Tag: time

War

displacedlocalLeave a comment


My name is not important, but it will be. I will stand in front of an army of thousands and watch empires fall. But that is not where this story starts.

We must move past the burning dart, and the ruins of Rome. I am Caesar and Alexander the Great. I led the armies of barbarians against my empire, and I destroyed what I had helped build.

I am locked in a battle with a younger more ambitious spirit. Limitless power emphasizes the qualities of a man, the good and the bad.

I was the first omnipotent being, my only son is the other. Time became our battleground. He grew corrupt with his power, and so did I.

Countless lives were lost.

And now I stand here at the end of the universe staring my enemy in the eye, and I can’t help but feel that this was just a matter of misplaced emotion. We could have stopped this.

Elements

displacedlocal2 Comments

Pressure and time.

Pressure and time create beautiful diamonds from lumps of coal.
Elements are created from the reactions within stars.
Hydrogen becomes helium through chaotic explosions that leave heat and fire in their path.
The heavier elements get compressed more and more into the center of the giant ball of gases to the point where they want to break out and explode across the universe sending bits and pieces flying. All of the elements come from this process even the very carbon in our bodies.

People are a lot like elements. We collide in different ways. We create changes in the people we meet. There is sometimes friction and violence. People go to war over land, honor, and the god they believe in. They gravitate towards each other like the heavier elements do. They explore out over the world and the universe. Time and pressure push us together. We collide like celestial bodies in space or world superpowers on the brink of war. We are like the carbon that makes us up. We like to think that the rules that govern the rest of the universe don’t apply to us. But we are no more special to the universe than the stars that crated us.

Five seconds

displacedlocalLeave a comment

One
Your heart pulses
Your muscles prepare for the explosion of force that explodes from your muscles.
You take a breath in
Your mind does a quick recap of your preparations
Your body is ready
Two
A huge push
A signal from your brain reaches the muscles in your legs
The muscles expand throwing you off the ledge
The tendons in your knees expand and contract
Gravity is no longer a boundary
Your brain works tirelessly sharpening the senses
Three
The brisk air flies by your face
you feel weightless
Gravity again grips at your feet
Your brain again fears the earth and prepares itself for impact
Your legs reach out for land
The ledge comes into sight
You close your eyes for the last moment of bliss
Four
Contact
Your muscles absorb the shock
You roll from the balls of your feet, throwing your weight forward
The earth is cold and it grips to your hand
Your brain recovers from the impact bringing blood back to the extremeties to heal
You stand and open your eyes
Five
You let out a sigh of relief
You are alive
You look back at your accomplishment
a ten foot gap cleared
back to work

Time.

yrreskrapLeave a comment

Wow.

11 days until graduation.
The college process seems so long ago.
Yet freshman year feels like just yesterday…

Time really does play with us in such a chaotic and wonderful way,
such banter and play.
We are so mortal.

And what is truly timeless?

Here is one of my favorite findings from Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida.

Achilles: I do believe it; for they pass’d by me
As misers do by beggars, neither gave to me
Good word nor look: what, are my deeds forgot?

Ulysses: Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,
A great-sized monster of ingratitudes:
Those scraps are good deeds past; which are decoured
As fast as they are made, forgot as soon
As done: perserverance, dear my lord,
Keeps honour bright: to have done is to hang
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty nail
In monumental mockery. Take the instant way;
For honour travels in a strait so narrow…
For time is like a fashionable host
That slightly shakes its parting guest by the hand,
And with arms outstretched, as he would fly,
Grasps in the comer: welcome ever smiles,
And farewell goes out sighing.

Anyways, this passage definitely gives me something to think about.
What I want my legacy to be..
How important something really is…
is it really worth my time?

is time really worth it?

Time flies

thehungryrunnergirl1 Comment

Dang. It’s already spring break. Which means, 6 weeks already passed since the last break. I can’t believe it.

After this 10 day break and 6 weeks of school, I’m going to graduate. I feel like it’s still the middle of the year.

It’s so sad to think that this is my first and last year at Ojai Valley School. I really wish I could’ve come earlier.

I believe in destiny. I think I was meant to meet thebrownguy, krapyrres, therightliberal and other great people here.

Every time I listen to Samson, which my roommate krapyrres sang at the beginning of the year, it makes me miss OVS.

You have no idea how much fun I’ve had here, and how fortunate I am to be a part of OVS.. I wish I could stop time, so I could stay at OVS longer. People are just way too nice.

Family.

rangerthecatLeave a comment

This weekend, my Mom came down all the way from Santa Cruz to see me and take me out for the weekend. I was counting down the days until I could see her, and when she finally got here, it was the best feeling ever.

Each day, whether it is on purpose or not, I think about my family. My mom, dad, brother, and sister. All of them cross my mind at some point during the day. Even if we are fighting or haven’t talked in a while, I always think about them no matter what.

Before I came to this school, I guess I never realized the importance of family. I took them for granted more than I even like to admit and I did not pay them enough respect. But being away from them for so long has lead me to truly appreciate all of my family in every single way.

