With New Goals come Bigger Responsibilities!

It is easy to set goals for yourself but the hard part kicks in when it comes to achieving them. Every time I succeed in achieving a goal I gain confidence and hope. And whenever I try to achieve a goal but I fail to, I often lose hope yet I always keep in mind that everything is achievable if I try and try. Failure to me has profound meaning. Never have I felt ashamed of failing to achieve a goal, well not anymore at least. I learned that if I have failed to accomplish a goal I wouldn’t lose anything major, maybe a little bit of hope, but most importantly I will end up gaining the knowledge of what I have done wrong. Simply put, I get to learn from my mistakes.

Each year is not like the other, responsibilities grow as we opt to set new goals for ourselves. This year, hopefully, will conclude my life in high school and before I embark on my college life I would like to accomplish many things. I chose to make education my number one priority even if it will cause me to lose my social life. My number one goal for this year is to get accepted to one of my top 10 universities. This is crucially important to me as I wish that all the hard work that I have given throughout my high school years will pay off at the end when I get accepted to a prestigious university. My other important goal that I wish to achieve over the course of this year is to acquire a healthy body. I will achieve that by adjusting my diet completely from junk foods to healthy foods and continue doing my daily exercise routine. My health is of high priority to me, as well. By the end of this year I hope I can feel and look healthy for once in my life!

Another goal that I have set for myself for this year, probably onwards, is to learn to play the piano and also continue pursuing my hobbies that I have pursued but unfortunately gave myself a break due to work overload. I will give myself some time to learn new stuff and pursue my hobbies by managing my time correctly. Now that I have experienced work overload with school, I can manage my time and try to fit other activities that I can learn and pursue.
Last but definitely not least I would very much like to improve my relationship with distant friends and extended family members. I haven’t been in contact with any of my old friends or extended family members for over a year now! I've been too busy with “school” and other issues and so that made them distant. Starting from this year I will call them every once in a while or pay them a visit at least.

Reading over my list of goals, I realized that other than my number one goal I am able to achieve each and every goal in the long run, without a doubt!

"Muse" muse upon 1984 in The Resistance

It is quite obvious that their new song, The Resistance, is an allusion to the book 1984 by George Orwell. Reading the first verse automatically made me acknowledge the song’s reference to 1984 and where we stand today, as well. “Is your secret safe tonight? And are we ought of sight? Or will our world come tumbling down?” This clearly implies to Julia's  and Winston’s “secret”, their love affair, and the constant fear they’ve been facing from the thought police in order to hide such deadly secret. From where I stand I am able to vision people whom are actually living in constant fear merely because they are keeping a secret, of similar matter to Julia's and Winston’s, from the authorities. The following verse foreshadows the upcoming events that occur in book 3, “will they find our hiding place? Is this our last embrace?”, and the hiding place refers to the apartment above Mr. Charrington’s store in which they use it as their place of escape thinking that its far from the Party’s eyes.

The following two verses signify the Party’s physiological manipulation and perhaps the idea of “doublethink”. The repetition of the line “It could be wrong, could be wrong” conveys doubt and uncertainties about Winston's and Julia’s love and whether they should split apart and adhere to the Party’s principles or resist and endure alongside the love their posses for each other. Due to the Party’s physiological manipulation individuals whom are able to think independently get distracted by thoughts that belong to the principles in which they are forced to abide by and thus they encounter the concept of “doublethink”.

The verse that starts with “love is our resistance” tells the story of Winston's and Julia’s willingness to stay together and go up against The Party in order to uphold the love they possess for one another. Further, the verse “quell your prayers for love and peace you’ll wake the “thought police” we can hide the truth inside” clearly alludes to 1984. It alludes to the constantly worries Winston is having about waking the Thought Police (obvious reference) and he hopes that they can continue their affair without showing outward emotion in public.

The last two verses explain the part of the story when Winston gets fed up from being under constant surveillance and begin perpetuating his path of resisting, “the night has reached its end we can’t pretend…it’s time to run”. Living in an oppressed society leads one to the point of being fed up with the authorities rule and hence resistance.

Is War a link to Peace?

Do all peace signs and peace movements resemble war; are we not aware that fighting in war is a fight for peace? There are numerous questions that come to mind when one thinks of the passage, extracted from the book 1984 by George Orwell, “War is peace”. This passage triggers uncertainties regarding the idea that peace is not able to subsist in our world. If war, the thing that most people dread, is a link to peace then aren’t we living in a world bombarded with peace? If the higher authorities think that brainwashing the public into telling them that “war is peace” then they are most certainly concealing their strategies away from the masses. Obviously, a government akin to the one in 1984 mainly focuses on keeping their people appointed towards a certain aggressor, far from themselves, to annihilate the idea of rebellion and keep it far from one’s ability to think about. War usually injects hatred in one’s mind towards the aggressor, and the hatred obtained stands as a fundamental element that keeps masses not only incapable of rebellion but also unified. Moreover, this passage is marked by physiological manipulation as the masses are being subjected to the idea that war is something for their own benefit while being coerced subliminally to believe in this ideology. However, in reality war is something for the Party’s own benefit in order to maintain stability and the so-called “peace” in their society. Evidently, Orwell is conveying the message that humans have a diabolical instinct wherein they tend to prioritize their wants before others, thinking of only the benefits THEY will gain yet not taking into consideration the aftermath even if the outcome is a total catastrophe for the majority but themselves. Simply put greed has stained the human flesh!

Catastrophic Disparities

Chile Vs. Haiti

I know that Chile is a much bigger quake than Haiti but according to the media, Haiti wins the attention! They’re pointing our attention to a much less severe earthquake. The picture illustrates the media’s perception that is reflected upon the majority of the world. However, reality states a rather different view; the Chile quake was actually much more severe than the one that occurred in Haiti. But somehow all our attention is pointed towards Haiti and the aftermath that the earthquake brought along. Currently a very few people are concerned with the death toll and the aftermath disasters that the 8.8 earthquake brought along to Chile. In fact people are more concerned about the earthquake’s aftermath regarding the shift of the earth’s axis or whatever.  Media, media, media you attention-grabbing slithery sly poisonous snake, with the poison you inject you’ve got the whole publics’ attention, don't you?