Learning

"There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance." - Socrates

In lieu of Lee's poem I thought I'd write a piece about some things I've learned about life in the last few years. When I was in highschool I was "self-centered". I'm not sure if that's the right word to use, but it will suffice for now. I suppose a lot of kids are only thinking about themselves and more importantly, what other people think. I thought I knew everything, that my opinions had a strong foundation and I was, well... right. Looking back now I see a kid who hadn't even left the country where he was born, who hadn't experienced much else other than a life of opulence and mental stability.

I'm learning not care about what other people think, this is such a hard thing to do but I'm getting better at it. I owe some of this 'skill' to Lee. Probably the easiest way to convey this idea is with clothes. I had an experience where I felt like I was at school just the other day, you see I bought a shawl and was apprehensive about wearing it. After some thought I said to myself - "Hang on, I'm a fucking grown up, I can wear whatever I like, where ever I like, regardless what other people might be thinking". Why should you care what anyone thinks about what you wear? RB Sullivan once said something like - Don't worry about what other people are thinking about you, they're already thinking it. That couldn't be more true on so many levels. If someone doesn't like you, they just don't like you. And if they do, they do. Wearing a sweet pair of Nike's isn't going to make someone like you, you should only wear those shoes if YOU want to. So long as you're happy and comfortable that's all that matters.

Another thing I've learned is self control. Years ago I'd just say the first stupid thing that came into my head, now if something seems inappropriate or better left unsaid - I just don't say it (most of the time anyway). A lot of people I know never had this problem but I did, I see my maturity most when I'm in a meeting at work, my desire my make stupid and inappropriate remarks is still there, but I'm now able to just still there in peace and relax now. I don't know if that's learning, it's probably just maturing. I guess the actual learning part to this, is controlling yourself when you're stressed out, some people get stressed out and loose it. I know that I can only take on one task at a time, more than one task will make me screw up everything. So that's why I've learned to never take on too much, just do what you can handle, do get stressed out. Do what you can do and do it well.

The importance of good friends. When you go to school your friends are just there, you take for granted that one day you'll have to actually make an effort to see them. I realise now that you need nothing more than good friendship to be happy. No movie or TV show can make you laugh like you do with your friends, no one can be aware yet completely indifferent to your faults except your friends.

Most importantly, I've learned that I don't know shit.

- Dogman