<img src=”” alt=”” />

All of the things my parents have done, whether they have been good or bad in my perspective, have been for me, my sister, and my brother. Looking back, I cannot say I would have had them do anything differently. Of course, in some of those moments, I thought I absolutely hated them because of some decisions that were made or rules that were enforced. Some punishment seemed like the end of the world. But my parents had a much different perspective than me, of course – they did things that they believed would be best in the long run rather than short-term.

Time spent apart from my family was, at first, something that I really enjoyed. And to some extent, I still enjoy it. But a larger part of me realizes that in the past years, I have not spent time with them the way that I should have. I spent more time complaining about what we didn’t do and things that didn’t go my way that I have not cherished the memories with them.

And, even though friends can be considered to some people family as well, there are only those few people related to you by blood that are truly of the utmost important. No matter who you spend the majority of your time with, or who has been the most prominent guiding figure throughout your life, family is the root of your existence. Family is the reason that you are on this earth. Family should be the most important thing in each and everyone’s life. They are the people that have made you who you are.

I will never take them for granted again.
Who knows how much longer we have left?

What Holds Me Together

yrreskrap4 Comments

High above, amongst the stars,

God checked his watch,

and realized it was time.

Time to make a story,

my story,

mine.

He wove together a string of trinkets,

some rusty,

some silver,

some gold,

and some of precious stones.

Of those trinkets,

there were many places.

Houses and apartments,

studios

and condominiums.

Restaurants, schools, corners and alleys.

There was a bit of Mexico.

Koreatown, too.

Some wormy grass,

and golf courses where the deer roamed at night.

And of course,

tied closely to these homes,

was my mother’s cooking,

my father’s laughter,

my sister’s pranks.

And there were my fears.

My anxieties,

all intertwined with my passions,

my soul,

and whatever else that stirs me and moves me and lifts me..

My friends and enemies,

my lovers and ex-boyfriends.

Teachers, mentors, coaches, neighbors.

Mailmen, taxi drivers, pilots, a Marine.

There was much joy.

But,

there were also tears and hardship,

loneliness and strife.

Yelling and screaming,

punching and throwing.

The threads mangled and fried.

But soon enough,

God, with his knowing hands,

his fingers so gentle,

created a piece.

And those loose threads,

they all straighten out to create

one magnificent picture.

One that is unique.

One that is me.

mine.

Crunch Time

yrreskrapLeave a comment


Who knew so much pressure could mount up on one’s shoulders? I’m trying to cram so much information into my head. The AP weeks are coming up and I am on the brink of crumbling. AP Calculus AB and AP US History the first week, followed by three SAT II subject tests that saturday. Oh and what else? An AP Biology test that upcoming Monday and an AP Writing and Composition test to top it all off.


I am beginning to think that I will not be able to get the grades that I want to on these tests. I will need to stay up very late and buy multiple Starbucks double shots from Starr Market. However, what frustrates me is the recent ruling that girls are not allowed to stay up to study in the girl’s lounge past lights out. I just can’t wrap my head around it.


I understand that the faculty is concerned with us staying up and that those staying up may have abused the privilege by eating food while studying or being on Facebook. I am not going to lie, I did both. But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be eating in my room or checking my Facebook for a quick five minute reprieve (because my brain cannot handle studying for hours on end without a quick break). However, I don’t think that the faculty understands that we cannot reach our goals of staying up to study and fully grasp our studies as well as do extra work for the upcoming SAT and AP tests in our rooms. My roommate usually goes to bed after a half an hour or an hour after study hall and studying under the small light of my desk lamp is very difficult. I chose to stay up. I want to stay up. I do so to get the grades I get and I do so to stay on top of things. But now that I can’t stay out in the lounge, I can’t study to my fullest potential.


It’s crunch time. This weekend and every night after tonight, I will be studying, studying, studying and praying my BUTT OFF so that God would bless me with the knowledge and preparation I need for this test. Ahh, maybe I should build my own personal girl’s lounge as an extension of my room. Ha! Now that would be odd.

The Time Is Coming

yrreskrapLeave a comment


The pending graduation, this upcoming, tear evoking, sad-faced, sour event, has been on my mind since day one. No, I’m not talking about my graduation. I am not there yet-it still hasn’t hit me that I am a junior.

I am talking about the graduation that will herald the final, graduating class of 2011, the great, centennial generation of students. I am talking about that day that will mark the conclusion of the school year with a note heavily sodden with grey.  I am talking about that gloomy yet happy moment. That walk down the cobblestone aisle, that luminescent moment, that commencement of a new life for the graduating seniors.


The time is coming, the time is near. All I can say is that on June 4, tears of sadness and tears of joy will be streaming, salty down my cheeks. Already, I have learned to thank God for bringing me to this school, allowing me to meet my friends, friends to have for a lifetime. Already, I have realized that it will be a happy moment, giving my friends and loved ones yet another opportunity to grow. (However, it is hard to grasp any other emotions than the ones evoked by the fact that they will be leaving.) Already, here I am today, past the halfway mark of the year. The time for this year’s seniors is coming, and so will mine.