Win or Lose, Life is A Game

Just a disclaimer - This will not be a usual blog where one discusses a topic or issue in a logical and rational way. Rather I will attempt to unpack my mind of all the excess baggage that has been accumulating over the past few weeks. I'm doing this more as a mental exercise or relaxing/rejuvenating/therapeutic experience. So if none of this makes much sense, it has less to do with your comprehension and more to do with my ineptitude/bipolarity.

My family has this tradition of going on vacation every summer. A couple of years ago we went to Maine for the first time in our lives and stayed near Acadia National Park which is unparalleled in natural beauty and clean pristine environment. The drive there was quite neat as well. There's a point in the road where you can see the ocean extending out beyond the cliff and this continues for a few miles. Although it is a sizable tourist attraction, for some reason we repeatedly frequented a small cafe for lunch where my father insisted the best subs in the world were created.

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Yes I have a picture of me standing right there

And I think the year after that (probably summer 2008) we decided to return to Niagara Falls at the border of New York, USA and Ontario, Canada which is of course internationally famous. The last time we went there was back in 2004 when we explored the American side. But I'm not going to lie. If you've been there you know what I mean when I say that the American side of Niagara Falls looks like a dump compared to the Canadian side.

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America on the left, Canada on the right. Pick your side

So finally in 2008 we decided to stay on the Canadian side. And although it's heavily commercialized it was a nice place. It was even my birthday and my parents ate at the hotel restaurant which is something they never do anywhere.

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Yes I was in that boat and yes I got wet

I think the year after that we went to Virginia Beach. This has got to be one of the best beaches and boardwalks I've ever been to in my limited experience being stuck in the east coast of the United States.

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Any photos of the beach and/or boardwalk will be underwhelming so this must suffice

And possibly around that time we visited both Washington DC (for the 5th time) and Baltimore, Maryland (mainly for the aquarium).

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It's cool because you have to work your way through tunnels and mazes to look at fishies

And despite all these journeys over the years, I say with with great misfortune and displeasure in my heart that I have never left the east coast of the USA (but have been all the way up from Maine down to Florida...Disneyworld gets old after a while). I did once visit my father's friend's uncle in Chicago when I was maybe 7 years old. But I've never been to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, anywhere out west.

But I can always vicariously live out my dreams of traveling to California and Las Vegas through this lovely and rich German lady who has a fetish for high heels despite being freakishly tall (she is taller than everyone in her videos)

So sidetracking for a second...
I have to say I've always loved breakfast cereals and enjoy them both as traditional breakfast with a bowl of milk, as well as a nice snack anytime of the day with a bowl of milk or straight out of the box.

The following two cereals are at the top of my list currently:
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Absolutely amazing. You have to try this at least once in your lifetime. That's how good it is

Now the next one is just alright, not anywhere near as good as my first selection. But obviously this kid might disagree with me
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But anyway, moral of the story:
Nothing like cereal with a bowl of cold milk, even in the winter.

Recently I've been vacillating between being super enthusiastic and energetic and totally exhausted and bored with life.

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This is Leonardo DiCaprio when he was 13 years old or something like that

So just as an after thought. You know how people always say that hindsight is 20/20? Well my parents moved into the house where we're currently living when I was 13. Middle school was a funny time for me. At the end of 5th grade I left all my elementary school friends to live in South Carolina for 9 months when my dad got a job there. At the time we continued to rent our old apartment where we used to live and the other apartment we were living at in South Carolina. When I returned to middle school in my old town as a 6th grader, all my old friends were still there but they were somehow...different, as if they had been corrupted by the influences of middle school.

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This was around the time I started playing this game which none of you have probably heard about

So I spent a month of 6th grade and all of 7th grade at that school. During the summer of 7th grade my family moved again, still in the same state but far away enough from my old friends that I could only see them once every two weeks. So in those three years, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, I spent at three different schools. I will never forget those sleepovers I used to have those middle school years with my good buddy whose father recently passed away after a long battle with cardiovascular issues. Anyway we would have some crazy conversations in the darkness of the night, from school crushes to our beliefs in the paranormal to if we would have sex with a female Bigfoot even if it hurt or why the younger daughter from Fresh Prince of Bel Air was hotter than Hillary.

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Damn gurl

One time in a slightly homoerotic moment, my friend looked at my face bathed in the moonlight streaming in from his bedroom window and remarked that I looked like Keanu Reeves. Obviously I had to reciprocate the compliment so I told him he looked like Tom Cruise (which can be interpreted as an insult depending on how one feels about scientology and his relatively short stature even though I also happen to be about 5'8").

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Apparently this is what I look like in the moonlight

Despite all this, those childhood memories are often tinged with a feeling of regret. A regret that symbolizes all the things in your life that didn't quite turn out the way you planned or expected. But also a youthfulness often accompanied by a distinct immaturity (and in my case, arrogance) that never quite allowed you to reach and realize your potential.

I like to think I'm some sort of master at chess, despite having never played any official rated tournaments. (But I do have a pretty awesome profile at chess.com if I do say so myself. FYI that person in the picture is not me, it's Thierry Henry with sunglasses)

Recently I crossed paths with an impressive young man who happens to be the son of one of my mother's college friends. This guy (a high school junior) scored a 2360 on the SAT, has an incredible GPA taking tons of honors and AP level courses, and has participated in math and science competitions. He also lives in one of the most academically distinguished school districts in the nation. However I still kicked his ass at chess.

However he's probably kicking my ass at this

That being said, I do kind of miss being a student. Maybe that's simply nostalgia talking because I completely hated being in high school. But when you're in high school you can't possibly imagine how dull the real world is. Something about school seems to restricting and yet so full of infinite possibility at the same time.

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This is Cristiano Ronaldo. He is one of the highest paid athletes of all time and one of the most successful soccer players in history. And he makes more money in a year than you will probably ever see in your whole life

Many people throughout history have said that money and greed are the main sources of conflict in society. Everyone wants more and more is never enough. Human satisfaction is not a static object. It's constantly changing depending upon one's life circumstances. And this adaptation is autonomous and subconscious in the sense we aren't even aware of it.

The rich man is not one who is wealthy in his bank account but wealthy in his mind and soul. I've stopped long ago trying to be a person of mass fortune and riches. Rather I strive to be a person of character and integrity and moral values. I want to be someone who contributes something meaningful to the world. Of course not everyone can be famous for their achievements or accomplishments or talents. That's not to say that we shouldn't all try being good citizens and people of worth. And that even if our life sucks we find comfort in something we love doing, whether it's knitting, going bowling, or doing multivariable calculus.

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Many instances in life you will find yourself plagued with doubt or hopelessness or indecisiveness. I want you to forget all that nonsense. The what-ifs might never entirely go away. Look at this woman for a second (or longer, I don't really blame you). She was born in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Her family is Muslim but she is an actress. You know what makes that possible? America being the land of opportunity. Her family came to America when she was 3 years old, seeking a better life for their daughter because of the political unrest back then in their country in the early 80s. And they were granted asylum. She considered careers in international journalism and politics and worked at Capitol Hill during her high school and college years due to her growing up in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC. Now imagine if her family stayed in Afghanistan. She would have had to conceal her beautiful features and forget about going to school and being educated and having any sort of career. She would have been 22 years old when her country was invaded in 2002.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Win or Lose, Life is A Game

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