Rubik's Cube

Perhaps it's just my OCD-ish nature.
 
      But I very much dislike the Rubik's Cube. And I'll tell you why: To solve the Rubik's Cube, even if you have a whole line the same color, you must sometimes be willing to ruin it, in order to bring another line together. There are loads of equations, and formulas you need to know and you have to take the time to practice in order to solve it like this guy,

But seriously.

       This is the reason why I hate the Rubik's cube. Then I was like, woah, this is kind of like our life.

Cheesy analogy time:
       It's like a Rubik's Cube. In order to solve it, we have to be patient, and sometimes, we have to mix up what we've just put together in order to obtain a whole side. It can be so frustrating, but we've got someone who can solve any Rubik's cube ever, and He knows all the equations. All of 'em. It's crazy.
 And He knows when there is something better then the simple two squares of blue we've put together.

   Or maybe I just can't solve a Rubik's cube. It's been 4 WEEKS. I might have to succumb to actually learning the math behind it. Yikes.

All Hail Futures Name.

With a week of college under my belt, I feel a bit better about the oncoming future. Before I was like,

"no way, man"

Because I was afraid of the work that had to come before consistency. I learned that what you get out of life is really what you put into it. And you can't just snap your fingers and be happily married traveling the world with little soccer or piano prodigy children.

I have spent so much time worrying about how I was going to get there, that I forgot or was discouraged by the now. I wanted time to fly, when, in reality, I needed to slow down, and enjoy the little things.

Dear Marina, 

Live your life. One day at a time. That's the way it's meant to be. 

Enjoy the little things. Even when the future seems daunting, stop and smell the roses. 

Be happy. Otherwise, you'll be sad. And that's no fun. 

So bring on the future. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Find the best in every day, don't lose an eternal perspective, don't be myopic, or a pessimist. 

Enjoy. Live. Create. Learn. Love.

Sinseriously, 

Marina

Singing songs of boredom

Bored? I have some advice.

I sent a text to my friend the other day saying that I was bored stiff and had no idea what to do. Later I read this quote,

          And I was like, oops. 

This makes me want to have the energy to do things all the time. Crazy things. Like make a treasure map and follow it to something you buried in the ground earlier. Go into an elevator and do things like make explosion sounds anytime anyone presses a button. Kidnap someone in the middle of the night and have an unbirthday party. With real china and a birthday cake that explodes. Learn how to speak French. Take a road trip to the coast for absolutely no reason at all. Watch a movie outside projected on your stood up trampoline. Write a novel. And publish it via Facebook post. Become an expert on wildlife of South America.

                                                                   JUST ADVENTURE.

I have realized that I have only 24 days until I move into an apartment and go to college.

                    I know,

      I know.
                    I can still adventure then, but this is summer. I have not made the most of it.
I hereby make a vow to never again be BORED. You all as my witness. And if I ever say it, feel free to..... remind me and shoot me with....a marshmallow gun. Cause then I would get mine and we would have a battle and then I wouldn't be bored any more.

Dilligence

Diligence. 

The final frontier. 

Once mastered, 

One can go, 

Anywhere, 

at Anytime. 

The trick, 

Unfortunately, 

is to Master it. 

Which, 

As it turns out, 

Is 

                                                                Outrageously Difficult

               

 

 "If you want to succeed in the world you must make your own opprotunities as you go on...You commit no greater folly than to sit by the roadside until some one comes along and invites you to ride with him to wealth of influence" --John B. Gough

"All your dreams can come true, if you have the courage to pursue them"--Walt Disney

"Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness, and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know" --Charles Kingsley

"Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes. "-- Miguel de Cervantes

Fortune Cookie Wisdom

Found my old collection of fortunes. From fortune cookies. Read through them. Mind: blown. 

Few of my favorites:

 1. If you want something, you must EARN  it.

                                        

                  2. Everything will soon come your way. 

  

   3. You will make many changes before settling satisfactorily.

4. There are lessons to be learned by listening to others.

                 
                Just as general advice for the college bound, I think these   were magically fitting.  

Like the missing piece to a jigsaw puzzle of a unicorn.

Just. Plain. Magical. 

                                                                                                      Thank you, 

Wise men of the Fortune Cookie factory. 

Sinseriously,

Marina

Out There

Out there.

      There's a whole entire earth full of people who are all on a journey. One that can't be defined by anything but oneself. 

Out there,

there are people who became employees, people who became volunteers, and people who became bums. People who became recognized, people who became looked down upon. People who became celebrities to the world, people who became mathematicians, people who became whatever they wanted to be.

All these guys...became.

I don't know whether it's been the ever nearer future, or failures in the past but I have come to realize that what I want in life it to "become" something and to succeed at it.

I heard a guy say one time that we shouldn't go out into the world to be "different" but we should go out there to be us. Whatever we want "us" or "me" to be. 

That's pretty cool.

                                                       The hard part is finding out what you want that to be.

It requires perspective.
Long term perspective.
It takes patience.
It takes the will to survive.
It takes the will to make yourself better.
It takes initiative.
It takes guts.

It's the hardest thing for me. Because I'm someone that wants to be told what to do, and do it. I want someone to tell me, "you need to become an engineer" or "you need to be a doctor", so I can go to school with that already planned for me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to work, I'm just not a very effective self starter I guess. 

I feel like the joy in "becoming" comes from your own desire and journey on self-discovery. Those happiest in life, I realized, have already come to know what they wish to become, and when one discovers that, I think that a whole life of happiness can be derived in the pursuit of it.

The best things in life are free.
But,
They are going to be hard,
They are going to be difficult,
They are going to be inconvenient,
They are going to be whatever God wants them to be,
And he is going to make a way for us to accomplish them,
But we need to put forth effort.

Effort,
and Diligence. It's one of my favorite words. Maybe because it needs to be worked on.

I'm not very diligent.

I can't wait until that day when I find where and what I need to be. But I need to not forget the wise words of Master Uguay:
                            "Quit... don't quit. Noodles... don't noodles. You are too concerned with what was and     with what will be. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

We need to learn to enjoy the present even in our pursuit of happiness and purpose in the future. 


I could ramble on about the pursuit of happiness and purpose in life, but I won't. I'm running out of a controllable train track of thought.........

"Out there

     There's a world outside of Yonkers

  Way out there beyond this hick town, Barnaby

           There's a slick town, Barnaby

Out there

    Full of shine and full of sparkle

         Close your eyes and see it glisten, Barnaby

    Listen, Barnaby...

  Put on your Sunday clothes,

            There's lots of world out there

   Get out the brillantine and dime cigars

 We're gonna find adventure in the evening air

            Girls in white in a perfumed night

     Where the lights are bright as the stars!"

--Put on Your Sunday Clothes (Hello Dolly)