26 January 2012
Radiate
'The faithful witness, like…Socrates, Voltaire, and Swift and Christ himself, is at his best when he is questioning and clarifying and avoiding the specialists obsession with solution. He betrays society when he is silent…He is true to himself and to people when his clarity causes disquiet.'









John Ralston Saul 'Voltaire's B******s'
The quote above means a lot to me and what I hold dear as a human being. Even Christ himself had to disobey authority at times because inside he knew that the authorities weren’t being righteous or just. Sometimes we need to discard information that is seemed to be concrete to others for our own intuitions and moral values to emerge for us to better make a proper decision. We decide every time someone tells us something if that information is valid or false, will I remember this information or quickly forget it because of the background or nature of the person telling you the idea. Some people are quick to acknowledge a piece of information as the truth just because someone that they think is educated or someone that they trust or like is telling them it. Some people never really developed the ability to think for themselves and they just do what other people tell them to do or what other people say they should be doing. I feel that telling someone else how to live their life is wrong. Giving advice and hints for someone is perfectly fine, let them think about the situation and make a decision on it for their own reasons and beliefs. So many people never get to shine and show their inner








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self, so many people are stuck in the shadows of their elders and mentors without the ability to think for themselves or make their own decisions.

When I first started school I loved it, I really did. I always walked into class with a huge smile on my face as if I was going to Disney land. As a young student I never missed a day even when I was sick I would act like I wasn’t just so I could go. I would talk about what I did in school at home or with my friends; I just couldn’t get it out of my mind. I loved to learn and make connections with previous learning’s; I loved to earn an A on an assignment that I had worked hard on. All the information at school flowing around like a network that any student in the room could tap into, I loved it. After the day was over I would think about all the new information I had learned that day and keep thinking about it until I knew I had definitely remembered everything that was taught that day. One of the best feelings was the feeling of just being smarter and learning more knowledge it was if I could feel my brain getting bigger. My teachers usually saw my interest in school and they would encourage it. I would build a relationship with my teacher because that was the person that was providing me the thing that I absolutely loved and that was knowledge.

Everyone has a different experience when they go to school, I mean everyone does. Some people may love it and some others may hate if for whatever reason whether it be the people there or just the idea. The thing was though I loved everything about school, I didn’t mind doing a bunch of homework every day. I didn’t mind waking up early to catch the bus or to catch a ride, I didn’t mind all the gossiping and bullying in the school, I didn’t mind that every

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other week that annoying fire alarm would go haywire and sometimes the weather outside was too cold for the clothes I had on, but still none of it bothered me.

I had friends throughout my school experience I guess you could call me popular or an easy guy to get along with. I would always talk to new people and make new friends it just came easy to me. All these new people made school even that much more fun. I would listen to all of their stories, their hardships, their learning’s, and what I soon realized is that you can learn so much from listening and interpreting other people’s lives so it suites your own. At a young age I soon picked up on small things that I found out not everyone does pick up on that helps create a bridge from previous information for me to make a clear analysis on a totally foreign subject. It was almost as if I was taking information from a subject or incident that really isn’t that important or what most would consider not important and using it to decode new information. Yes I was still learning in the class but learning outside of school soon became just as exhilarating, or even more.

There were always rules at school but they never really bothered me. I mean yeah I ran up the slide a couple times or ran in the hallway when I should have been walking but for the most part the rules never affected me. Until one day in high school when I was writing an English paper for an English teacher that, well let’s just say this, I didn’t care too much for. He always was preaching about fixing degenerate kids that are lost in today’s society and how all the hoodlums shouldn’t be provided schooling, I mean really prejudice stuff. He always talked about how you need to go to high school and do what they say, go to college and do exactly what they say, then find a job and do exactly what your boss says. I’m good at taking orders and
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being obedient but never will I sacrifice my happiness or sell myself short to oblige to another man’s rules that he himself probably doesn’t even abide. Just because someone is in a position of power or stature does not mean that they can’t make mistakes or be wrong. Just because your teacher or your elders tell you something, doesn’t always mean it’s 100 percent valid or the truth. I found out my own truth and my own meaning of being successful.

Morals, ethics, character, respect, and empathy. Why aren’t these methods taught at school? Why do teachers act so high and holy but yet forget the basic standards of being a decent human being. Why is this man allowed to tell what I need to do to be successful, what I need to do to become an esteemed member of this society? Yet he preaches of prejudice, he undermines students, he never has a thought of creativity or something abstract, he never says good job or well done, he’s disrespectful and rude most of the time, and what most of me and my fellow students came to figure out he doesn’t really care for any one of his students life or feelings. Does his knowledge of the 11th grade English rudiments grant him the authority to brainwash kids with the idea that society is only a one way street to happiness, success, and everlasting gratification. We are all different in so many ways, we all learn different and we all perceive the world different. There isn’t only one way to do things there are dozens. You don’t have to follow the route your teacher took or the route of your parents, your grandparents, siblings, cousins, and ancestors, whoever it may be. Look deep inside yourself; study yourself, disc over your true aspirations and your own intuition. Life’s too short; don’t waste it living someone else’s.