asked me to choose between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. In my mind, I was like Harry. "Not Slytherin." I picked Ravenclaw and that's where the Sorting Hat placed me. My friend Pam, an extreme Harry Potter expert and fan, is jealous because apparently I'm a Hatstall. What's a Hatstall, you ask? You can read about it on Chapter 7 of Pottermore. Ha, I'm not giving it away just like that :)

I know I'm lame 'coz I only started Pottermore recently. I'm still trying to catch up. So far, it's been kind of slow, but there are some really interesting tidbits from J.K. Rowling. I've had much more fun playing the Harry Potter Playstation games back then, but then again, Pottermore isn't a video game anyway, so it's not fair to compare. Pottermore allows you to explore back stories and interesting trivia that you'd never know just by reading the books. J.K. really has the whole wizarding world figured out. The coolest I've read so far is Professor McGonagall's parents' story.

I'm slowly treading through (took me a while to figure out Potions!) but I'm enjoying the ride. Can't wait to experience the rest of the chapters. Hopefully, I get to contribute to the Ravenclaw house points so we'd win the house cup. Current standing is Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. How very true to the book.

And so I end this in the words of the great Albus Dumbledore, "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"

:)

Addendum: A few weeks back, I learned that both my brothers also ended up in Ravenclaw. Now isn't that cool? I swear we didn't talk about it. We can be like, the Weasleys of Ravenclaw. Ha! :D As much as I don't want to put pressure on her, I really hope our baby sister ends up in our house when she finally gets sorted. She's our own little Ginny!:)

Leonardo

Oh yes. He will definitely do justice to Jay Gatsby's character. He's not my favorite actor for nothing. 

"It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced - or seemed to face - the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you  wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would lie to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey." --The Great Gatsby

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.”

I officially have a new book to add to my list of favorites. A book that I am so glad to have found randomly in one of my favorite bookstores. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is one of those books that seem to talk directly to me. Like, I get this strange feeling that it was made for me. (Of course I know that it is not. Stephen Chbosky, the writer, will probably get so kilig if he finds out that some random girl from the Philippines thinks that the book he wrote more than 10 years ago actually spoke to her. I would, if I were him.)

The book is an epistolary (new word for me! it means that the book was written as a series of letters. In this case, the main character, Charlie, writes to an unknown person to share his day to day life with because this person understands and won’t judge him), a day to day chronicle of what goes on in the life (and in the head) of a shy freshman boy as he explores the normal growing up fare – family drama, love, sex, smoking, drugs, and passions such as music and writing.  It’s basically your typical growing up/coming of age kind of story in the same tradition as “The Catcher in the Rye” (which was, surprise surprise, the author’s inspiration for writing this book). If you liked that book, I am a million percent sure that you’ll love this one, too.

Charlie’s someone I can relate to, if not for his experiences (some are too extreme. Drugs? Nah, I’m a bit more mellow than he is) but  because of the way he thinks. It’s too familiar. Like my thoughts. And it’s a bit creepy. His observations about everything and everyone almost sound like my own thoughts. I think he and I would make great friends. It’s like finding your soul mate in a book character.

“When I was walking up the stairs to my dad’s old room, and I was looking at the old photographs, I started thinking that there was a time when these weren’t memories. That someone actually took that photograph, and the people in the photograph has just eaten lunch or something.”

“And I thought that all those little kids are going to grow up someday. And all of those little kids are going to do the things that we do. And they will all kiss someone someday. But for now, sledding is enough. I think it would be great if sledding were always enough, but it isn't.”

“Sometimes, I look outside, and I think that a lot of other people have seen this snow before. Just like I think that a lot of other people have read those books before. And listened to those songs.
I wonder how they feel tonight.”

See? I keep on thinking those kinds of thoughts. Probably the "connectedness” talent that I have (thank you for letting me know this, Strengths Finder 2.0.  Will write about this book sometime!)

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just a wallflower myself.

And somewhere in between reading the book, I came to a conclusion, that yes, I most likely am. I feel like I’ve been observing to much, not doing enough. Trying to understand everyone, not feeling intensely. I’m envious of people who feel every moment as intensely as every other moment in their lives(even though I sometimes think it’s too OA). I think I’m sometimes deliberately missing out on the “being in the moment” part of life. Must be “out there” more. 

“Maybe it’s good to put things in perspective, but sometimes, I think that the only perspective is to really be there. Like Sam said. Because it’s okay to feel things.  And be who you are about them.”

The only perspective is to really be there. Isn’t that a nice thing to remember? :)

This book has the most beautiful lines and the most memorable characters. I felt like those were my experiences. And that I’ve lived them through Charlie.

“So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.”

I know when a book touched me so much when I can find so many memorable quotes and insights from it. This one has everything I’ve been wanting to read in a long while. Because while I enjoy reading about faraway adventures and magic and future worlds, it’s these kinds of books that make you appreciate reality and every piece of it. The bad things that make you a better person and the good things that are worth living for.

Quote dump

This why I love to read. :)

"What is a teacher? I'll tell you: It isn't someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows."
-Paulo Coelho, The Witch of Portobello

"If there is a Creator, what is he? And if there isn't a Creator, what is this world?"
-Jostein Gaarder, Maya

"The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity - it's envy.  Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can.  But life leaps over oblivion lightly, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud."
-Yann Martel, The Life of Pi

"To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."
-Yann Martel, The Life of Pi

"To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life."
-Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love

perfect love

“And then she tells me about one of his ideas, an adaptation of the invisible man: one day the invisible man, exhausted by having to play all the double games, hides in a store case to cry about his solitude. People pass by without seeing him. But one woman stops and comforts him: she is blind. What follows is a love story between the invisible man and the blind woman. They flee in a small boat. You see the oars moaning by themselves and the woman in the front, her face turned toward the horizon. This is the last shot.”

- I forgot the source! Waah. I just wrote it down some time ago. Found it really interesting =)

by far, the most romantic thing ever

“Why do people marry?”

“Because we need a witness to our lives. There are one million people on the planet. What does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things. All of it, everything, everyday. You’re saying, ‘your life won’t go unnoticed ‘cause I will be your witness.”

• from the movie, “Shall We Dance”

yza: i know. i'm not getting married anywhere in the near future. but hearing this really makes me actually look forward to it. for about a minute. haha