Would you think that our lives are not controlled by fate, but actually a matter of the choices we make?

Many a times, people mention how we should be the ones taking control of our lives, and not leave everything to fate, and wait for results, chances or opportunities.

“We work for what we are.” So many people say that. But comes the question:

Isn’t making a choice fated?

Wouldn’t it then be fated that we make a choice that would twist our future? Wouldn’t it be fated that someone tells one to not live by fate?

So does fate really exist?

So many times we wonder what we’re doing with our lives. We were probably fated to live a boring, day-by-day life. Until we make that decision to spice our lives up. Then ultimately, wouldn’t it be fated that we would end up living a ’spiced up’ life?

“Hard work, sacrifice and focus will never show up in tests.”

Haha, who does? So many times, one puts in so much effort, hoping to score, hoping to impress, and yet he gets put down. Not only because of not wanting to hear criticisms, but because he would naturally yearn for credit. Who wants to be put down, after putting immense hardwork?

In a way, fact is, who cares? Would someone be interested in the process of someone else? No, don’t think so. All he sees and judges on are the products and results. Definitely we can’t find any fault at that, after all, it is human nature to do so – to not empathise, to not realise the other party’s hardwork, to not even care about what that person went through. All he does is to have a quick one glance at the result, then send him straight down from cloud nine back to earth with his disgusted facial expression, or even the expression of indifference.

Would you think if someone just does that teeny bit more, of just appreciating, of looking an inch deeper into the processes that made the results, and of giving encouragement, that he would create ‘magic’, and brighten someone else’s day?

So many a times, all we care are ourselves, and no one else.

Is it time to change? To become just a little more sophisticated human beings, to look under the surface?

Probably, probably not, since every decision one makes, it’s out of his own will.

Probably some are even thinking ‘who cares?’ now, don’t you think? Blunt fact though.

“Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.”

Some may live to the ripe age of 80, some just leave the world like that at 17. But ultimately, have people who has left this earth lived their lives to the fullest?

Just yesterday while reading the Straits Times, I stumbled upon this article on the front page, which reported a 17-year-old triathlete having lost his life after completing a triathlon. Though passing away at such a tender age, I would probably think he had passed on fulfilling his dream, to do well at an important race. Though not having the chance to carry out his dream for a long period of time, the fact that he has achieved an accomplishment – coming in 3rd in the race – doing the thing he loved best already enhanced his life, and everyone should feel proud of him! Most importantly, I’m sure he must have felt joyful and pleased, having to achieve his life-long dreams!

Life is so unpredictable, no one knows what’s going to happen the next second. But we live life, and not just exist on this planet so as to make earthly living as enjoyable and memorable as one can!

As Oscar Wilde once quoted, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

How true can that be! Do the things you love best in life, do not compromise, do not forsake the good things, and you’d leave planet Earth without any regrets even at the tenderest of age.

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival.”

Definitely. How valuable are friends actually? You can, without a doubt, survive on this planet without friends. All your losses are probably that shoulder to cry on, those words that console and warm your heart, that helping hand which reaches out to you when you stumble, love. But you would want to lose those? It’s all up to one to decide, personal life and interests, or a life filled with friendship, a life of love. Two options, yet two worlds apart.

Being silly (or sensible) earthly beings who subsist on Earth, who doesn’t yearn for love and devotion, care and attention? Isn’t living life living for people’s opinion of you? Achieving plentifulness in one’s life, isn’t it just so that others would have a good impression of you? Simply put, don’t people live for people?

Then comes the question, how exactly are friends significant in one’s life? Friends can be of upmost importance, and yet can also be unnecessary and ‘dispensable’! It all probably boils down to how one perceives his friends. Of course, not knowing your current friends would not have made such an impact in your life, after all, without knowing them, it’s like living life not even knowing you’d have one more friend to add in your life story. Just like having a best friend who has left such deep prints in your heart, but what would life be if you didn’t know your best friend? Wouldn’t you be just living a normal life still, you do not even notice living a life without a companion.

Isn’t it amazing, how friends can actually enhance and enrich a human’s life, and yet be of no importance and significance if you didn’t meet them?

What a complicated thought to ponder on, don’t you think?

“True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.”

Exactly. When does one constantly realise how essential friends are, how important they are, and how his life can actually become dull just because of one particular dear friend who left such a deep footprint in his heart? Probably never.

Only when you’ve lost someone that you really start treasuring them. Say, when you’re off during a particular weekend for a camp where you get your handphones kept for you, and you literally have no way of contacting your friends, your family, your loved ones.. Don’t you think it’s so torturing? With thoughts constantly running through your mind, ‘Did something happen to someone?’, ‘Where are they now?’, ‘What are they doing?’, ‘Are they safe?’. And even the most torturous question comes to thought, like ‘What if at this moment, something bad happened, but I can’t be informed because my stupid phone is with the teacher right now.’

How excruciating!

But, what is true friendship then, if you keep having thoughts of them even when you’re with them. Treasure them 100% each second of your life and even then they wouldn’t be of any meaning to you. Probably certain things happen for a reason. Only when you’re caught off-guard, only when you do not realise their importance, that something bad will happen and will give you a wake-up call. Indeed, true friendships mean no courtesy between each other, true friends do not have to ask for a drink and they take a can of coke out of your fridge by themselves..

Would you be someone who only realises your friends only upon losing them, and regret not loving and cherishing them enough when it’s too late? After all, that’s life – something that requires so much regret – isn’t it?

Or would you be someone who treasures your friends so much each second of your life that when you lose them, you’re so happy because you know you’ve loved them enough.

Then when does it become enough loving someone? Is there even a limit?

“Life at any time can become difficult. Life at any time can become easy. It all depends upon how one adjusts oneself to life.”

Life, what exactly is it? How do you see life as? What do you live for?

For many, they live to be the best, they strive to get right at the top, conquering whatever thing they can conquer and still be unsatisfied. For some, they live to love, they look at the simplest things in life and realise how lucky they are, be it to have the people in their lives, or simply to have the peace and tranquility in their lives. Two different ‘lives’, yet both are ‘lives’. Probably it really is how you view and live your life..

No one exactly knows how to live a life (well, you’ve only one life anyway), but people definitely know what they want in life, what they want to achieve, how they want to be seen as by other people, and these all actually adds up to how someone lives a life!! Amazing isn’t it?

However big or small someone’s life is, the fact is that we only have one life to live, for we do not know what awaits us after death. So why not live it to the fullest? Would one do the best he could in this life but compromise and forsake certain things in life just for his own interests? Or would he live for his dreams? Or live for the sake of pleasing others?

So many things one can do with his life, or could have done with his life…

But ultimately, can one actually take total control of his life? How does one even think of knowing how to live a life?