"Laugh, and the world laughs with you
Cry, and you cry alone
No one knows that better than I"
- Laugh and the World Laughs with You, Jack Scott
the sayings I've internalized can be divided into two categories: ones I generally follow, and ones that I should follow but don't. here are a few of each that I say to myself pretty often.
ones I generally follow:
1. When aliens attack, you fight... or you DIE.
this one is kinda extra, but there is an explanation behind it. in movies like Independence Day or Pacific Rim, what's the one thing that can unite humanity? that's right, it's aliens or kaiju. deep down, we're all the same. regardless of ideologies, backgrounds, personalities, etc., we're all humans. there are a lot of problems in the world that could be solved if people put petty differences aside. as Iron Man said in Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #2, "Life is beautiful, positive affirmations and groovy dreams". come to think of it, that's another saying I try to follow.
2. I have said nothing that is not true.
this is usually what I say to my sister after I roast her with some genuine truths. putting this saying in this category is kinda ironic since I'm usually not 100% honest with people. I tend to put their happiness over mine, and that requires some clever mistruths. but I say this a lot to myself when I'm being honest with myself. and to my sister after roasting her, of course.
3. Hope for the best, expect the worst.
I've had a lot of different dreams in the past. most of them have been crushed by the weight of the world, done in by life itself. in spite of all that, there's still some part of me that keeps hoping for a better day. but this frame of mind is usually more realistic. as the alternative form of this saying goes, "don't expect much and you won't be disappointed".
ones I don't:
1. I regret nothing.
I used to have a stress list. it was basically things I was stressed out about, arranged by date and level of anxiety. every time something came off the list, something else would rise to take its place. graduation season of high school was where my stress list hit its peak, so after that my stress list kinda faded into obscurity. of course, I still stress out quite often, but now it's more like a way of life rather than a solid list. anyway, nowadays I have a list of regrets, spanning the period of my time from my distant past to present-day mishaps. much like my stress list, once I stop regretting something I start regretting something else. life is funny like that.
2. Always believe in yourself and your dreams!
this is a mantra I say to myself pretty jokingly. as mentioned in #3 above, it's hard for me to keep believing in myself and my dreams. there are days where I'm scared my dreams will never come to fruition and that I won't leave any sort of legacy behind. so I try to dream small and keep expectations low.
3. Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
public judgment scares me. maybe it's because I'm such an introvert, but for some reason, I care a lot about how people see me. I don't want to care, yet I do. of course, I know that the people who really care about me don't give a flark about how the public sees me. but I still always feel like I'm being silently judged, and it prevents me from being true to myself at times. probs has to do with self-confidence issues too, which I discussed a bit in the previous post. ah well.
proverbial statements are all well and good, but the role they play all depends on how you act on them.
