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College student hoping to expose people to thoughts and ideas they might not necessarily come across on a regular basis.

Lest Ye Be Forgotten...

So recently I posted and asked you all for some quotes that you enjoy. I'll be working my way through them all at some point or another, but I decided to start with this one, because I actually disagree with it. I could not find the origin, so I don't know who originally said it, but it doesn't really matter all that much. A user by the name of Dr. Goodsex provided me with it, and I thank him for sharing his thoughts. He wrote:

You can never truly lose something. It only returns from where it came.

I guess I shouldn't say I disagree with this. It can happen. It often does happen. I guess the more appropriate response to this would be, "I sure hope not!"

If this quote applies to situations in your life, it means one of two things. First, your experience with that person was so short or limited that you didn't have the time to make an impact on their life in any substantial way. A lot of times, this isn't our fault, because circumstances simply dictate that we have random strangers that we meet, or acquaintances that we speak to throughout the day, and so in order for us to have changed their life in any serious way, we would have to do something drastic. This isn't that bad, since most of the time, we wouldn't consider their exit a loss of any sort.

That said, we all have the ability to change the life of a random stranger by the simple act of smiling, or saying a kind word. For all we know, that may be the man or woman who is contemplating something horrible, and a kind face is the only light in the darkness of their life.

The other possibility is that you're a part of someone's life for an extended period of time, but somehow, you evade by their notice. You fail to catch their attention in any sort of meaningful way, and as such, you only stay in their mind or heart long enough to be useful. In fact, one could argue you're never in their heart at all. A painful thought, but a truth that happens far too often in this life.

If you are going to invest any sort of emotion and time into another person, you should be absolutely sure that they remember you. Find a way to imprint your being in the minds of those you want to remember you.

Be the problem solver.

Be the wicked smart one.

Be the go-getter.

Be the jokester.

Be the one that's a bit out there and draws funny looks.

If you want, be all of them at once. But most important of all, be the one they think about.

I often find myself wondering if all the people that I've known in my life still know my name or remember my face. We can never know for sure just how greatly we've changed a life in our encounters with people, but let's make it easier to estimate. Don't let the people that you care about forget you easily by living on the edge of their life. Engage them. Help them. Love them.

Here's to hoping we can all be as remembered as we wish to be, even if we only wish to be remembered by three people in the whole world.

Good night, and sweet dreams.

12 Responses so far.

  1. Shakuru says:

    I disagree with it for personal reasons but I dare not be presumptuous.

  2. noone says:

    that was beautifull! keep it please

  3. rinns says:

    I love reading your posts. :)

  4. synoptixs says:

    hey stumbled onto your blog, i like your design!

  5. Patti D. says:

    so beautiful yet true

  6. Anonymous says:

    very beautiful yet for me the original message is just intended to help deal with the process of loss. in the case of a relationship, it is like saying: have in mind that person never belong to you, be glad that it will be happy somewhere else...

  7. Jung says:

    Good stuff, love is all you need

  8. DocStout says:

    Thought provoking post. I agree with what you say in the second part, quite a bit. Not entirely convinced it disproves the quote, though.

  9. Evan says:

    Good stuff man. I can see that you put alot of time into your posts and thats really respectable.

    -Evan
    http://ducks2nucks.blogspot.com/
    http://812photography.blogspot.com/

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