five ways to impress me :)

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5 Ways You Can Impress Me

Not that you should, but should you ever want to genuinely impress me, here’s what you can do.

 

1. I shouldn’t be able to fuck up around you. After a certain period of time, I shouldn’t be able to do any one thing that causes you to hate me or revoke our friendship forever (unless that thing is like, killing your parents or raping your girlfriend or something). I shouldn’t be able to say or do something that changes your opinion of me from “my friend” to “a piece of shit” in a matter of seconds. You can impress me if you show me that that isn’t going to happen; that you accept me pretty much completely, that you can totally identify with my problems, that you’re willing to give me the benefit of the doubt, that you like me and that it’s like we’re on a team. 

2. You say things that surprise me or intrigue me. You can impress me if it’s obvious to me that you’re interesting in a way that I can’t quite describe; if it’s obvious to me that you understand the world in an exciting way that I’m not fully able to comprehend. Therefore, I shouldn’t really be able to predict a good amount of your behavior, and so spending time together will be fun and interesting for me. I will value our friendship.

3. You’re genuine to such an extent that you rarely brush off or deflect conversations with clichés, but instead respond to what I say thoughtfully, truthfully, and without apparent discomfort (or, if you feel uncomfortable, tell me you feel uncomfortable; I am okay with that). In other words, when I ask you about your dad, for example, I’m probably trying to get a clear picture of who your dad is (because I’m interested in knowing more about you, because I like you, and because I like to know more about people who I like – this is honestly a pleasurable thing for me); I don’t want you to brush me off with “Oh, he’s fine.” As told, if you simply don’t want to talk about him, tell me you don’t – it’s better than passively denying my attempts to get information out of you. Of course, I wouldn’t want you to act this way if you didn’t want to act this way. My point is that you can impress me if it’s your nature or desire to communicate in this way; if you desire this out of yourself as well as me. 

4. You won’t be offended when we have disagreements. You will understand that disagreements about opinions or facts are not intrinsically personal things. Disagreements are nothing more than two people interpreting a situation discordantly; this does not have to piss you off. You’re okay with me hating your favorite band, just as you’re okay with me saying a movie you liked a lot is stupid. To impress, me you should see disagreements as neutral or even exciting events in which you may learn something from the discussion consequent to the disagreement. 

5. You’re able to see things from a different-yet-still logical perspective than me in such a way that we can often advise each other by offering our unique perspectives. Your perspective in essence needs to be sometimes-wider and sometimes-wiser than mine. You should assess situations with the same tools I assess situations with, but you should sometimes come to different conclusions. In turn I will be able to follow your logic exactly when you offer a new way of looking at my current problem, and so it will be refreshing and relieving for me to understand, identify with, and believe in what you’re telling me.

military

a big thank you to our military, who have sacrificed, suffered, worked hard, & died to fight people like bin laden. yall are the ones we thank. yall are the ones who deserve the credit. thank a soldier for bringing justice for those lost on 9/11 & for all the victims around the world who suffered from evil commands.

surprise!

just found out my dad is expecting a son this july!

saint adelaide

"The life of St. Adelaide is so extraordinary that it could be the subject

for a medieval illumination. She was not the kind of saint who lives in a

convent in the recollected life of a cloister. Rather, she is the heroine

who has great adventures and passes through the most difficult dangers. She

was not the kind of person whose ideal is to live in retirement. To the

contrary, she saw in the risk, in the uncertainty, in the fight for the

cause of her legitimate rights, the reason for her life. For her this was

the salt of life that gave it flavor. We can imagine Queen Adelaide, a saint with the innocence of the dove and the astuteness of the serpent."

time

they say time changes everything, but i think it's more that we change with time. so many people say they've never changed - that they're still the same as they were "x" amount of time ago. for so many, that's a sad reality. do they grasp the true power of those words when they speak them? "i'll never change" is equivocal to stating that you'll never evolve, never grow past what you've been or your current state. never changing means you'll live on a giant plateau for the rest of your life, never able to go anywhere but down. then, on the other hand...there's the people who lost it all in the pursuit of molding themselves to fit someone else's ideal. whether it be for monetary or personal gain... it's fine to search after things that you believe will give your life meaning, but do they really give your life meaning? or is your life defined by the meaning you give to things?