I Promise!

I do not make promises often. Not because I cannot keep them or I do not like to. But for the reason that when I do make one, the person I make it to knows that I am serious about it. the more rare something is the more precious it is. My promises are precious because it is my word to a person that I WILL do something and they can guarantee it will happen. There is a lot of work that goes into a promise. I dont believe that many people realize that. Many will make their promises, hoping that the one they make it to will forget over time. But promises take time and commitment. Commitment is what turns a promise into a reality. A promise is nothing but false hope until it is been done. I can promise all my life that I will finish my book, but it is not until I sit down, and commit myself to making it happen, that it will happen. I would rather never make a promise to someone, if I knew that I would never do it. Napoleon Bonaparte said "The best way to keep one's word is not to give it." No one could ever judge your integrity if you never dont follow through, but if you make a promise and fail to keep it, a person can fall apart. But a man that makes his promise a priority and completes all he says, is a man that builds himself and those around him. I would say that the result of a promise, is a showing of one's character. Whether it is never kept, it is sadly attempted to be done, it is completed, or accomplished over and above all expectations, it shows who you are. A promise unkept is hurtful lie.

The Weight of Decisions

I've come to the conclusion that life is not one step after the other, but leaps that carry you in and out of situations. At the moment, I am packing my things and preparing to step down for a bit from my mountain campus near Yosemite, and head home to my place in the valley. But questions loom around this corner where I am turning. How will I spend all the extra time that I will have apart from my studies? Will I dedicate my free months to a summer job, shall I continue to pursue my academic goals or perhaps commit myself to rest and rejuvenating the body I have? I start thinking about how exactly this will matter later to my life when I return to my mountain life in but a few months. Will I have the extra money I need to pay for the education I am receiving, will I bit a step ahead for the semesters to come or will I be completely rested and able to come back in full strength ready to tackle all that comes? These choices are grand in my life at the moment and are consistently hindering my thoughts while I sit at lunch, talk philosophy in class or while I dream at night. But as I think longer about all that is to come and the opportunities at hand, I find that they are particularly small and lack in true impact. In a few years from now I will be making different decisions that carry more weight. Where am I to live post-college, who am I to marry, what to do with the knowledge that I spent so much time acquiring? Those questions are greater then those that I am contemplating now. But still there is prominence in those decisions and will be great in my life until they are completed. At the moment they are my paths that lay in front of me waiting for me to walk upon. There is uncertainty in each and great rewards in all. Every path has a certain level of discomfort that it will bring to my life. All require heavy commitment and like a plunge into the water, I will be getting wet. And just as later in life, when the decisions only become greater, I will needs to make the choice sooner than later and it will make all the difference. When I am there I will need to be "all there," which is why life is leaps and not steps. One cannot carefully walk a path they have never done before and assume that prior knowledge will guide them through it. One must jump and take action in life. One only lives once, and in that one life it is rare that they will do the same thing multiple times. Everything has pros and cons, buts its the choice of one to find the least and make the best of it.