Reflection

Its incredible how so many aspects of life can change from one year to the next; from the smallest things like how you look (e.g. changing a hairstyle) or learning new stuff to bigger things like emotions and relationships (e.g. family; friends).

Last year (2011) around this time, these was one of my Facebook statuses: 
"Saare Jazbe, Saare Armaan, Saari Khushiyaan, Saari Duniya Tere Bagair; Tanhaiyyan, Tanhaiyyan..."
(which means: All Emotions, All Desires, All Happiness, The Whole World Without You; Loneliness, Loneliness...)

And another status:

"seriously if this year ends up getting any f*cking worse, it may end up killing me =|" 

Needless to have, things were pretty terrible; the year itself started off on a terrible foot and carried on over for most of the year.

This past week, I used the following three quotes as part of my 'Quote of the Day' initiative: 

1.“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” - Khalil Gibran

2. "Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form." - Rumi

3. "Patience is that a man bears whatever afflicts him and swallows his anger." - Imam Ali (AS) 

What I experienced in 2011 helped me grow without a doubt. And thus far in 2012 for the most part, things have gone pretty well. What an incredible change that has happened in the emotional aspect & relationship aspect of my life. Admittedly, sometimes when I look back it still hurts. But unlike before, I'm still able to smile because of the possibilities that are ahead.

"What started in October 2008 came to a close in October 2011."

First Post - Mini-Introduction

Hello folks!

So I've decided to enter the 'blogging' world. Its mainly to take a new step forward with my "Quote of the Day" (QotD) initiative I've started as of 2012. But it'll also be a way for me to express myself in different ways for people to get to know me better. So with that, I'll get onto something I wanted to accomplish with this first blog.

Sometime in early March, I posted this as my Facebook status:

"There comes a point in life where you need to leave some people where they are and go down your own separate path, either because they broke your trust or because they have a different set of principles & values.
Don't burn any bridges though, just close their gates. It's important not to burn any bridges, because you never know when & if those people may come back.
But if they do, be careful before you open up those gates again. Because they've broken that trust before. And if they don't have the same principles & values like trust & honesty, there's no guarantee they won't break that trust again"

I wanted to address to get some things off my chest regarding this update and go over some things about myself. First and foremost, I know I'm not a 'perfect' friend. I have my faults like everybody. However, I do appreciate my friends. I've learned the hard way to do that. I also only have a few very, very close friends. And when I view somebody as a close friend, I have a an extremely high level of loyalty towards them (and my best friend, Lekha, can attest to that); it may even be up to a fault. I don't expect much out of a friendship. The one main thing I require (as I'm sure most would) is respect. Two instances prompted me to post this (which is why you see two reasons as to traveling on a separate path).

I try and respect people and their wishes as best as possible. If that means that they are busy with things going on in their life, I don't want to bug them by constantly texting/messaging  them. And this is where the respect part comes in. I also will stop trying to 'contact' somebody if they aren't responding. Its not because of an ego issue (I don't have much of an ego...maybe a small one, or at least in my perspective). The reason for this is because of respect. If somebody doesn't have the respect to reply back, I'm not got to keep on disrespecting myself by constantly reaching out to someone; I have my own self-respect (and I've learned to develop this trait the hard way as well). People's actions always speak louder than their words. When a person is trying to stick to a certain value yet they go against that value, it doesn't mean much. I won't go more into this part because I'll end up expressing what happened (and I don't want to do that).

The second part I wanted to address was the part of breaking someone's trust. And this goes back to loyalty for close friends. I'll try keep this fairly vague without sound too 'emo'. A golden, unwritten rule about friendship (and especially close friendship) is to never break someone's trust. Like glass, trust is incredible hard to put back together once it is broken. This is another lesson I've learned the hard way, and will continue to learn. This is a rule I've abided by (at least in my perspective) and will continue to do so. However, it feels that other folks might hold this as one of their principles. These are the types of folks I want to keep my distance from. To give a quick example, let's say there are three people: A, B, C. A and B have know each other for a while, and A views B as an excellent friend and vice versa. A has kept their loyalty towards B. C comes in and some shape or form ends up hurting/offending A. While A would not expect B to avoid complete contact w/C, A would expect B to keep a certain distance from C out of loyalty & respect. And when B instead completely embraces C, A would feel there is broken trust. I won't go much into this whole loyalty/betrayal issue as well.

The final point: while I've gone down my own path, I haven't and will not burn any bridges from my part. I've kept the gate closed but it can be opened at any time. But I will be more careful if/when I do open those gates again. And I hope the folks whom I wanted to get this message got it. I also hope people can understand my perspective on things.

Going forward, most of my posts will be related to the QotD initiative to make it more effective (and the posts will be a LOT shorter lol). And with that, I finish off this blog post. Thanks!