ordinary.

I'm just an ordinary girl
in an ordinary city
in an ordinary home
in an ordinary school
with an ordinary desire to change the world somehow.

Because everyone wants to leave a mark on the world that will stay long after they are dead. To be immortalized in any way is to be remembered always. And to be remembered, in a way, is to live again.

Just a little something from about a year ago...

If you could stop time, would you? Or let’s say that you could go back in time. Even better, right? But what if you could go forwards in time? You’d know what was coming.

You’d know the beautiful things before they happened, and be robbed of the sweet surprise that comes as a part of such things. You’d know of all the terrible things before they happened, and you’d be burdened with the curse of knowing and waiting and wishing you could change the future before it happened.

But you’d know to brace yourself. You’d be ready for the storm before it came, and you’d be prepared, or however prepared you can be for your heart to rip in half.

And maybe you’d have cried yourself dry before it happened. And perhaps the tears wouldn’t be able to come anymore, and you’d face what was to come the way you always wished you could—dry-eyed and straight-faced.

Of course, that would be assuming that time would let you move around as you pleased inside it. And that will never happen, I’m afraid. But isn’t the very thought of it chilling? Imagine that you knew what was to come. That you’d experienced it already.

For you, the future has lost its brilliantly obscure beauty.

Truth.

The truth is beautiful and powerful and so darkly, strongly terrible. The truth is fragile and soft and whisperingly, wistfully gentle. The truth is what it is, and the truth will never change.

The truth hurts, though. Sometimes, the truth will crush your dreams and break your heart--sometimes, reality stings. But sometimes, the truth, like it's been said many times before, will set you free, because there is nothing left to hide.

In the words of Albus Dumbledore, "The truth... is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.". Because sometimes, the truth will burn you like a flame. But sometimes, the truth truly will set you free.

pastpresentfuture.

We are teenagers. We are the ones with unused potential, with untapped energy. We are the ones with boundless imaginations, the ones who still hold tight the idealism that governs our thoughts.

We have years and years and years of life stretching out before us. What we do with those years, though, may depend on what dreams take flight in us. We are the key to the future.

We are today's future. We are the embodiment of the past, the adults-to-be of the present, the hope of the tomorrows yet to come. Do not underestimate us--and do not let us underestimate ourselves.

Life goes on.

No matter what's happening, life doesn't stop. It's funny, when you think about it. When you're deliriously happy, life goes on, and eventually that happiness ends. And when you're hopelessly unhappy, life goes on, and at some point you are not sad anymore.

Life goes on. Feelings change. Honestly, pretty much everything changes, because try as we might... we can't stop time.

Read.

Tumble down, down, down, into a world you've never seen before. Watch as your imagination builds a nation, brick by brick, as your mind crafts the face of a man or woman, as your heart becomes the heart of the protagonist. Because when you read, you lose yourself for a while. You become the main character of whatever book you're reading, whether you're casting spells or fighting battles or falling in love. Whether you've done it before or not, you experience it all.

To read is to catch a glimpse into another world. To read is to expand the horizons of your imagination, and to broaden the reaches of your mind. To read, in short, is to grow.

Go.

Do things that scare you--because afterwards, they will not scare you. We, as humans, fear the unknown. We fear not being in control, not knowing what will happen next. We are afraid of being afraid--of putting ourselves in a position where we do not know what the outcome will be. We value the comfort that comes from knowing exactly what will happen at any given time. But sometimes, it doesn't do to hold on to that desire for comfort. After all, how else will you grow? Learn? You do not become a better person by waiting for experience to come to you. Instead, you go to where you will gain experience.

Do things that scare you. Do things that you've never done before. Push yourself. And become a better person through it.