Wednesday, December 23, 2015

What I would teach my 4-year old nephew

I wanted to write about how I'll teach my nephew not to be negative because it repels people away; not to use offensive aggression as a defense mechanism because it hurts others; and not to act like the world revolves around you even if you don't think you're acting that way. 

It was meant to be a reflection of what I've experienced on my Brazil trip based on a girl called Amanda, who will very likely be reading this anyway, and who I consistently refer to be "like my 4-year old" nephew because of her "childish" behaviors towards the end of the trip. 

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Perhaps some of the lessons to be learnt still stand but after some introspective reflection and explanation on her part, I realize, in fact, that there is more for me myself to learn from this whole experience than to teach. 

So many what ifs appeared when things turned sort of sour, and we simply chose the simplest way out to assume the least of you. Sometimes it's easier to convince yourself of the side of the story you want to believe, that will absolve yourself of all responsibilities, that will bring you peace. But more often than not, that's not the side of the truth. Or rather, truth has no sides; and no matter how much we tell ourselves to wait for two sides of the story to be heard, we as humans are never objective. 

And that also applies to the person in question. You. Me. Any and everyone. The voice in our heads are never objective, and even when it's about ourselves, it's probably telling a story we want to tell, different from the intrinsic truth we know (or do we?) to be true. 

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But everyone faces this pseudo-dilemma, everyone faces this daily struggle of the side they want to show. Everyone has a battle they need to fight everyday. Heck, everyone has battles they need to fight that no one else is ever gonna find out. The insecurity. The guilt. The regrets. The angst. The loneliness. The despair. No one's ever gonna know. Yet everyone knows. Because everyone is precisely fighting these same demons as you, me, any and everyone. 



And if we do it more often, perhaps this sense of sonder would have brought about true peace within and amongst human. We all need to stop behaving like 4-year olds.