Dear, Fitz

         Before I entered this class, I knew my place. I knew my strengths and my weaknesses; I knew my favorite class was Math, and a close second would be Latin, and I knew my own limitations as a writer, and that was the word limit plus an extra 200 words or more. I had learned how to fill a page, but I knew there is more to writing than that, though my suspicions were without doubt with a single class with you.

Fiction Versus Reality

Life is Never What it Seems

“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”

— Mark Twain

        After a couple days of weary practice, it was finally here; the band played Scipio as we all marched in a procession to our seats in a room full of anticipation, just as we had rehearsed. The time passes, but this time I watch with my eyes peeled clapping with the most intent as my classmates collect their various prizes. Sooner or later, my name is called to receive my diploma. Though passing as what may seem like a placeholder for the next person in line or another name hindering us from summer vacation, the diploma I would hold in my hand would be proof I have at least made it this far. Once the ceremony is over, I would meet up with my parents, who would sagely force me to take pictures with several of my friends, and truly, I would be happy, for they had given me the excuse my teenage mind needed to seize the memories before they would escape me. After an eternity spent of my dad socializing, we would finally get in the car to conclude another chapter, and to start the next with me lounging on the couch awestruck with a loosened up tie. Though even that fantasy has become all the more laughable since I concocted it.

The Power of Thinking

Round and Round We Go 

“The unexamined life is not worth living”

— Socrates

        Your thinking spot, an atmosphere of serenity, where your thoughts mingle and thrive. Where my thoughts find their way in a mental asylum of discourse to be relinquished of their worth and reduced to an idea (the novice stage of a thought) resuming the cycle of thoughts, thinking. When I need to alleviate my mind of the thoughts; suppress the ongoing cacophony in my brain I seek my spinning chair in which I can let the birds fly. What is the average office business chair, used for the leisure sit down and dawdle on the computer, turns into an abode in which my thoughts can be safely regarded. A key, in which unlocks the floodgates. Given to me as a gift, to furnish my empty bedroom, alongside a desk supposed to be used for the purpose of studying, this spinning chair and me have been through a lot of turns physically, and emotionally. Through these rounds in the chair, scanning the current being of my life and my room, the spinning chair has always been there.

A Journey of the Mind

Plato the The Republic Reading Log 

       Why do men behave justly? Is it because they fear societal punishment? Are they trembling before notions of divine vengeance? Do the stronger elements of society scare the weak into submission in the name of law? Or do men behave justly because it is good for them to do so? Is justice, regardless of its rewards and punishments, a good thing in and of itself? How do we define justice? Plato sets out to answer these questions in The Republic. He wants to define justice, and to define it in such a way as to show that justice is worthwhile in and of itself. He meets these two challenges with a single solution: a definition of justice that appeals to human psychology, rather than to perceived behavior.

Down Where I Belong

Marginalization Through Language 

“Some scars don't hurt. Some scars are numb. Some scars rid you of the capacity to feel anything ever again.”
— Joyce Rachelle

        Marginalization can take on many variations; though differing, they still leave a chronic wound. From these very wounds, I have acquired scars, the scars that cloud my conscience eternally. After each scar, I ponder the lesson I have learned; with consequence comes a lesson to be learned, and with each lesson, I think, why bother? This is why I take no action, but in the end, I feel like a smiling Ceaser with a dagger logged through his back. It was in a call with one of my closest friends, which I gained meaning to the past analogy. I was between a feeling of betrayal and disappointment, and in the midst of things, I was coarsening myself to believing it didn't matter, but through this storm, the outcome was silence.

The Power of Brotherhood

The Brother I Never Had 

“To find yourself, think for yourself.”

— Socrates

        You’ll realize who’s there for you when you’re at your worst. It was myself I found when I was stranded in the dark and desolate abyss. In times of solitude and longing, when I felt like I was alone in the world. I found solace in my thoughts, keeping myself entertain and occupied when I felt lonely in this rife, yet insufficient world. A preoccupied world, and me, without a destination. Never in my life had my thoughts become so essential to me; never was the lack of a sibling so apparent to me; never have I ever been so inundated with nostalgia for the friends I once had, other than the move from Ghana to America. All for the sake of what? A mystery. 

Birds of a Feather

Friendship Through Understanding 

“Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.”

―J.K. Rowling

        True friendship is forged on the basis of understanding. The more I am able to understand my friends, the more our relationship is cemented and is allowed to grow. Mere experience can’t define a fully-fledged friendship, but understanding for one another, even between the most adversely opposed people, can start the groundwork for a true friendship. Though I tend to relate to my best friends culturally and intellectually, that alone proves understanding is a significant factor in my attachments. They are able to relate to me more, and a bonus is they like the same things I do too.

Apeirophobia

A Fear of the Infinite 

“The problem with introspection is that it has no end.”

— Philip K. Dick

        Fear is a trek too far into the unknown. I fear many things in life; from germs to more apparent things, like a shark, but the greatest has always been the infinite. Your mind racing with it thoughts, pleading to emerge, hoping that their worth, their whole existence would be explored, hypothesized. As the currents flow like a running river, there tends to be more bitter ones, regarded with dread, fears. I sat in my chair thinking of the infinite, a start with no end. What a cruel thing, events in repetition, the only thing left to do is simply accept your fate. This forced me to open my mind, how might one cope with these conditions, these prerequisites. One must learn to accept, as one also learns to give. A world without a price is meaningless, and this price we must all pay. Fear is like a limitation you are given, like anything you must conquer.

Life on a Whim

The Probabilities of Life

“Chance corrects us of many faults

that reason would not know how to correct.”

—Francois de la Rochefoucauld

        Ever wonder how we all came to being? I am not referring to the miracle of birth that led to our existence, but factoring in all the subsequent actions that happened before that. Scientists say there is a 1 in 400 trillion chance of a singular human being born and based on how little we still know, it is acknowledged that this probability will only go lower. Laying down my eyes to the star and fingers driving into the earth, I think, I think of the fact we can see roughly 9000 stars when we look at the night sky, and of those 9000 there could have been, or there could be a solar system which we have not truly observed. We live in a world dictated by chance and probability, yet we live not internalizing the possibilities, but their outcomes, resulting in the life that we live in. Probability defines the future as it is our past.