Well, hello. It's been quite some time since I last updated, but school has gotten the better of me, and to make up for it, I'm updating...with an essay we had as an assignment. I hope you enjoy it, the idea is from NPR's This I Believe essays, and I might submit mine. It depends on what you guys think. If you like it, I'll submit it. If not, well, I'll keep this philosophy to myself then, ha-ha. :) Anyways, enough from me, this is my essay. CC is highly encouraged. Cover is credited to NPR.

This I Believe:

I believe in the cruelty of life within sand castles, soft and grainy towers with floating banners made of seagull feathers sitting on top of a great sea, roaring and foaming, ceaselessly crashing upon the shore – when your hours of hard work is washed away, disappearing into the waters. For me, I feel that this is very similar to life. I fear that perhaps one day, when I have finally completed a master piece of work, when I finally placed the gleaming white feather on top of the sand, that a roaring wave would take over and destroy what I have worked so hard to achieve. Whenever I see a little kid building a castle among the sand, using water to hold the fine grains together, I feel a small rush of sadness, as I know there will be a time when a wave comes and takes the precious creation away.

However, the sand castles have more meaning to me than simply that nothing can last forever in this world. It is part of a bigger picture, one that most people overlook.

They represent something on a much larger scale, something of more importance. Most of the time, a worker abandons their sand work to splash and scream joyfully in the surf while I sit and watch as the waves tumble over their castles. That simple action has much meaning in my life.

Is this how some people treat the things in the world? When something such as playing in the water tempts you from completing whatever goal you have set to achieve? Do people do this to tasks and goals in life? They pick an easy path and get almost nothing out of it? Or do they pursue the path of sharp rocks and vicious stones until the very end?

I do not know, and I have yet to seek the answer.

I do know – however – that I wish not to abandon something I have set out to do. After all, what is the point of doing something when you do not persevere until the very end?

On the other hand, I cannot blame those who leave their castles to the waves to play in the water. What can you get out of this? The fact that everything you do is going to crumble to dust sometime or later?

For me, nothing lasts forever, just like the sand castles. Therefore, for me, sand castles are always a way of saying that life is cruel.

CC is highly encouraged and you are more than welcome to flame. I just hope you had fun listening to my philosophy. :)

-Ray.

PS. I got a tumblr. It's destinationimaginationlover dot tumblr dot com. :D I hope you take a look at me! This is posted on there as well.