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  • Subject: Deep Flood - Living your life
Subject: Deep Flood - Living your life

Flobots - Handlebars

I don't often do these kinds of threads, but here goes.

This song kind of hit me. Maybe it's because I'm in a very stressed out place in life. College exams, projects, and all that will do that to you. I failed my first exam ever a few days ago, for a mundane reason. I simply didn't ask my professor if I was on the right track. Granted, a good exam will be phrased in such a way as to eliminate these types of errors, but that is not the point I'm making. The point is, quite plainly, you failed. You do not understand this material. You did not succeed at the task that was set before you.

These can be frustrating moments, to say the least. Did I not try hard enough? Did I try too hard, and focus on the micro, where I should have focused on the macro? Should I have studied processes in this chapter instead of that chapter? Should I have ... you get the point.

The problem is when this occurs on every exam. It gets to you. Ace the homework, participate in lecture, collaborate effectively in group projects, but fail the test. All that work and the professor says "You don't get it." It sucks.

But then, my brother spawn031 posted the lyrics to this song on Facebook. I vaguely remembered it from years past, when we were in high school driving at bleeding 7 am to get to school on time. The song is linked above, Flobots - Handlebars. It's a story. A very good story.

Remember when you first learned to ride a bike when you were little? You thought it was impossible without those training wheels. But somewhere after all those scrapes, cuts, and bruises, you found the balance in your roll and succeeded. You felt as if you finally made it. You finally succeeded. But then, years later in some cases, someone came up to you and said, "You can do better." So you learned to ride with no handlebars. Then you realized something. You could do anything.

You could get a 4.0, become captain of a team, live on your own, get a degree, create the next big thing, make people's minds hackable, create easy management solutions for Fortune 500 companies, triple the value of the USD, create a million jobs, become President, serve in the military, fly a 17 million dollar plane, go on classified missions, capture one of the most dangerous terrorists of our time, rescue someone from a storm... the list goes on.

And I think, somewhere in trying to achieve all that, we lose sight of that surge in realization. We spend so much time trying to figure out what we need to know we forget why we need to know it. We forget our drive, our passion for learning our craft. We forget the difference we saught to create.

This is the value of childhood dreams. They remind us of who we wanted to be. They remind us of where we need to go. And they encourage us to get there. We remember the rush of riding with no handlebars.

If you have an hour or so, I'd highly recommend watching Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. It's a very good speech.

I'm gonna go to a party now and pretend this didn't happen. For some odd reason people think it's easier to be drunk and forget our passions than to think for once and make a difference. So, for discussions sake, what are your dreams? Your ambitions? What drives you forward? What difference do you seek to make in the world?

  • 11.30.2012 5:40 PM PDT

;)

Exams are coming up and you're going to a party? Bad move homie.

Also, don't worry. Economics sucks. I failed my first exam in Micro/Macro and after that first failure I passed the class with an A. Just focus on the important stuff ATM.



[Edited on 11.30.2012 5:46 PM PST]

  • 11.30.2012 5:45 PM PDT

The Universe demands to be noticed, to be seen, and dutifully noted.

What use all those incredible firework dimensions if no eye fixes and reflects, no brain takes notes, no heart moves with passion at the display?

NASA answers the silent cry of the Cosmos for recognition.

NASA is the witness and we fellow witnesses to the endless deeps.

7 isn't really that early a commute to school...

Also, I feel that the whole notion of 'achieving something' has been tossed down the metaphorical trash bin - we aren't conditioned to achieve something at birth - the constant pummeling message that 'wealth is power' by the mainstream media and society in general ultimately leads to the pursuit of money, or barring that, a stable job, mired in mediocrity.

We associate wealth (either rightly or wrongly) with success anyway - think of the top 5 successful people in the world and you'll most likely come up with the top 5 richest people in the world - the urge to achieve has been lost.

  • 11.30.2012 5:51 PM PDT
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Dreams? League of Shadows.

  • 11.30.2012 5:59 PM PDT
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Posted by: Muffin enforcer
7 isn't really that early a commute to school...

Also, I feel that the whole notion of 'achieving something' has been tossed down the metaphorical trash bin - we aren't conditioned to achieve something at birth - the constant pummeling message that 'wealth is power' by the mainstream media and society in general ultimately leads to the pursuit of money, or barring that, a stable job, mired in mediocrity.

We associate wealth (either rightly or wrongly) with success anyway - think of the top 5 successful people in the world and you'll most likely come up with the top 5 richest people in the world - the urge to achieve has been lost.

Very true. My personal goal is to simply put myself in a position where I can live my days happily. Find true happiness and peace. Never will I sacrifice happiness for wealth. The way I see it, if I haven't a penny to my name, but am truly happy then I succeeded.

  • 11.30.2012 6:09 PM PDT


Posted by: Muffin enforcer
7 isn't really that early a commute to school...

Also, I feel that the whole notion of 'achieving something' has been tossed down the metaphorical trash bin - we aren't conditioned to achieve something at birth - the constant pummeling message that 'wealth is power' by the mainstream media and society in general ultimately leads to the pursuit of money, or barring that, a stable job, mired in mediocrity.

We associate wealth (either rightly or wrongly) with success anyway - think of the top 5 successful people in the world and you'll most likely come up with the top 5 richest people in the world - the urge to achieve has been lost.


A very good comment indeed - I agree with much of what you said, being a physicist myself I think it is sad that the majority of people (even kids) just obsess over money and going out to get drunk these days instead of having ambition to become a scientist/mathematician etc and to be able to achieve an occupation which enables one to pursue their true aspirations and interests.

