"This is a story of boy meets girl. The boy, Tom Hansen of Margate, New Jersey, grew up believing that he'd never truly be happy until the day he met the one. This belief stemmed from early exposure to sad British pop music and a total mis-reading of the movie 'The Graduate'. The girl, Summer Finn of Shinnecock, Michigan, did not share this belief. Since the disintegration of her parent's marriage she'd only love two things. The first was her long dark hair. The second was how easily she could cut it off and not feel a thing. Tom meets Summer on January 8th. He knows almost immediately she is who he has been searching for. This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know upfront, this is not a love story."

Just because we are deeply in love with someone doesn't make that someone the one for us.

Now, I don't know how to explain the part where Summer said, "It just happened," or something along that line anyway. We won't know until that happens - that moment when we'll just wake up and know, what we were never sure of with the others we loved. And that's just the way it really is - a magical experience, if I may say so.

"You were right about destiny. You weren't just right about me."

Yeah, we always tend to put the label "He's the one," or "He's the right one" to whoever we're with at the moment as long as we feel that "love." Of course, this is a natural reaction. I mean we wouldn't be seriously dating someone if we don't think it will lead to something better in the future right? But sadly, that's not the way it works. If it's not meant to be, it won't be - this will always be difficult to understand and accept by someone whose heart has been broken. Then we go through that heartbroken cycle, one of the most painful things to go through. And then we just snap back to reality and then understand the bigger picture and finally accept that some things are not meant to be - and it's not always a bad thing. :) I can go on about this, but many of us who've experienced love and breakups already know the drill.

"Most days of the year are unremarkable. They begin, and they end, with no lasting memories made in between. Most days have no impact on the course of a life. May 23rd was a Wednesday."

What day will be mine? I don't know. But that day will come. And then I'll just know. ;)

Along the Green Mile

Monday proved to be a day of realization - it was because of one movie, The Green Mile. I never heard of it before although it's been around since 1999 and I was only given a chance to see it on Monday. I didn't even plan on watching it, my dad just happened to like the movie and told me it was good. I gave it a chance because I had nothing better to do.

Little did I know that as the movie unfolds, I'd be facing a situation that I'd later on label as a traumatic experience. I've only had one traumatic experience in my life and so this counts as the second one. Some of you may already be aware but for the sake of those who are not, I'd try to summarize it as best as I can.

Its story is about a man whose job is to supervise the electrocution of vicious criminals. His career led him to meet a man who was wrongly-accused of killing two girls as he tried to heal them with his miraculous God-given healing power. Unfortunately, he failed and that's when people saw him and so misunderstood the situation. He had no witnesses of his miracles at that time and so he was left with no choice but to accept the punishment. That situation alone is saddening as it is but what made the movie a traumatic experience for me was to witness the "failed" electrocution of someone - it was successful because the criminal died but "failed" in a sense that the other supervising police officer deliberately put a dry sponge on top of the man's head. Putting a dry sponge instead of a wet one will cause torture to the person when he is electrocuted and will literally ignite and leave him sparking and burning in flames. People just watched as he screamed in pain. That time when I was watching it, I felt I was there watching the whole scene unfold and I felt fear and shame as I could not do anything to stop the torture. I know it was just a movie but I guess that's what what trauma does to you - I forgot for a few seconds that I was watching something fictional. And that's also the moment when the realization came.

I realized that somehow, humans tend to be meaninglessly cruel to each other. I say meaningless because we want people who've wronged us to be punished by death when we have no right over that person's life. I'm not being a humanitarian here, all I'm saying is that if we really want to punish someone, then ending his/her life is not the appropriate solution. You just let him rest in peace, and that I think is doing someone a favor. If you really want to let him suffer as much as you have because of what he's done, then have him imprisoned for life. Having him locked up with no hope of ever experiencing the sun against his face is the greatest punishment there is - it's like living with no choice of having any other purpose in life - except to live for the sake of repentance.

How ironic it is that we have the capability of killing someone but no power to bring him back.

It just goes to show that we are tested everyday not to give in to that capability of ending someone's life no matter how much pain he's caused us.

The movie is right - this world is just so full of dirt - envy, lies, jealousy, power-hungry people, money, murders, and so much more. It is already a miracle that we are able to survive such a gruesome place. And our secret? We unconsciously drive these dirt away from us by looking only at the great things in life.

The secret lies in focusing ONLY on the good things in life that make us happy. Never mind these dirt and entertain the beautiful things life offers us and they'll surely decide to stay. That's what I do and they really stay to keep me even happier.

Finding Nemo

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming, what do we do? We swim, swim!

Okay, we all laughed our hearts out and sang full of joy with Dory in Disney’s Finding Nemo. And we couldn’t care less if Marlin was already pissed off!

Dory’s favorite line could actually serve as our mantra. Although we’d have to change swimming with living. Just keep living, just keep living..! The bottom line of life is just to keep on living. It’s a shame that it was a Disney cartoon character who taught us what we know but often neglected - to just keep on living. Dory was a good reminder on life’s little secret. It was a good thing that children, in their young age and mind was already exposed to Dory’s reminder and it is with utmost hope that I pray they do remember this little song in the darkest times of their life.

I have to admit that I often take living for granted. I sometimes wish that my life was different and worst, that it would just end. Dory reminded me of what I already know deep in my heart. I’ve always lived life as I see it - to continue on living it - but what I didn’t know then was that it was actually the secret to living a good life. keep on living it and soon I’ll have overcome problems and the pains that come with it.

What better way to know what lies ahead than to keep on living and finding my way there, right? I have to admit life is really isn’t easy to live and at times it seems that giving up is the only solution we see. But when we give up and fight, then we’ve already lost a battle that hasn’t even begun yet. But seeing life as a battle is also a sign of pessimism. Life is not a battle but a gift to be enjoyed, and more often than not we fail to see this fact.

As it is always said, God didn’t give us everything to enjoy life, but He gave us LIFE to enjoy everything. Life is a paradise full of great and wonderful things. Nad the only way to enjoy it all is to keep on swimming, keep on walking, and keep on living.

It’s not easy but let’s remember Dory’s little song, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..What do we do? We swim, swim..” And with that, everything will just fall into place. You’ll see, you’ll soon find your own Nemo.