People are books, individual tales; each, a vessel for one great epic.

In the beginning, when we haven’t reached full autonomy quite yet, we pretty much get the same prologue. Our parents teach us how to walk and learn the ABCs. We go to school, and through the same motions too. We eventually realize that no one will write our stories for us, so we pick up our pens.

Each chapter, while it may feel like a trip around the sun, it’s really because every slice echoes a different character. I know that I am not the same person I was when chapter three ended, as I will be by the time the action falls and I am ready to wrap it all up.

When a new chapter arrives, we will feel lost, without a sense of direction; everything has changed, including ourselves. Turning the page is not easy, until we come to the realization that we have the power to re-write our narrative if we desire to.

Because in the end, it doesn’t matter that Isabella failed calculus, or didn’t get out of bed for a week. In the end, Sarah is happily married to an NHL player, Emily becomes a NY Times Best-selling Author, and Isabella goes to Harvard for her PhD. That’s the beauty of stories, life. It is everything we wish to create.

Let there be mistakes, let there be contradictions, and let there be plot twists.

In the end, the final pages will show you why the new beginnings were necessary.

The true and the untrue are far more alike than they are different.

True is the antithesis of untrue. Likewise, untrue, the antithesis of true. They are antonyms, as are “good and bad,” and “right and wrong.”

We like to convince ourselves that we are able to decipher the difference between the two, but when we are not told whether the text is true or not, and we fixate on the message rather than the words themselves, we sometimes gather more truth than initially planned to. An autobiography is sold to us as the truth. It happened. It was someone’s life. It’s real. But to tell, and retell a story over and over again, implies that at some point, the purpose of their message is no longer to simply convey their life narrative, rather the purpose lies in the meanings we extract as readers.

A quote that summarizes this idea wonderfully, though not wholly, was said by Catherine Calloway, where “[The text] thus becomes the content, and the vessel becomes the message.”

Upon first glance, two books shelved under the non-fiction category and the fiction, from the outside, appear to be so blatantly obvious that they are not the same... Then, do a double-take. The difference between fiction and non-fiction is a blurred line where the truth is stretched a little longer with one. This implies that no story is true, because it is impossible to completely convey, nonetheless comprehend an event that unfolded through only one perspective, right?

Take a definition for example. A definition is meant to allow people to understand clearer, more straightforwardly. In actuality, the “heart-truth” lies around such definitions. It’s in the details. To include every detail would make the story redundant, and fog the message or the purpose the author is attempting to serve with the text. So, pieces of information here and there are picked apart, meticulously, sometimes replacing information with details that strengthen their message. Again, the only difference between fiction and non-fiction is what the author keeps and adds.

Trying to communicate an idea at the most basic level requires the simplification of abstract thoughts, confining the matter to a series of words. Add some conjunctions here and there, sprinkle in some metaphors, and maybe use hyperboles to add life to the story.

When the true and the untrue fuse, the outcome is no different than a transcript of “real events” as to a fictional story. It cannot be classified as either. All books are a blend of the true and the untrue.

When you look at it this way, the two begin to appear a lot like one another.

Our world is governed by borders. From territories, countries, and ethnicities, to knowledge, people, and beliefs, it’s impossible to steer away from a confined and limited outlook.

The mindset of questioning reality and searching for similarities between two seemingly polar concepts transcends the idea of “true and untrue.” If we apply it to people, ideologies, values, and beliefs, all of us begin to appear a bit more like one another.

When we start to search for ourselves within each other, barriers are broken, walls disintegrate, and making connections doesn’t seem so foreign anymore.

When we shelve individuals under categories, we form preconceived notions of who they are, before seeing all there is to their being. Sometimes, leading to destructive consequences, though not always.

After all, you and I, we are far more alike than we are different.

Pt. 2 of what keeps you up at night

Lately, I’ve been really getting into languages. I began to brush up on my Japanese, speaking French for the first time since grade 8, and I just started to learn Python. That’s six languages. I find joy in learning lingos because it’s sort of like a portal to another universe. To put it simply, it’s one more way to see the world.

