A Journey For Happiness

Hi. My name is Melissa--in school, outside of school, and on social media. Technically, it's only an alias--the name printed on my birth certificate is Chau which means "pearl" in Vietnamese. It's not French, nor is it pronounced like Ciao (when my peers say, "Ciao, Chau" and the two RHYME, oh boy). And it's definitely not Ling-ling or Ching-Chong;  it's so  irritating when someone says, "Yo, what's up, Ching-Chong?" I'm obviously going to take offense, even if it was only meant as a joke. My name has always been a touchy subject for me; among Jacks and Emilys, Chau sticks out a lot. When teachers do attendance for the first time, I always sigh a little when they hesitate on my name. Over the years, I've gotten used to it and have been able to anticipate their hesitation, saying "here" in time to save them and  me the embarrassment. A teacher once called for a "Mr. Nong"--needless to say, it took ...

happy mother's day to all the moms out there ___ you - shaking worlds you move me. like six years old: when my best friends and I raced each other down the empty roads, played hide and seek in the dark, and rode our bikes til our legs gave out and then some more, youth - the pinnacle of it, my favorite memories were then. you move me like a burning fire in a kingdom of rock and ice you, my candle in the night - a soft, protecting warmth you move me your confidence, strength, understanding, your faith you inspire me you stirred into life my desires and aspirations and guided me away from the path of least resistance and threw me to myself and told me to stay me because you knew all i wanted to do was to be unlike me and be like you fearless and unwavering, can i be like that, too - maybe? you move me like nine years old when i met my grandmother for the very first time and felt the age in her hands and saw the stars in her hair ...

"In life, never forget these important things: One, that home is not a place, but a feeling. Two, that time is not measured by a clock, but by moments. And three, that heartbeats are not heard, but felt and shared." - Unknown  "School is important." "You have to go to college." "You need a job that makes money." These "ideals" have been with me since I first started thinking about what I wanted to do in my future. I understand; money is a necessity for a comfortable life. An ugly kind of necessity, but a necessity nonetheless. And certain things are needed to obtain that necessity. Of course, I haven't exactly decided on a permanent career path ever since those "ideals" started to obstruct my view. For now, I have decided to leave those things in the future for the future. I'd like to enjoy what is left of my childhood which is slowly coming to an end. My last year of middle school is soon to be ...

I am happy with who I am.  That's the truth. I'm confident in my abilities, and I like who I am as a person. I'm not perfect or anything; actually, in comparison with the rest of the world, I am extremely mundane and average. I don't really have any distinctive characteristics that make me shine brighter than the rest of the world. I'm your average, flawed human with big dreams for the future. To begin, I'm a coward. This statement is totally contradictory with my previous words of being confident, but it's completely different than what I was talking about then. See, I'm utterly afraid of humiliation. Even the fear itself is shameful. Losing, failure, mistakes, etc., I avoid those with all costs. But I mean, nobody likes to lose. Nobody likes to be jeered. I'm trying to change; I want to be unafraid of making mistakes. I want to because to make mistakes is to grow. Also, I'm pretty arrogant and domineering. I guess this would be the pa...

"New Years is a time for new beginnings.  Now if I could just figure out where to start." - Melanie White 2016 feels like a good year. But then again, I say that about every year in hopes that luck will choose to shine on me. - posted exactly at 12:00 AM - 01/01/16. The mark of a new year. A new beginning. - I don't believe in a clean slate. "Having a clean slate" exists only literally having a slate that is clean - or at birth (well if you want  to count your time in the womb, that too). Every single day, the things you do go on that figurative slate - it's not just scribbled on, it's engraved. And no matter what you do, you can't start over. You can't erase. It's not a game - Life. There is no restart button, no pause or resume. And whatever is on that slate of yours will stay - Forever. But is that necessarily a bad thing? At the beginning of each year, your slate gets built on. All that stuff etched on your slat...

The pain and hardships involved with living, I won't call it a necessity. But without it, life would not be so grand. For how can you know true happiness without experiencing pain first?  "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value." - Thomas Paine To conquer the seas, one must learn how to overcome the worst of storms! The only way you'll truly learn and understand it is through firsthand experience. Again and again you must endure, learn, and overcome. Again and again - you must fight! Fight for your dreams, your ambitions, and your pride. Until that one day that you tame and master the wind and ride gallantly through the storms, until that one day when the treasure you've been searching for is in your hands, you must keep moving forward! Ships that can't be broken are sturdy. But, there are also ships that have been damag...

I have a new life goal to pursue. Having a permanent footprint doesn't interest me anymore. I realize now how selfish that was. I thought, "Why do I want to help people again? Is it just because I want to be remembered as a hero?" After a lot of thinking, I came to a simple conclusion; that's not what I want. I just want to help people. I want them to be happy and to live a good life. I don't need a statue in my honor or people to recognize my name. I don't even need gratitude. As long as I can help people and make them truly happy, then I would be satisfied.  So, here is my new goal: I want my footprint to walk every single corner of the entire world. And every single place they touch, someone - even if it's just one family - will be changed for the better. Changing the world? Can one person truly do that? Of course not! I don't think a single human being can influence seven billion people. But one human being can influence one or two ...

It's a funny thing; time. It flies so fast that you don't notice how far you've come until you've come so far. I still have one foot in the past, one foot in the present, and my heart in the future. I hold tightly onto my beloved memories, but still dream of the near yet distant times ahead. My mind is a time machine that takes me back and forward.  And truthfully, if I could have one selfish wish, I'd wish for all the time in the world. Enough time to see the world and all of its beauties, enough time to discover and learn about the world and its curiosities, enough time to see the world blossom with peace, love, and happiness everywhere - enough time to see all there is to see! But there will never be enough time. So, I vow to always make the most of the time I do have. To grasp all of the opportunities thrown at me and to never be afraid of doing so. To use the time I have to do the best things for myself and for everyone.  I wil...

