We have all reached a milestone, by ending an era of our lives. Not only by graduating as few of us have a subject or two to go. I speak of closing that chapter when we all were studying together(using that word very loosely here lol), hanging out all day and sometimes even till night, silly games, being in the labs, lunches here there and everywhere, getting told off in the library for being too loud(lol), and getting through some tough assignments.
It is sad that a chapter in our lives is ending, but as my friend Sev told me last week "When things come to end, that's when you let new and better things begin". To be honest I never held that view because I felt that something so special was finishing and I missed you guys all so much. However now I've realise that's exactly what it is, not an end but only the beginning of our journey of a lifetime of friendship. FRIENDS for LIFE!
BTW someone sent this to me awhile ago and I was waiting for the perfect time for everyone to read it. I think the time is now.
I definitely think this is worth reading as some of us need Inspiration and Motivation. Remember to love the journey, not the destination.
Mariebel
: : Get a Life : :
Commencement Speech
This is the commencement speech by the writer, Anna Quindlen, to the graduates at Villanova last year.
It's a great honor for me to be the third member of my family to receive an honorary doctorate from this great university.
It's an honor to follow my great Uncle Jim, who was a gifted physician, and my Uncle Jack, who is a remarkable businessman. Both of them could have told you something important about their professions, about medicine or commerce. I have no specialized field of interest or expertise. I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. The second is only part of the first.
Don't ever forget what a friend once wrote Senator Paul Tsongas when the senator decided not to run for reelection because he had been diagnosed with cancer! "No man ever said on his deathbed, 'I wish I had spent more time at the office."
Don't ever forget the words my father sent me on a postcard last year: "If you win the rat race, you're still a rat."Or what John Lennon wrote before he was gunned down in the driveway of the Dakota: "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."
You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree; there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living.
But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account but your soul.
People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is a cold comfort on a winter night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've gotten back the test results and they're not so good.
Here is my resume:
I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cutout. But I call them on the phone, and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, or at best mediocre at my job, if those other things were not true.
You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are. So here's what I wanted to tell you today:
Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast?
Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze over Seaside Heights, a life in which you stop and watch how a red tailed hawk circles over the water or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a Cheerio with her thumb and first finger.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter.
Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beers and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister. All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good too, then doing well will never be enough.
It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the color of our kids' eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of to live. I learned to live many years ago.
Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my druthers, it would never have been changed at all.
And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all: I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get.
I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this:
Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.
There's Always A Moment That You Know Is The Moment That Changed Your Life.
Congrats all Graduands! I'll post the photos as soon as I develop them!
write & read comments :
:: posted by uni friends at 9:02 AM
yepee! i just graduated today! "bachelor of computer science". i am so happy! i have a degree! i'll tell you more later... here is a pic! (only took 8 digitally since i used a normal film for the rest) i'll try and scan some more but for now its just these. enjoy!
write & read comments :
:: posted by uni friends at 12:58 AM
Sunday, April 27, 2003
Hey guys wanna battle me!
Enter your name(usually your first name or nick) in the space below and click on battle! It's soo cool! Then if you want, you can adopt one too! Check it out!! Battle me and let's see who kicks ass!
Mariebel's Battle Imp is
Ilon
Backstabbing: 5
Dodgin': 9
Guts: 6
Magic Mojo: 8
Smackdown: 9
Saw this on rvns page and I kicked his ass!
