How are people supposed to be assertive with their friends?

I don't get why you are so intent on pushing me to be mean to you. I try to be nice. I try to accommodate your behaviour as best as possible; I even resort to being passive, but you are so intent on making me not want to be your friend and act aggressively towards you. Is that what you want? Is that the behaviour you're trying to elicit from me?

I'm above that. I'm above your poking and your prodding and I am trying my best to think about how I'm going to reply to you. I know you're not an asshole. And yet, you continue to think that this type of behaviour will get you attention and will make me want to foster a closer friendship with you. What you need to realize is that, if anything, it's pushing me away.

Grow up.

music.

There are times when I just can't get over how the human body can make such beautiful sounds.

Senegalese Rappers Become Political Voices

This article is so cool because it shows just how powerful music can be. It can soothe a soul, or engage people in a dialogue about the state of their nation. These guys are not politicians. They're not 'adults'. They are the youth. They are the disturbers, the shakers and they will be the impetus for change in Senegal and a model for hope throughout the world.

DAKAR, Senegal — A revolution led by rappers says something about a country’s politics or its music, or maybe both.
Senegalese rappers and other members of Y'En A Marre marched during a rally in July in Dakar.

In Senegal, the political mainstream appears stagnant and the musicians anything but, which explains why laid-back musicians with stage names like Fou Malade (“Crazy Sick Guy”) and Thiat (“Junior”) are leading a vigorous demonstration movement against the country’s octogenarian president, who does not want to leave office.

zambikes.

It is always important to remember that it is somewhat dangerous only knowing a single story. Some times, people get wrapped in seeing Africa as a single body; they see it as a continent faced with deep suffering, poverty, disease, corruption, violence, and war. While true, people forget to celebrate the positives that do come from Africa and I believe that it is absolutely important to know these stories as well. They are filled with resilience, hard work, community and culture, something that is absent from the majority of narratives portrayed within the media.

That's why this story really resounded with me. It's one of few stories based out of the continent as of late that present hope. An organization based out of Zambia has begun using their resources to build bikes. Not only have they sold 8 000 metal bikes, and 900 bicycle ambulances across Southern Africa, they have also sold 200 bamboo bicycle frames worldwide. Their goal is to sell these bikes, at an affordable price, to people who need a means of transportation in Zambia. SO, not only are they environmentally conscious, but are looking to provide for and help others. This is beautiful. I, wholeheartedly, believe that grassroots companies such as these are going to a be a significant reason why Africa's economy recovers in the future.

Check out the original article I took this info from HERE and the Zambikes website HERE

empathy.

Empathy. Empathy. Empathy.

A word that has been drilled into me since August 4th and it is as if everywhere I go, I receive constant reminders to evolve into a better empathetic citizen. Granted, this is difficult. It is hard to be empathetic when you, yourself, are not in a state of mind where you care about others. This happens. It happens to me far more than I would like to admit and far more than I wish it did. But I take some comfort in being aware of my own fallacy. I take comfort in knowing that the attempt is there.

After all, humanity is precisely like a human body and taking our empathy into account, when one part of our body suffers and is in pain, the entire body is uncomfortable. I can only hope that more and more become aware of pain and become a part of the healing process.

knowledge

This man, Socrates, is probably one of the most brilliant men or women that has ever traipsed the earth of this planet and yet he has claimed that he knows absolutely nothing.

This is the burden of knowledge. The pursuit of knowledge is purely for masochists. It is miserable because in gaining knowledge, one allows for the acknowledgement that more and more questions exist. Knowledge is insatiable and true wisdom instills in humans the ability to realize that with further knowledge comes further ignorance. What irony. Knowledge breeds ignorance because knowledge is an awareness of one's own ignorance. 

What a beautiful, powerful and frustrating concept. 

agency.

one of my professors today said something that, in one poignant collection of words, summed up my entire reason for becoming a teacher.

i am, of course, paraphrasing it, but it went something along the lines of this: social studies help students understand the world and the stories of the people that live in it. it teaches its students how the past has affected our present and how our present will predict our future. but most of all, social studies teachers should aim to allow their students to believe that they have agency. they should believe that they can act on the world and change it.

this is my life's goal. i so desperately desire to show others, especially our youth, that they have power. they have agency. they change the world just by living in it and they should use whatever talents, skills, brilliances they have in their every being to positively change humanity.

gossamer clouds and asper hells

the god i believe in does not rest,
does not lend a lazy ear
to his servants and heralds on the ground
whilst atop his gossamer cloud.

he is in the eyes,
the heart,
the soul of the empathic citizen
who hears
the sorrow and suffering
of those on the margins of the universe.
who moves
one foot in front of the other
until a hand can be stretched
to the rejected, the ignored,
the innocent.
who pulls them out
from their asper hell
and guides them back to life.

this is god.
not buried in the bible,
or preaching in the pulpit.
god resides in the one who cries out,
'i hear your sorrow,
your suffering,
and i am here:
your hope manifested
in human.'

My Letter to Ellen DeGeneres (in 1500 characters or less)

Hi Ellen,

My story begins and will, hopefully, end with Invisible Children. In the past, I had always been bombarded with the idea that selfishness IS the human condition. We are made to be selfish and in being so, positive change on an international level is impossible. So, even though my soul yearned for change, this pessimistic worldview suppressed it.

