These aren't just my thoughts.
They're everyone's.
I'm just the one writing them down.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Taking A Step Back

I think it's always good to take a step back once in a while to take a look at what you're doing. Why are you doing what you're doing? What's it mean?

So I'd like to take a break from my daily "hate it"s and "love it"s in order to throw out some of my thoughts on this blog and what I've taken away from these past couple weeks of writing.

I've noticed... working at a hobby is a refreshing break from doing work for school or a job.

I've noticed... that much of your happiness depends on your attitude. It's all about how you look at things. Go through your day to just get by and you'll most likely be disappointed. Go through your day looking to try something new, take a risk or achieve a small personal goal and you'll be much happier.

I wonder... if my outlook on life has shaped my blog or if having my blog has shaped my outlook on life.

I've noticed... that it's much easier to write a "hate it" than a "love it". Call me a pessimist or a complainer but I think it has something to do with general human nature. We expect everything to go right. We only really take notice when something doesn't. For example, do we ever say, "Hey they prepared my sandwich just the way I ordered it! How great is that!" No. We only notice when they mess up and then we grumble about it. Why is there only bad news on TV? When people hear good news, they just dismiss it as something that's supposed to happen. People only really take notice when they hear about something that went wrong.

I suggest... that we take the time to notice the little things that go RIGHT in our day for once. I've kind of touched on this point in my last couple of posts, but I guess I can't emphasize this enough.

Here are the Monday Contest entrants so far:
Phil Ting, Davis, UC Davis

Phil says: "people wanting to go to class but there is a strike"

Selena Kuo, La Jolla, UCSD

Selena says: "I see this view from my lounge everyday but somehow i fail to notice it sometimes"

Archit Sheth-Shah, New Haven, Yale

Archit says: "The view from my common room a few days ago hahaha looks like the lion the witch and the wardrobe"

Bryan Tran, Westwood, UCLA

Bryan says: "Walking back from looking at the rally, I see this beside Janss Steps. A little hard to see, but aerial silk practice on the left and tightrope practice on the right. Always something interesting going on"

Andrew Shu, Cupertino, De Anza

Andrew says: "crazy protestors campin out lol only some of em are left cuz the others are probably in jail"

Andrew says: "some place where no one goes to in deanza. used to be like mr. deanza's swimming pool and they made it into a fountain after he died"

Chanel Hung, East Los Angeles, USC

Chanel says: Driving through LA is a bitch because there's too much traffic. Normally I'm just focused on getting to where ever I'm trying to get to; trying to find gaps to weave and such. But on this one particular car ride back to campus, I noticed a lot of graffiti art that I love. There were a lot of them, but this was the only one I had enough time at a red light to take a picture of. It's my goal in the next year or so to go on a photo hunt through LA to find interesting graffiti art.

Brandon Liu, Irvine, UC Irvine

Brandon says: "This is the interior side of the UCI student center main building, with the anteater mascot. This is the main center of UCI, where most students preside in, eat food, and hang out"

Grace Sun, Tacoma, University of Puget Sound

Grace says: "The view from my lounge" (look at the mountain in the background!)

Grace says: "The view from my favorite study spot. You can even see the bay from this spot :) I wanted to give you pictures of the typical Washington weather, but the sun decided to come out and play :)"

4 comments:

  1. yo i like the reflection very true about how your mindset affects your day. sometimes i feel it can go the opposite way though like if u feel upbeat and everyone else is sluggish your just a bit annoyed sometimes. haha yeahh keep up the good work man lol my hobby's guitar but yeah i feel wahat your sayin. dude im a lock to win this contest with 2 pics man!

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  2. Agree with all, i think that your mindset will keep a person happy. BTW IM SOOOO WINNING look how pretty my picture is!

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  3. omg that picture makes usc look SOOO bad

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  4. that's not like at USC....that's in the middle of LA

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