Turn to love, always.

It's easy to become bogged down with the trivialities of life. Our routines consume us, turning us into robots that do not think, but merely do. As we become sucked into the drive to complete tasks, we often forget the qualities that make us most human: kindness and love. 

Of course, I am all too guilty of this. Whether it's pushing to get to the front of the library's coffee line or snapping at an innocent question from a family member, we all fall prey to these moments of insensitivity. Yet when I reflect upon life (overthinking is a well-honed skill of mine), I realize that being kind is one of the simplest yet most important things you can do. 

I came across this graduation speech on Maxie McCoy's blog Ilo Inspired, and I was instantly entranced. 

Choose love. Always.

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George Saunders’s Advice to Graduates at Syracuse University

By JOEL LOVELL

On quotations & role models: Amelia Earhart

The heroes that we herald in childhood quickly fade from our memories as the years go by. When we're feeling nostalgic, or perhaps simply lonely, we often laugh at what we used to take so seriously once before. Many of us called Mom and Dad our heroes (and oftentimes they still are, or should be), but others saw hearts of gold in the most peculiar places. 

We looked to Michael Jordan in hopes of one day entering the NBA, or Britney Spears as our pop star predecessor. The local baker that made our birthday cakes was more of a magician than a blue-collar worker, and our mailman might as well have driven a spaceship.

While we may not have given our role models much thought as children, they did say things about us and who we were to become. 

I always think it's interesting to think back to learning how to write an essay in school. Rule number one was always: NEVER start with a quote. Using someone else's words meant that you had nothing to say, that you were unoriginal. 

And while it is still frowned upon to use other's words, I believe that our favorite quotations spoken by our role models speak volumes about us. 

I share my birthday with Amelia Earhart, the inspiration behind this post. The image above is a quotation that has hung on my bedroom wall since my freshman year of high school--and it has given me the determination needed to keep pressing on more times than I can count. 

Our quotations and our role models speak of our aspirations--while we are not attempting to become a carbon copy of that person, we are using their words and example as a tool to define ourselves. 

Amelia Earhart defied any and all stereotypes of women in her era. She did not break records as a woman, but as a human. She was the first to cross the Atlantic more than once. Yesterday, she would have turned 116 as I turned 20. 

Amelia Earhart will always be one of my most treasured role models, and I will always look to her words for inspiration to break my own records. 

While quotations by others may not accurately define who we are, they speak of who we want to be. 

“Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.” Amelia Earhart

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