Book Trade

The Rules of Book Trade

1. You must read this book.
2. You must leave your name and date on the inside cover.
3. You must give this book to someone else within 30 days.
4. This person must be able to follow these rules.


Adam has just received my copy of Into the Wild. And Emily will soon receive my second copy of Fight Club.

Immaturity

To treat every day as valuable. To refuse to adhere to someone else's schedule, because you have your own and you're moving faster than everyone else. To explore your own limitations and refuse to accept anything less than the best. To ignore the difficulty of your path and focus solely on the reward. This is how I define maturity.

Attending school puts me in someone else's schedule working on material that I don't particularly care about.

Training to be a professional stunt driver allows me to work at my best on something that truly excites me.

Human Sacrifice

Close your eyes and picture yourself in a doctors office. Really envision the whole thing; waiting in the outer room, wearing the gown, getting x-rays and MRI's, waiting for the doctor...and then having him tell you that you have been diagnosed with malignant cancer. It has a 75% chance of recovery, but you may very well die. Try to really get into the emotional mindset that comes with being diagnosed with a terminal illness.

If you do that, there are two questions:

1. How would your life change?

2. Why are waiting for cancer to make those changes?



First I have to state that visualizing my emotions after being told that I have a limited chance of survival is difficult for me. I honestly can't really determine what I would feel at that moment. I would probably think that 75% is a good shot and I would try to push it out of my mind. But for the sake of argument, let's say it's a 10% survival rate. Or even a <1% survival rate.

I would do my second skydive. I would buy a motorcycle. I would sleep a lot less. I would spend a month or two traveling Europe.

I want to make a name for myself. But I don't know how. It seems like everything that I do isn't quite good enough to be great. I believe that to be great requires a huge amount of effort. I don't want to be just a wikipedia article. I want to be the topic of dinner discussions. But why do I care what others think of me?

I want to fulfill the purpose of life. But I don't know what that purpose is. Is it to be perceived as great? Is it to be remembered? Is it to create lasting change in the world? Is it to simply live for pleasure?



Why?

You Mustn't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems uphill,
When funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit;

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out,
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late, when the night's slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
And you can never tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're the hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.