Quotes are an effective way to communicate thoughts and emotions. Writers have the incredible ability to put these feelings, dreams, and fears into words that allow the audience to relate to them. Throughout my life, I make an effort to collect quotes and put them on my wall in my room. Five quotes stand out to me the most.
My favorite song lyric of all time is from the song Let’s Be Birds sang by Jacob Whitesides. “What’s the point of living in a beautiful world that you’ll never see?” This is my favorite song lyric of all time because traveling the world is my biggest life goal. I am well aware that this doesn’t make me special, almost everyone I know my age says they love to travel. I live in a wealthier area than average so it’s extremely common for people in my grade to go on family vacations out of the country. I never have been out of the country because my family doesn’t want to finance an international vacation because we have three kids in my college that all plan to go to college and my parents want to help us out the best they can. My lack of experience traveling in no way limits my interest in exploring the world. Ever since I was in elementary school I was captivated by travel books. Back then I more looked at places to go on vacation with my family but know I am old enough to understand that taking vacations isn’t the time of traveling I crave. I crave genuine experiences that have more meaning than going to a resort in Mexico.
The more I admire the more I get out of life. “Admire as much as you can, most people don’t admire enough.” -Vincent Van Gogh. Attention to the small things makes every moment more genuine. My biggest fear isn’t necessarily dying but dying before I have experienced life. Regret is one of the most defeating emotions a human can experience and I want to ensure I won’t regret not admiring and appreciating more.
Movies are also a great source for collecting quotes. One of my favorite movies and the movie I think produces the best quotes is Dead Poets Society. They talk about appreciating the important things in life. “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” As a person that values creativity, this quote is very impactful to me. I enjoy creating art in as many ways as I can. I learned to express myself through photography, playing the piano, creating collages, drawing sketches, dancing, and writing. While I understand not all of these activities are commonly considered art I do because I am able to express myself creatively. I am most proud of my photography and my approach to finding subjects to photograph is I try to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. I have grown up Naperville for practically my entire life and in most aspects, it is pretty ordinary but if I really try, I can find beautiful things everywhere I look.
“It is rare, but there are souls so full of beauty that it overflows into their skin. They are equally beautiful inside and out.” – Jonny Ox. I commonly find the people I love and admire the most beautiful. I really hope to be that person for other people. To have a person look at you and see your overall beauty, the beauty strangers will never get to see, is something really powerful. To know the parts of you that you think are flaws and still see something beautiful is humbling.
“Our fingerprints don’t fade from the lives we’ve touched.” – Will Fetters. The part of my life that I take most seriously is the way I impact others. I recognize that even though I am not a well-known person in power I still influence a lot. I’d compare myself, along with every living thing to a butterfly. Butterflies are so small and yet they make big differences. The butterfly effect is the idea that a small change (such as a butterfly flapping its wings) can make much bigger changes happen (causing a hurricane on the other side of the world). This applies to humans because while one person can say something to their friends and they will set off an infinite slope of changes. The person you spoke with will in some way be impacted by the conversation which will influence the person’s future actions and conversations impacting a different person and so on.
