If you are reading this it is because you are either
A: Burned out from finals week and just trying to look at something other than your assignments for 10 minutes.
Or
B: Procrastinating doing your assignments and in turn allowing them to get larger and larger so they stress you out more.
Don't worry, this is not some grand old lecture stressing the importance of finals week. Nobody likes Finals week. Not you, your teachers, your friends, your families, and certainly not me. But hey, as long as you are taking time out of your busy schedule reading this post, then the least I can do is make it so you feel uplifted in some way. And what better way to do that than by sharing a few stories with you that show that there is hope for us all.
Story Number 1 (Ironically found during my Radio and TV. News-Writing Final) Comes from the Huffington Post.
Winning isn't everything. Some times it's even entirely besides the point. Such was the case when Wakana Ueda, a blind 11-year-old from Japan, crossed the finish line of the Honolulu marathon after 14 hours, 3 minutes and 12 seconds on the course.
Competing in her first marathon on Sunday, Wakana almost dropped out due to physical exhaustion. "Before the halfway mark, her leg was cramping up, and she was thinking about quitting many times," Wakana's mother told Hawaii News Now. "But because the team supported her, she was able to finish."
When Wakana crossed the finish line, she immediately embraced her mother with tears in her eyes. That the top finishers had come and gone hours earlier hardly seemed relevant. In fact, the accomplishments of the men's and women's winners seemed downright insignificant in comparison. After all, the top male finisher Nicholas Chelimo had won the event in 2010. He'd been there and done that. Although the Honolulu win was certainly the most significant for 25-year-old Woynishet Girma, the top female finisher, her exuberant stride across the finish line didn't pack the emotional wallop of the conclusion to Ueda's inspiring effort.
Story Number 2 comes from NPR.org
Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.
But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.
He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.
"He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says.
As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."
The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'"
Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.
"You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help," Diaz says.
Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.
"The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'"
"No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'"
Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"
"Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.
Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says.
The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to.
When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."
The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know."
Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen's knife — "and he gave it to me."
Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch."
"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."
Story Number 3 comes from Amazing News.org. A news website that goes out of it's way to tell us what is going well in the world.
In March the Fukushima power plant saw one of the largest nuclear disasters of the past few decades. Ever since the meltdown teams have been working to clean up the mess and reduce the radiation and today a group project centered around sunflowers is brining hope to an area that is desperately in need of some.
Sunflowers apparently use cesium as a food source and after a major radioactive event much of the left over radiation is excess cesium. The sunflowers in Fukushima are in fact reducing the radioactivity levels in the city all while brining some joy to the town. Of course Fukushima is not the first place this trick has been used; the city of Chernobyl also had thousands of sunflowers planted immediately after the disaster in order to accomplish the same thing. Currently there are an estimated 200,000 sunflowers in Fukushima and more are expected to be sprouting throughout the year so residents are surely going to start feeling better about their situation soon.
These stories are all fairly short, speak for themselves, and offer different perspectives as to what the important things in life really are. Enjoy reading these stories as you break from your studying and I will even leave you all with some uplifting and motivational quotes.
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.
Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.
William B. Sprague
William B. Sprague
Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Willing is not enough; we must do.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price.
Vince Lombardi
Vince Lombardi
I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.
Vince Lombardi
Happy Studying everyone.
