Zanzibar

Sometimes I wonder if my true internal struggles come mostly from outside sources or from my own secret psychoticness. However, I have picked up some wisdom and insights which are useful for managing your internal psychological problems. I am here to share them with you, though undoubtedly no one is reading this.

-Everyone has at least some elements of a psychological disease. Maybe it's paranoid-schizophrenia, maybe manic-dpression, obsessive-compulsive, megalomania, or chronic anxiety. It doesn't really matter that much what it is, what's important is to recognize that yes, you probably have elements of those who might be considered "certifiable", and there is no escaping that, because there really is no such thing as the norm.

-The only people who are really crazy are the ones who think they are sane. Like I said before, everyone is crazy, but as long as you know you are a psychopath, you cannot really be considered certifiable. Once you think you're sane, you're a lost cause. Have faith in craziness, it's the one element of your personality you will always carry with you.

-While it is important to extend the benefit of the doubt to people, first impressions are not meant to be dismissed. (Shannon taught me all this) Humans actually do have a good capacity for making preliminary judgements on people, so your first impression of someone might not be so very wrong. The important thing is to hold this impression in reserve, and get to know the person enough to find aspects of their character that justify such a belief. If you do, you might just find that your first impression was not so far from the truth.

-People are all the same. People always have been this way. Nothing has changed- past, present, or future, people are always the same. (amen d.vis)

-You cannot please everyone. So simple, so true, so hard to remember.

-There are people who go to school because you are supposed to go to school, and there are people who go to school because they want to learn. If you're open to it, school (the educational aspect of it, anyway) can actually be kind of fun. (I'm a nerd.)

-If you talk about your boyfriend/girlfriend, and you say "I hate him/her" more than ten times in a relationship, then it's probably not a good one. You cannot be defined by your relationship status. Granted, some people do, but you shouldn't. If you are unhappy about a relationship, and you a) talk about it and it doesn't change after a significant period of time or b) you don't have the communication pathways to talk about your issues, than more likely than not your relationship is, as Dane Cook might say, a relation-shit. Don't become trapped in it.

-Be open-minded. You cannot and will not understand everything in the world. But you cannot understand anything if you are not open to it. Understanding is an important part of functioning. The more familiar you are with yourself, with the people around you, and the general socialogy of the human race, the more content you can be.

-Keep in mind, though, that understanding probably does not lead to being really happy. The only people who are really happy with their lives are those who are naive. Naivety leaves us vunerable, but keeps us ignorant and thus happy. The biggest choice one really has to make is whether it is better to understand things and be cynical and to feel lacking at times, or whether to remain gullible and feel completely content.

-No one has confidence all the time- or if you do, tell me what the hell you do for that. Some people are confident in certain situations, or at certain times in their life, and of course some people are naturally more confident than others. One piece of advice I heard over the years is, "confidence is ignorance- if you're feeling cocky, then it means there's something you don't know." I like this advice, it's practical, true, and has a sense of humour to it.

The truths about individual psychology and collective sociology are ever unfolding, more each day. However, I cannot really see any major fault with this logic above. If you dissent, well, I don't really care because let's be honest- I'm a senior in high school, writing a bloge at 1:30 am because there's nothing else better to do, and if you are becoming really angry with it, you should probably look closely at yourself and at fact number one.

So, um, thanks for listening folks. And if you really care, do comment, because I sort of miss recieving comments.