"I can't change the direction of the wind, But I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. " - Jimmy Dean I wish life was a constant - a never-changing constant. Constants always stays the same. Like math. One plus one is always two. Two plus one is always three. You can't ever find a different answer to one plus one or two plus one. But life - it's always changing, never constant.              Change is how the world works. Science is always changing. People are always changing. Life is always changing. Everything just has to adapt to it. And even if you don't adapt, life goes on. It always has and always will be. To my future self (who will hopefully come back and read this and is stronger, stronger enough to change): Change is a necessity. Life would be boring without something different - without new obstacles and new reasons to live for. Without change, there is no way that we could become better people. ...

"Through the eyes of a child, You will see the world Just as it ought to be." It seems to me that adults look down too much on children. Their eloquent speech and look of sophistication; they were wiser with all of their many years of experience. Yet, they still scream at each other and throw tantrums or make ignorant comments. And some things, with their jaded eyes, they just don't understand. Adults walk through the streets with a purpose, a place to go. Everyone kept their eyes straight ahead or on the watches around their wrist. "I'll be late for work." No one bothered to glance up at the sky. And you know, it was such a nice day. But amongst this grayness, there's always a splash of color. A child's eyes see everything. They are the ones who look for and notice the beautiful things in life. They are the beautiful innocence in the world. Each generation's duty is to protect the future of the next generation. The future...

A long train had to be pulled up a very high mountain. A big train was asked to pull the load but refused because it thought the job was too hard even though he was built for hard work. While all the large locomotives refused, one little blue engine stepped up and offered to take the load. The larger engines scoffed at the pitiful size of the engine. The idea of something so small pulling such a big and heavy load up a high mountain seemed impossible. But the little engine thought he could do it so he pulled the load up the mountain while repeating, "I think I can, I think I can." And eventually, he did make it up that mountain. How? Perseverance and faith in itself. The only size that matters to succeed is that of your determination. The little locomotive never gave up - never let go of hope even when the mountain got rockier and harder to go up. So, let's just cut to the chase. Never give up on yourself. Don't you ever let anyone tell you that y...

What does this picture mean to you? To me: hope. You're crossing a desert and incredibly thirsty. You don't know how much longer you can last, but your human hope pushes you onward. But there are times when you wonder if it's all in vain, and you're afraid of holding onto that hope, fearing the disappointment when it turns out you were just hoping for the impossible. And when everything seems lost, you spot something. Jutting out of the ground is a little green sprout, a glimmer of hope in the hopeless desert. Wherever there is green means water can't be far away. And then you start hoping all over again. Not too long ago, my family and I were thrown into a desert of despair (get it? instead of a sea of despair, I said a desert. No? Okay.)  My grandfather, my dad's dad, was in the hospital. His kidneys weren't filtering his blood fast enough. He was fatigued, confused, lying helpless in the emergency room. I remember how my dad deliv...

"If today were  the  last day of my life, would I want to do  what I'm about to do today?"   - Steve Jobs Why do you think money exists? I think there are many perks about being human. I mean, you can do so many things other animals, like birds for instance, cannot do. Can birds invent world-changing things? Probably not. Can birds fly into space? Probably not. There are lots of pros about being human. We do not adapt like other animals - we bend the world so it suits us. Which sounds pretty shellfish , doesn't it?  Sorry, I just couldn't resist. Then there's that one con. It's those little green slips that humans need to live a comfortable life. We are the only animals that pay to exist. They say money cannot buy happiness and it really can't. But it buys food that we can eat. It buys us shelter so we can live. Money is important . Which is why I hate it. This idea that being rich means having everything you could ever w...

We say goodbye to them, gripping hands and our glistening eyes tell the rest of that farewell. They'll appear again when we need them. Or maybe they never really leave. It's the end. All those memories we made - it just doesn't seem like we've made enough yet.  It's been such a good year and I will cherish the last few days of school like a camel would cherish an oasis filled with water after a thousand miles of desert. I'll never forget this year. But, I'll admit being excited for summer and being able to spend more time with my friends or sleeping like the lazy person I am. (Just kidding.) The final school project: time capsules. And in another six years - at the end of our senior year - we'll come back to dig it up. It's quite exciting. I haven't decided what to put in it yet. I hope future me doesn't change too much. I kind of like the optimistic and naive me of now. I'm trying not to think too much of the future and j...

I'm just going to start this off by saying that I judge books by their covers all the time. But books are not people and people shouldn't be judged that way. My observation of our society: Physical appearance seems like the most significant and commonly used way to judge others. I'm sure you have come across times like this. You've probably come across it while learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. More specifically, about his dream... "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Even though there are now laws about this "skin color" kind of discrimination, I feel like it still happens. Like, people will look at a darker skinned man and have all kinds of bad thoughts about him. But I bet you, that darker skinned man probably has a smile that could light up a room, and a heart filled with love. Pretty faces, not-...

My brain has run dry of ideas. I have none whatsoever and I'm not sure if it's because I've been extremely busy lately that I can't really think or if I'm just really bored and don't want to think. Well no, I really actually need  to think. I really need  a new idea. But I just can't grab hold of one. So, this here is a jumble of thoughts ungathered, unedited, and all definitely unfinished . Spring. This year, the spring equinox was on March 20 and yet, where I am, the weather is anything but pleasantly warm. It just snowed on Wednesday last week and the bitter wind is a constant reminder that the groundhog's prediction wasn't very accurate. Either that or extremely accurate since it's still chilling outside. I hate hot weather, it irritates me, but this is just getting ridiculous. School. I'm kind of happy that the school year is ending because I can't wait to go on vacations and spend my whole day with my little brother. But ...