Lessons Learned

Syke. Well maybe. I really just wanted to use syke, back in middle school that was my shizzy. My guess is that many people don't remember this fad, but for those who do many LOL's. All you youngins most likely think I misspelled skype or something.

1. syke
	Basically street slang for pretending, used in place of "playin" or "jokin" yo momma just fell down the stoop... SYKE !

2. syke

a common misspelling of " word psyche"

"you're hot... Syke!"
"you moron, it's spelled psyche!"

Have I learned all of my lessons? Nah. Not even close. I have some patterns that are pretty easy to pick up on. Will that ever change? Only time will tell. Some lessons are really never completely learned, and we must learn them over and over again.


Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
-George Santayana

Boy does this one ever hold true.

Fear

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear."
-Mark Twain

Brilliant. There are so many brilliant people out there and that is one of the reasons I am either always reading a book, or reading online. I came across this quote from Mark Twain tonight and it made me think. Actually I was reading one of FDR's biographies and paused thinking about his inaugural speech. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. I guess at that point I was kind of stuck on this fear thing. We all have fears, we just don't always have the courage to face them. No one is born with courage, nor is anyone born with fear.

Without anything to be afraid of there is no need for courage, its just another everyday happening. Courage is being afraid, but manning up and taking care of business anyways. How awesome it must be to say some shit like that one day and be quoted by millions of people.

I am far from fearless. I am not afraid of the normal things. My friends are all afraid of dying, spiders, gang members, STD's. OK. I am afraid of STD's, I prefer not to die right now but am ready to go whenever, spiders I can step on and I grew up in SoCal so gang bangers make me chuckle. Other than heights and relationship things I don't have too many fears. Sharing things, that's always been a fear of mine. Maybe more will hit me later. Maybe I will stay in denial about them for another few years. Maybe I should be afraid to die, maybe that is a whole other issue.


"Nothing is life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."

-Marie Currie

That sounds pretty awesome as well.

The Ripple Effect

Never underestimate the ripple effect of your actions. How you affect others just by being who you are and what you stand for is something you will never know. Everything you say or do has an affect on someone other than yourself. Just as the rocks skipped across the lake, even perceived simple actions create ripples in the lives of people that you love and even in ones you have never met.

As a soldier you are stronger and more skilled than your civilian counterparts. You are a walking, talking billboard for the lifestyle you have chosen. It is a big responsibility, something that I don't always remember.

I'm not trying to point out other peoples ripples, don't get me wrong. I can only control my ripples, that is enough for me to worry about right now. I guess I need to think about the rocks I throw in the pond a little more closely from now on.