The Things I’ve Learned

You know that line from Air Supply's "Goodbye"? "the best part...is the thinnest slice and it don't count for much", yep, life's a lot like that.

I've learned that so many things in this life will require a compromise;

I've learned that fighting for what you want is sometimes the hardest thing you'll have to do;

I've learned that sometimes, to stand for what you fight for means to stand alone;
I've learned that at once, choice is a beautiful and terrible thing;

I've learned that people aren't necessarily mean for the sake of being mean, even the ones who hurt us are just lost souls trying to find happiness;

And so I've learned that the pursuit of happiness can leave such a bloody trail in it's wake;

TS Eliot said "this is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but with a whimper";

I've learned that so many things in life are like that, a lot less colourful than what we had hoped for;

I've learned that nothing ever happens like you want it to; nothing, ever;

I've learned that religion doesn't always make the world better, nor politics make a country better. Because once you make people fight for certain things, sooner or later these things that they fight for will contradict each other and these people will fight as well;

I've learned that people lie, about a great many things, but most especially about caring and not caring;

I learned this when I found myself acting like I care at the moments when I really don't. And saying "I don't care" even at moments when I really do;

I've learned that thoughts can take on so many forms and that they can either be your balm or burn, your damnation or your salvation;

I've learned that passion is a hard thing to find, so I learned to simultaneously envy and be happy for those people with passion no matter how seemingly absurd;

I've learned that there will be many, many days when you feel like nothing's right and your body feels heavy and your heart feels laden; but that you cannot use that as an excuse to not go on living because people do not recognise these unnamed sorrows as a legitimate sickness;

I've learned that music helps, and literature as well. They can get you though the tough and lonely nights.
I've learned that loneliness becomes deadly once it is borne out of
choicelesness;

I've learned that love in its truest form is rare and learned to accept that I may never find it;

I've learned that the world is infatuated with beauty and that it always will be;

I've learned that sometimes the world makes you want to run away, into a different place or towards death;

I've learned that humanity in general is a hopeful specie, that it will thrive on hope even if it's the only thing left for it to thrive on;

I've learned that while wounds do heal, as it can also be reopened by a single touch;

I've learned that people build walls around themselves, and that these walls will not be broken by force, but it will crumble at the gentlest and most sincere of touches;

I've learned that loss if a lifetime experience; that even though the physical loss is a one-time event, you will find yourself mourning and reliving the loss throughout your life;

I've learned that people sometimes like to accept societal norms and expectations because it is hard to struggle against it; that this is why ideals and stigmas strive;

I've learned that there are monsters beneath smiling faces, and angels beneath scarred ones;

I've learned that I am alone; a universe so vast and a multitude of humanity and yet, all the years taught me that I am indeed alone;

I've learned that sometimes, the only things that make a person want to live is the view of the sunset as it transforms into a magical skyscape of kaleidoscopic colours;

And through all the things I learned, I learned that I could live to be a thousand, and still not be able to learn all;

With this I still hope that when deaths finally ends my chances at learning, may I have already learned the most important lesson of all, whatever it may be.

Does this qualify as a freewrite? Well, it’s neither a poem nor an essay, so I hope it qualifies as that. 😅 I hope you enjoyed reading, whatever form of literature this may qualify as.

All photos are mine taken with a MyPhone31