All We Need Is Love

“I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and this has always been enough.”

                —Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

Nicholas Sparks is one of my favourite authors. I am sure I will post a few more quotes from his novels throughout the term. I can’t help but read the classic romance novels. However, this one has to be one of my all-time favourite Nicholas Sparks quotes. Especially from The Notebook (also one of my favourite movies with the ravishing Ryan Gosling).

I love how true this quote is, even if it’s a little cheesy to just “top the cake” for the typical romance people. But really how special are each of us? We all get told we’re special and unique when we’re little, but most of us don’t become the famous rockstar, actor, or model. We all aren’t Batman making a name for ourselves by saving a city. We are all common people with a common life. We eat, sleep, live and die. How do we get that monument in such a sort time? Sure you can have a bucketlist like I do to make goals, but when you die how many people are going to remember you?

‘Noah’—the main character in The Notebook—is right, at least to me. You can make the most of your life and climb Mount Everest, but you aren’t going to have a building named after you. When you come home and curl up beside the one you love that is enough. Pure happiness to Noah.

It may be silly. But you answer this: How many times do you walk past grave stones, read the names, move on, and then forget the name? Do you know their life story? Have you ever heard of them before? The answer is probably no isn’t it?

Trust me, I’m not saying your life isn’t anything special. You’re just not Martin Luther King Jr. who made a name for himself, and gets noticed every year and every day in history class. To me nothing is better then when I’ll be old and grey and come home to the love of my life and share my “common thoughts and life” with him. If I can find someone who loves me as much as I love them I’ll be happy.

So many people get divorced, stay alone and don’t find love. When they die do they have the satisfaction of loving someone with all their heart and soul? Maybe I’m the one whose read to many love novels (…chivalry can go a very long way). I do know that these stories are fictional. Maybe they are too high of an expectation when I’m older. But a girl can dream.

Changing is tough

“I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone”

—Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon

First I must quickly apologize for changing the layout of this entry. But I believe I will stick to this layout to show the quote first and then hopefully have you guys continue reading on.

If you haven’t yet read Flowers for Algernon I highly recommend it. It’s about a mentally retarded man who undergoes a science experiment to become smarter.  Before people were always making fun of him. They took advantage of his disability and used to their amusement. Although Charlie didn’t understand much of what went on his life, he was still content. Once the experiment started expanding his knowledge of the world, he came to realize that his “friends” he once had used him for their enjoyment.

Charlie grew too much going from one extreme to the other. He shifted into different atmospheres you could say. Like in the Comic Book world, there are different Earth’s (Earth 1, Earth 32). He felt like there was no one he belonged with. Don’t get me wrong change is good, but too much of it changes you. No longer are you funny, slower going Charlie Gordon. You are now a crazed, science stranger—an entire new identity.

I think I would rather not know what is wrong with me and enjoy life as it comes, than be left alone feeling farther advanced than anyone like Charlie. It’s like a few movies you see. There’s always the wanna-be rock star. They get big. They get rich. Then they always realize it wasn’t all that cracked up to be. They lose their friends and wish they were back in the garage jamming out. I believe, in the end, everyone ends up choosing to go back to normal.

It could also be that our minds play up the fantasy a little too much. We expect it to be the huge dream we’ve been waiting for where everything is perfect. We want to be smart and fit in, or make millions and be known across the world. As the saying goes “ It’s never as it seems”.

Nerd of the Day

First I should say today is a bit of a nerdy today. I'm off to Toronto to go to a cheap comic book store with my boyfriend and his friends. However what do I do while I'm slowly falling asleep early in the morning on the GO Train? Why, of course, I shall write a nerdy quote from none other than the latest movie 'The Dark Knight Rises'. The wise fellow from the movie I shall quote is the villain Bane as he fights Batman,

"Oh yes, I was wondering what would break first, your spirit or your body?"

Now after this as a quick SPOILER ALERT!!! Bane does actually break Batman like in the comics. (Which of course one can appreciate that Christopher Nolan kept this event while introducing Bane into the story). Anyways I think this is a great quote that each and everyone can probably refer to in their daily lives.

Any task one does you have two options the way I see it: quit when your body can't give anymore OR when you don't have any hope left anymore.

A good example of this is when I went running yesterday. When do you slow down and walk? Your legs are burning up and you're running out of breath, but your mind tells you you can make it to the next block. You can do it. You can do it!

But which voice is more powerful? Louder? Your spirit, or your body? Batman's was when he wasn't physically able to stand anymore. His spirit was urging him to continue and destroy Bane. His spirit ran him into the ground. However, even once his body was no longer capable his spirit still persisted to carry on and get better once he was broken so he could save Gotham.

I can't say I am the same in every situation. Sometimes like running I wait until my body tells me I'm done. Other times it is your spirit telling you to push on. I think though if your spirit is crushed there is no way to go back.

Your body can be fixed and brought into an emergency room. There is always a cure. Your spirit though? What is there to fix your spirit? If someone tells you you are a hopeless cause or worthless, what can bring you back up? Although, your spirit can be a lot harder to break. Especially if you have very strong feelings towards that something.

Well that is all. And if you haven't watched 'The Dark Knight Rises' then do it!

What it's all about

Hi everyone! I'm new to posting blogs. This has to be done for one of my classes (interactive marketing communications). So for this class the task is to write a blog.

I do have another blog (shaystories.wordpress.com). That's for all my creative writing instead of this rambling. And mainly because its a lot easier to write short entries than a story every week on top of school work.

Then what will I be talking about you ask? Quotes. What is better than an interesting quote to read? I'm not thinking about any historical quotes. More along the line of movies and novels. Hopefully something that will make everyone's day a little better or get you thinking.

The first quote I'm gonna start this off with is from the Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld that I've currently started. A very interesting take on what a superficial world would be. In this one the government has made it so that before you turn 16 you are an "ugly" and once it's your 16th birthday you get turned "pretty" by getting surgery. This one here is a lot longer than what I plan to use but theres a lot you get from the quote. Anyways this is the very long quote here...

" 'Right, and things were so great back when everyone was ugly. Or did you miss that day in school?'
'Yeah, yeah, I know,' Shay recited. 'Everyone judges everyone else based on their appearance. People who were taller got better jobs, and people even voted for some politicians just because they weren't quite as ugly as everybody else. Blah, blah, blah.'
'Yeah, and people killed one another over stuff like having different skin color.' Tally shook her head. No matter how many times they repeated it at school, she'd never really quite believe that one. 'So what if people look more alike now? It's the only way to make people equal.' "

Is this our solution? I really hope it would never come to this point. What kills me the most about this story is that girls and guy are just 16. Whose to say they're done growing? And whose to define what pretty should look like? It is good to look nice but everyone looking the same is a little much I think.

Hopefully I have grabbed some of your attention. We'll have to wait and see how it turns out. Stay tuned.