Vengeance

Vengeance: Punishment that is inflicted in return for a wrong

When someone does us wrong, it's our natural instinct to strike revenge on them back. We feel the need to pull off some inhumane stunt so the person who has done us wrong will suffer even more than we have. This negative energy we have, illuminates the evil person within us. We unleash what we thought would never be unleash and we let out a monster that cannot be tamed.

Why do we do this?

We do it for the feeling of satisfaction. You may not admit it, but when the other person is hurt, we're satisfied that they are hurt because they've hurt us. But at the same time we feel compassion for them so we try our best to resolve the problem, and when the problem is resolved, the circle of vengeance and revenge resurfaces.

"There is no point in keeping vengeance or stubbornness." Don't let your pride control your emotions. When you seek vengeance, you are only wasting your time. Let vengeance walk away and you will find that it has only slowed you down in the past. So learn to forgive others and learn how to forgive yourself.

The only way to fight vengeance is to not fight it at all.





- Meng Yang

Technology of Life

My recent attempt to go a week without technology was a failure. Not because I wasn't able to do it, but because I found no point in doing it anymore. Sure, I was suppose to show that technology isn't everything, but the fact of the matter is, it is everything. As I went along with my week, the two days I went without technology only made me think about technology even more. It made me think about how much of life I was missing. It's not the technology itself that is my life, but the life inside the technology. For instance, my phone isn't my life but the people who matter most in my life are in my phone. And by shutting off my phone, I lost all contact with the people that mattered most to me. By not going on Facebook I had no clue what everyone was up to.

Attempting this experiment, I thought I would find myself more adventurous and a better person but that didn't happen. I isolated myself from the people who mattered most and the only adventure I could have was by myself. I wanted to share my adventure with my friends but I was unable to due to the lack of communication. Family and friends were not able to contact me if they needed me and that was a hassle on my part. I walked around with meaningless in my life and the only way I would have meaning back in my life was through communication through technology.

I figured that living life with nearly no source of communication with the people I care for the most wasn't living at all.

I asked myself the same question over and over, "Why am I trying to fight something that benefits everyone so well?" It's true that I did this experiment to see what it is like for kids in poverty to not have the type of communication and technology we have, but if we are able to provide them with the same items we have, their lives would evolve tremendously.

After the measly two days without technology, I came to a conclusion that I can live without technology, but I can't live without the people in my technology.

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."

- Morrie Schwartz from the book Tuesdays with Morrie


---Meng Yang

She's just not that into you

When you fall from being up so high, you make sure you don't ever go up that high again. At some point you were so happy that you finally found a girl that is actually worth all the crap you have to go through. You stop talking to all the other girls in the world and focus completely on her. Even though everyone may think you're a "Player," you stop your flirtatious ways because for a moment, just a moment you feel like this girl is something special. She's something different and she's something you want a part of your life. Though you feel as the relationship will turn out to be something great; the truth is she's just not that into me.

The Black Suit

What I know isn't much but what I know is enough to get me by. There was a time in my life when I told myself I would never become the person I am today. Like life, things never go as plan. Throughout the thriving years I made many promises to myself that were never kept. As I look back at all of these careless promises I've made, I realized that not a single one has been kept. As Drake would say, "What am I doin' What am I doin' Oh, yeah, that's right, I'm doin' me." The truth is that I'm not doing me. This lifestyle isn't who I want to be and this person I am right now isn't who I wish to become. And the sad part is that I've grown accustomed to it like the black suit on Spiderman, turning him into someone he really isn't. But the feeling of this lifestyle is great, just as the feeling of the black suit on Spiderman made him stronger and made him careless about people. The power of the suit made him worry less about the world.

The lifestyle I live is like my black suit, it has made me care less about the people around me and it has made me only think about myself. I've become so selfish that all I think about is me. I stopped caring about the feelings of others and I turned into the complete opposite person of who I wanted to be when I was young.

Ring the bell and I will escape. I made one more promise to myself and it will not be broken. So what am I doin'? Oh, yeah, that's right, I'm doin 'me now.




~ Meng Yang
07/06/10