For without struggle, there is no progress. For without risk, there is no growth.
(Source: john-christian)
Moment of Clarity
I had a wonderful moment of clarity this weekend. A new year, a new beginning, yet all I could think about was that for the first time in nearly four years, I wasn’t going to be involved in VCN. The once familiar was now alien, the comforting discomforting. Too many lonely moments feeling displaced, ostracized and abandoned.
But I made that decision and chose to bear that for myself. I stood on the crossroads I paved and walked blindly. I wanted to dance. I wanted to come back to Samahang Modern. I wanted to improve, I wanted to grow, I wanted to believe. I wanted more.
And I still want more. 2nd Place at Showdown was amazing, but it was the performance that almost brought me to tears. The hard work, the hours of practice, the sighs of disappointment and the grunts of frustration led to a bond grown stronger.
“2nd place…Samahang Modern!” Mayhem. We were in shock. We rushed the stage and only then did we realized what had happened. Everyone around us was jumping around, hugs and screams of disbelief. And in that moment all I wanted to do was cry.
Tears for my team, and the hard work we all put in and the humble hearts in which we received our placement. Tears for Michelle, for the sacrifices and hardship I put the purest dancer I know through. Tears for Leadership, who sacrificed so much of their hearts, minds and bodies to bring us to this point. And tears for the once-was, the forever-lost, the family I had lost.
Yet at the end of it all, they all equated to one thing—-this beautiful thing called dance. I had lost a family but strengthened another. I had lost confidence but found it again. The emotional rhythm will always be there. I may soon lose another family, and these petty words regurgitated may end up lost in the chaotic ether of my life. But this feeling, this passion for something, anything will never leave me. That, surely, is clear.
WHAT?! this exists?!?!!??!?! this is real????? no way…that’s way too cute sigh.
I’m grateful for every new week that I get to spend with the woman I have loved my entire life.
I saw this man on the Metro this past Monday, and asked him who the flowers were for. They were for his wife. They’ve been married for 47 years. Every Monday, he brings her home flowers after work. My heart died at that moment.
makes my heart melt.
(Source: ronaldpbarba)
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Yesterday (feat. Guilty Simpson, Fatima & Olivier Daysoul) | Eric Lau
“Mom, listen, I haven’t been together with Topanga for 22 years, but we have been together for 16. That’s a lot longer than most couples have been together. I mean, when we were born, you told me that we used to take walks in our strollers together around the block. When we were two, we were best friends. I mean, I knew everything about this girl. I knew her favorite color, her favorite food. Then we became six, Eric made fun of me because it wasn’t cool to have a best friend that was a girl or even know a girl. So for the next seven years I threw dirt at her. I like to call those “the lost years”. Then when I was thirteen, mom, she put me up against my locker and she kissed me. I mean, she gave me my first kiss. She taught me how to dance. She always was talking about these crazy things and I never understood a word she said. All I understood was that she was the girl I sat up every night thinking about, and when I’m with her, I feel happy to be alive. Like I can do anything. Even talk to you like this. So that’s, that’s what I think is love, mom. When I’m better because she’s here.”
- Cory Matthews, Boy Meets World
(Source: futurehistoryy, via mimitrann)
Agency
Excuse the word vomit—-
Smacked in the face by adulthood. I don’t think it meant so much as it does now. Suddenly I have to be the adult and make the adult decisions, but don’t I get a waiver? A practice round, a re-do, anything? Why do I have to be the one to decide these matters, decisions that have repercussions that are still beyond my 22-year-old self. I’ve been taught that agency means power. I act. I do. I choose. I decide. I control. I own. My act, my doing, my choice, my decision, my control.
And how do I feel?
Powerless.