Enter Invisible Children. IC is a movement dedicated to ending Joseph Kony and the Lord Resistance Army's atrocities in Central Africa. We are currently working to fund a Protection Plan which involves building FM radio towers in remote areas in the Congo and Central African Republic in order to warn villages of attacks by the rebel army.

This August, Invisible Children held a conference called the Fourth Estate and it changed my life. It led me to believe that faith in justice and in people's willingness to do good should never disappear. We are all capable of alleviating the suffering of our brothers and sisters around the world.

I want to be on the Ellen Show because not only does IC need people to help fund the Protection Plan but also because the WORLD needs more people to realize their potential. I need Ellen's voice to help others understand that they need to use theirs in order to speak for those whose voices have been taken away from them.

Having Ellen on my side would be the equivalent of a knockout love punch! With her, our message will reach millions of people.

Please visit www.invisiblechildren.com.

humility

the past lived in a bubble
of desperation,
suffering from an addiction
to attention.

but i escaped.
met with kindred souls,
heralds of peace
whose hearts overflowed,
overjoyed with love,
with goodness that broke my own soul
blanketed in shame.
into millions of pieces
lying in a pool of complacent tears.

i am no greatness.
i am no genius
no savior.

i am humbled.
i am new.
with eyes and soul awakened.
tabula rasa at blankest.

patience.

The patience that comes with balancing practicality with dream opportunities is suffocating.

I must hold steady. My time will come. I must wait for when both my mind and my heart are fully content with the decisions I choose to make.

saturday morning news

I am extremely inspired and somewhat comforted by several news articles that I read today.

One surrounded a teenage girl who is running a clandestine library from her locker because her school has banned books such as Animal Farm and The Catcher in the Rye. Her pureness of heart and reason for action was so inspiring to read. She plainly believes that everyone should have access to books and the ability to read. The simplicity in her belief is what makes it so strong and although she may be too young to understand, she is, now, an advocate for freedom and an enemy of censorship. I dig it. Read it HERE

I also read the story of Masika, a woman in the Congo who is running a shelter for women who have been raped and brutalized by local militiamen. It is clear to see that this woman has suffered from the worst violences a human can commit and yet, her hope in the work she is doing remains steadfast and strong. She is a beacon of hope for all women who suffer in the Congo. Regardless of her own pain, her own hardships, her own tears, she continues to believe in her calling to serve others. It is a reminder to me that I must use my privilege in order to benefit others as well. Who am I to sit here and do nothing when I have not suffered even a small fraction of what Masika has suffered and she is doing more to better the people and world around her?

Lastly, I read that Angelina Jolie was present at the Thomas Lubanga trial as a 'concerned citizen.' She spoke to many former child soldiers and expressed her disbelief at the fact that the world has not done more to aid children that have been kidnapped and forced to fight. I am comforted by her presence at this trial. It shows that there are celebrities using their status to learn more about the world in order to better it.

These stories continue to prove that there are superheroes out there. There are women of all different backgrounds, histories and ages working to positively change the world and I have no doubt in my mind that they will do just that.

My heart is absolutely uplifted and continues to fill with the hope that this world is being directed towards a more positive and loving direction.

regretting love

"A wife can revile such a man with every silent curse she knows. But she can't throw stones. A stone would fly straight through him and strike the child made in his image, clipping an eye or a tongue or an outstretched hand." - Barbara Kingsolver via The Poisonwood Bible


This collection of words made me reflect on how sad regretting love must be for two individuals who share a child or children. Regret is such a powerful emotion and to tie that to love, supposedly the most powerful positive emotion a human could possibly feel is extremely heartbreaking.

Coming across children who have been negatively affected by divorce and their parents' falling out of love, I have to wholeheartedly agree with Kingsolver. A child feels, hears, sees everything that occurs between their parents regardless of whether they are in the same room. Tension reverberates through walls and the things he or she or they see occur between their parents will stay with them for the rest of their lives and affect them and their relationships in unpredictable and, perhaps, damaging ways.

It is difficult to fall out of love especially when what was your love produced someone as beautiful and precious as your child. I can only pray that people who are in love, stay in love.

Stay patient and attempt understanding to the best of your ability. Most of all, keep loving. We can only hope that love really does conquer over anger and that it will, through time, heal even the worst regrets, memories, and pain.

memory

"I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time." - Banksy

i love memory and the idea of remembering. i believe that some of the most astounding life moments is when you suddenly remember something you have forgotten: a face, a name, a fact, a lesson or even something as relatively minuscule as an errand meant for fifteen minutes later.

the idea of remembering the past or an upcoming event in the future is extremely precious to me. perhaps, that is why i insist on pouring out my brain into books and papers constantly because i have a fear of forgetting. perhaps, that is why i have such an intense lust and insatiable appetite for history. people and their stories deserve to be remembered. no one and nothing should ever have the power to erase one's story. and while i cannot stand the idea of forgetting, one of my greatest fears is to be forgotten, being erased from any story.

i am here. i live. and while i live, i must live a life that demands explanation. for when i greet hades, i want, not only to not be forgotten, but for my life to mean something joyful and positive in its remembrance.