20050827
rat race.
"she's still much the same and when i asked her how she was, she said 'tired!' hmm, which leads me to conclude that life's an endless rat race, no matter at which phase of your life, you'll always be plagued and burdened with responsibilities pertaining to the stage of life you're in."
life's an endless rat race. how true. how many times have you ran the last mile only to discover that there's yet another laid out for you. and another. and another. exams. career. relationships. our lives are just filled with endless checkpoints. checkpoints that you thought were end-points. checkpoints that make you put in your fullest efforts. checkpoints that make you look back and heave a great sigh of relief.
these checkpoints are uncountable. we, as an individual, are susceptible to them. they can make us stronger. and they can make us falter. sometimes, it's all in the mind. one to the uncountable. maybe ten? maybe a hundred? maybe a thousand? it's easy to tell who, or which, is at the gaining end.
so are we supposed to fall prey to them and change ourselves to fit them? change ourselves just so we can get past the checkpoints?
yes, we change. but we change to be stronger to take them on. we change not to be weakened by them.
we change to rise over these checkpoints and to run towards them, while preserving our own mentality and character. we don't change to be belittled by them and for them to lead us on, while we lose our individuality along the way. we don't change to become yet another victim of the perils of life's endless rat race.
change is the only constant. if we allow ourselves to change and fall everytime we are subjected to storms of life, what will be left of ourselves fifty years down the road? none of yourself. but full of the superficiaility that this world has sadly fallen to.
tough as it may be, it is possible. the things around us may attempt to weaken us, and that is why we have the people around us to strengthen us. we often place too much emphasis on the unglamorous side of things only to forget to cherish the beauty in the others around us. the rat race is ugly without a doubt. people fighting to be the best. people using all means to get to what they want, where they want. that's the ugly side of life. the ugly side of the dog-eat-dog world. but have we forgotten the hands that pull us out whenever we sink unknowingly into the quicksand of the race? have we forgotten the encouragement and the unspoken support from the people around us?
they are the ones who run the race with us. the ones who you will hold their hands at the checkpoints and look back and say "we made it through together". they are the ones who keep us sane even when the world proves too much for you to take. they are the ones who remain, checkpoint after checkpoint.
yet, there are people who see these blessings as burdens. they let go of these hands so that they are more free to run the race. so that they can run the race faster. and they do so without realising that they've very much fallen to the endless tests of life. they may reach the checkpoint and look back thinking "i've made it through!" but when they reach out for someone to share their joy with, they realise that they're alone. the hands that once touched them have long been left behind, along that race of life.
when we hold on, lives intertwine. our faith strenghtens. and we become stronger.
when we let go, lives get separated. and we lose our strength and our faith bit by bit, unknowingly.
and that's the difference between changing for the race and allowing the race to change us.
life has meant for the former. but people go for the latter, because they believe they are not up for the former. because they give themselves excuses to believe that they can't. because they blame the situation and see their decision as inevitable.
"people are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. i don't believe in circumstances. the people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."
- George Bernard Shaw
after every checkpoint, there's yet another. the run is endless.
and the ones who want to will definitely look back on hindsight, still with their hands held in others'. smiling, 'cause they've made it through. and smiling, 'cause they know that they've succeeded in noticing the tiny specks of glimmer in the bleakness out there.
group1 soared @ 22:37
xoxo