Thought of the Month

The following thought of the month was given to me via e-mail by my brother during last school year. If you have a Thought of the Month, please e-mail it to Seth Bartal including your name, e-mail address, and age to sbartal@gurulink.com.

Life

Life isn’t about keeping score.
It’s not about how many friends you have, or how accepted you are.
Not about if you have plans this weekend of if you’re alone.

It isn’t about who you’re dating, who you used to date, how many people you’ve dated,
Or if you haven’t been with anyone at all.

It isn’t about who you’ve kissed, it’s not about sex.
It isn’t about who your family is or how much money they have
Or what kind of car you drive. Or where you are sent to school.

It’s not about how beautiful or ugly you are.
Or what clothes you wear, what shoes you have on, or what music you listen to.

It’s not about if your hair is blonde, red, black, or brown,
Or if your skin is too light or too dark.
Not about what grades you get, how smart you are,
How smart everybody else says you are, or how smart standardized tests say you are.

It’s not about what clubs you’re in or how good you are at "your" sport.
It’s not about representing your whole being on a piece of paper
And seeing who will "accept the written you."

Life Just Isn’t.

But, Life is about who you love and who you hurt.
It’s about who you make happy or unhappy purposefully.
It’s about keeping or betraying trust.
It’s about friendship, used as a sanctity or a weapon.

It’s about what you say and mean, maybe hurtful, maybe heartening.
About starting rumors and contributing to petty gossip.
It’s about what judgements you pass and why. And who your judgements are spread to.
It’s about who you’ve ignored with full control and intention.
It’s about jealousy, fear, ignorance, and revenge.
It’s about carrying inner hate and love, letting it grow, and spreading it.

But most of all, it’s about using your life to touch or poison other people’s hearts
In such a way that could have never occurred alone.

Only you choose the way those hearts are affected, and those choices are what life’s all about.

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This page was last revised: 08/24/97