write & read comments :
:: posted by uni friends at 8:27 AM
Friday, April 25, 2003
hey! our graduation is coming up! here are the details! >> its on monday 28 apr / 12 noon / uws parra compus / build EE auditoruim... im a bit excited...haha! there is no real plans about the whole day. i called everyone and they are just gonna go and leave whenever sooo no plans.....gee arent we good???......ummm no...(not blaming...people are working/class/stuff etc. so its cool) also i heard rumours that they are not serving cakes this year... only biscuits.... cheap arse organisers. so if you guys wanna see us graduate +Me-Arvin +Meb +Jos +Viv +Amali .........(did i forget anyone from the FotSR).......you can see us before 12noon (around 11am) on that day same place........ running around like crazy being too excited... well that would be me....lol -OR- after the graduation (which is i heard 1-2 hours) so around 1-2pm same place as above... hey have an idea!!!!!!!. call our mobiles! and ask where we all are. *damn i need credits* but yeah it should be a fun day! for us grduants.... since there is no plans and dont know the place well...... lets just see each other there.... eveyone who attends......dont be shy coz i'll kick you ya ignore me...lol... i need to take pictures with someone....lol........ i mean my friends!!!!! and maybe we can organize another day where we can all celebrate after the grad day. anyway, have a great anzac day long weekend and dont eat to much easter egg coz that can ruin diets and teeth! i heard the best way to eat them was all at the same time! lol... but what the hey. its once a year so eat away! ok c u all soon! xox arvin
write & read comments :
:: posted by uni friends at 2:20 AM
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
hey hey hey!
first i would like to say how nice our new online home is now! thanks meb! nicely made and the new pictures of us looks fresher and its cool how u made that grid and we're like coming out from it and its black too!. way cool! oohhh i notice there is a hint of yellow everywhere... ur fave colour!
you guys sound like you had an awesome time at ur city day fun get together, i knew you would storm the city! funny things there with the maternity pants and the broken shoes...lol. i could only imagine what i missed out on.
i have a question about what is appropriate???...(discussed else where but maybe u wanna read) about you having a bad day and some one says something like "chill" or "hang in there".... "you can do it".... can throw a person to the edge. coz i am never good at it....just like situations where someone gives you a bad news or are talking about a really bad situation... what can i say? "is there anything i can do"....... "you'll be fine" .. "if you need anything dont hesitate to ask".. "its gonna be alright' ... "it'll work out for the best" what to say???? or just dont say anything?? *silence then hug* ...no idea??? we just have to judge the situation and the person. plus its different where its coming from .....a friend... family....stranger... that will matter a lot... and if that person has credibility... and even on how they say it.......any questions... but for me.... its better if someone... a friend/family that will reassure me that it'll be ok and stuff like that coz my mind is confused and im thinking irrational... and they are outside and maybe can see the situation better.... someone that can make me fell at easy.... that for some people they might get a different reaction when that is said...."what would you know" ...... "u have no idea how im feeling" yeah but for me i like someone to tell me it'll be ok and they are there for me and i start to think about it's gonna be fine and its gonna work out. damn where is the etiuete book???? wait... each person is different.... hmmmm.... what to do.....
not much action here to reply on.....and so here goes me again..... lol
so whats up with arvin? + finish babysitting charlene this week! i am gonna miss that baby girl + waiting for my graduation, its too soon. not ready to look for a job + watching tv! and listening to music, trying to read and just basically chilling, nothnig new
what i really like right now! + all the new show are back and no more lonely nights for me..lol... too many to name + i can sleep in coz im not baby sitting anymore + thr holidays are coming! more free time
what annoys me right me! + that i have to look for a job and family and friends have suggested so many things that i should do... its freaks me out + weather... warm during the day and cold at night... its makes me feel sick faster... make up ur mind weather + me being to so lazy to keep in touch with friends and so many thnigs stopping me.... well not really if i really wanted to.. not that i dont want to...lol.. yeah see what i mean...
hopefully we'll see each other soon! take care and happy long weekend/holidays!
have an eggcellent day!!!!!
much love! arvin
ps. here is a quiz i took... its a cute quiz!
write & read comments :
:: posted by uni friends at 9:34 PM
Monday, April 14, 2003
Hi guys!
How is everyone? I'm alright.
I've changed the Fellowship website! I hope you guys like it. =)
See you all soon!
p.s.~ Of course I'd love to hear what you guys think.
Lots of Love Mariebel (",)
write & read comments :
:: posted by uni friends at 10:05 PM
Friday, April 11, 2003
This is me. Don't remember which one of the guys he is... just that they all had weird names. Apparently i'm an asshole and has been taken over by aliens. lol! Well....let me just tell eveyrone this........ i have not met any green dudes! only dark ones! if your offended by this, then u know it's u!!!
....just kidding! hehehe! But that site has so many quizzes! less than a year ago, i bet that site would have been heaven for us when we were still all obsessed with them! :-)