Sad really.

  • 11.30.2012 6:12 PM PDT
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"The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.
The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light."
-Felix Adler

I don't really have ambitions right now, apart from getting a girlfriend, finishing school, going on a trip.
Eventually getting into Uni, possibly with nursing.

  • 11.30.2012 6:20 PM PDT

I'm an Anarchist. I don't need a government to be a good person, but I'm glad it's here because some of you clearly do.

I think an obstacle we all come across at some point is realizing that our goals are actually a sum average of the opinions of our peers and idols, not developed and harvested by our own experiences and morals. Our goals are defined early on by what other people have done or seen, without much respect toward what we are actually good at, and we never really consider other options until we realize that nothing we are doing is actually getting us anywhere.

  • 11.30.2012 6:36 PM PDT

Challenge me to a Hawaiian Punch chugging contest. I dare you.


Posted by: mubox47
$.50 in store credit.

OP, your thread was long as heck. But it was good. I've had slightly similar thoughts recently. I'm gonna reply in a similarly overly long, jumbled mess that will hopefully answer some of the questions posed in your thread. First, some of my background. Please enjoy the ensuing blog. For a post more directly related to the OP, read the last two paragraphs.

No, i don't remember learning to ride a bike as a kid. No one ever taught me. I guess maybe my parents were tired after teaching my two older brothers and expected them to teach my sister and I. My sister caught on, i never got off of the training wheels.

The first thing i wanted to do was be a fighter pilot when i was a kid. Turns out color blind/poor sighted people can't fly planes, and telling that to a kid with a dream sort of kills the sense of ambition.

My first hobby was playing drums. In eight grade i was given a single lesson by my brother, the only formal lesson i've ever had in anything. I didn't play much, but i caught on quick.

A year later i picked up Bass. I had started getting more into music (coincidentally, Flobots' Fight With Tools was one of the albums that caused it) and wanted an instrument of my own. I had dreams of performing for people, but doesn't every thirteen year old with some strings?

A year passes, and the summer before junior year i picked up my first guitar. A beautiful Ibanez AF75 Artcore Hollowbody. I taught myself some Cake and Modest Mouse, but still didn't take it anywhere.

Early on in the school year, my Outdoors Pursuits class had a week of biking. I was already dedicated to the class and i'd never ridden a bike in my life. I figured my only option was to learn. So i did. In one night i spent some time outside on the blacktop riding my dad's old bike until i had it down. I felt pretty good about myself after that.

It was an interesting year. My best friend's dad killed himself. She moved in with another good friend, who's grandmother was almost immediately diagnosed with cancer (sadly, she just passed away last tuesday), which was all going on while another friend, practically my third brother because he spent so much time here, was dealing with his own father being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Everyone's life was falling apart around mine and i was just trying to do what i could to help.

The only peace i had that year came from the Avett Brothers, who i just discovered, and a good friend encouraging me to learn more music so i could jam with him. I began learning basic theory, like chords.

Despite their crappy lives, all my friends were planning out their future. And i had no idea what to do. I felt it would be a waste of my intelligence and skills to pursue something silly like being a musician when i could barely play guitar

So that went on for a while. My friends all hated life and i was trying to help them, obsessing over the Avett's music whenever i wasnt out with them or playing guitar with my other friend. Everything seemed pointless. I wanted to move on with my life but i had no idea what to do. I was just bored for the majority of a year, trying to not fall into some sort of depression.

Then that summer i went to a form of camp, and while there i was talking to a very talented vocalist girl back home. We talked about college and careers and she was planning on a double major, being a music teacher and music therapist. She inspired me to double major as well. I figured i could do music and something practical as well, but at a college fair the representatives discouraged me from doing that, saying i should drop the music and stick with something more practical.

And then everything just sort of clicked for me. I wanted to be a musician. I knew it i just, for some reason hadn't admitted that i wanted to make a career out of it. Like you mentioned in the OP, there's a surge of realization. I'd known on some level that i wanted to be a musician for years, and now that i finally said it out loud it seemed like a real possibility. I'd taught myself everything i knew, why couldn't i continue teaching myself music and make a life out of it? And that was that. Music was already my life, and since then it's been the most important thing to me. And here i am, some five months later, submitting my Production Demo to McNally Smith College of music, waiting for my audition next week.

More related to the topic, recently i've been watching this neat show Audio-Files. It gives a lot of insight into the lives and backgrounds of Indie musicians. Several musicians say that they saw music as their option. They'd been making music their whole life and it was the only thing they could do. It's how they express themselves, how they communicate, where they're at hom and where they find God. Then i got to another episode today. The musician was Josh something. What i found most interesting about him was that he learned to play guitar at the age of 21. He loved music as a kid, but had no musical upbringing. He remained independent because he wanted to be able to release want he wanted when he wanted. He was a musician because he wanted to be. He was already happy, because he lived with the girl he loved and lived the way he wanted. Music was just many of the things he wanted to do, along with his gardening and animal raising and being a husband, and his only goal in life was to do all the things he loved, and to do them as best as he could. So he did.

That's what i want to do. Just live, and do it the way i want it. I don't care if i'm making money or being remembered or changing the world. Im just gonna do what i do. My goal while creating music is to connect with others. I'm already happy. I'm 17 and making my own music. I've already won. So i might as well do what i do and hope it makes others happy too.

  • 11.30.2012 7:02 PM PDT
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Feet first into hell

lyk dis if u crie evrytiem ;_;


  • 11.30.2012 7:04 PM PDT
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YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

  • 11.30.2012 7:04 PM PDT