I started with Duolingo. It’s almost like a game! I’ve got a ten day streak on there, not to flex or anything. Mainly, I’ve just been trying to get used to pronouncing French words and reading more Japanese. Today, I enrolled myself in an online Python course offered by the University of Toronto and got started on the first module. If I follow their timeline, which requires me to complete this course in seven weeks, I’d spend anywhere between 4-8 hours per week and I’ll have the fundamental knowledge down in no time. I never thought I’d be learning a programming language like this, but I figured it’ll be interesting to see things from the perspective of a programmer or think in an abstract way so a computer would understand the things I want to convey. It’s a must-learn if I want to keep up with technology. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll change my mind, or maybe make up my mind, and decide to dive into the field of biotech or something, at least I’ll know how to program a computer…

It’ll be interesting to see whether I will be able to communicate more emotions and feelings if I break down some language barriers. This ties into the book I’m reading for school, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. To those who haven’t read this book, please do. A key theme in this novel is navigating the intersection between “literal truth” and “heart truth.” O’Brien tells the stories in a way that feels too real, except it’s a work of fiction. Rather than telling the readers the “literal truth,” he tells the “heart truth,” events that didn’t occur at all. However, O’Brien asserts that those who experienced war itself will say that this book is truer than true. I don’t think I’m explaining it quite right, but just trust me on this one. This idea led me into a loop of thoughts that brought me back to the feeling of being misunderstood. In a sense, everyone will always be misunderstood, one way or another. Our language is so complex – humans are the only species that can communicate imagined realities – yet so much of whatever “truth” there is, is lost, due to the versatile nature of diction.

By the definition of dictionary.com, I am already a polyglot: I speak English, Mandarin, Japanese, and Spanish. However, I plan to master twelve by the year 2030. I know it’s a very idealistic goal, but I enjoy it, and it feels like finally spending time on myself. You heard it here, so basically I have to commit to it. It’s like a UN Global Climate Action Accord except it’s much less impactful in the grand scheme, and only affects my personal life.

… But WHAT IF – this decision impacts more than just myself? What if I end up travelling the world and use my linguistic abilities to connect with strangers. What if these strangers start the next Google, and hear me out, they make me a shareholder, I become a billionaire, and end world hunger. Or, these strangers can get married and then I can recite a speech at their wedding that includes all the languages I know, just for a surprise. There is only a small chance either scenarios will actually happen, but I’ll never know unless I try.

Now, why did I begin this personal project in the first place? Even becoming more active on my website is connected to this new ambition. Upon reflection, I realized that while I spend a great deal of effort and time into others, whether it be through clubs, organizations, volunteering, or initiatives, I always ending up sacrificing my livelihood by putting others first. I don’t mind it that much, but it’s still important for me to invest time in doing the things I enjoy – like writing! I guess it all links back to wanting to become a better version of myself. New year, new me, am I right?

When I brainstormed the list of languages I want to explore, I opted for a collection that’ll enable me to travel around the world and experience its unique cultures to the fullest. Of course, much of the world today will speak at least one the four languages I currently know, but vising India and being able to immerse myself with locals and speak Hindi will surely not be the same as trying to communicate through English. What if I want to visit Quebec or France? I don’t want burned baguettes! They’ll burn me for my broken French. I want read Anne Frank’s diary in its original form, so that’s where Dutch comes into play. Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations in North America and in Canada, and over 350,000 people are Cree or have Cree ancestry. I’ve also just been really invested in the Indigenous population lately with them being part of the high-risk category for COVID-19, I figured it would be of great value to learn Cree, in hopes of understanding their culture better, along the way. Latin is now considerd extinct, but an integral part of the English language, therefore, I think it’ll be really interesting to study this vernacular. Arabic is the common language of the Arab world, it’ll be a disgrace not to learn it. As well, in the future, I hope to disrupt the realm of accessibility by being the catalyst for novel solutions to mental, physical, and psychological limitations, so that’s why I want to learn American Sign Language. It sounds like I’m constantly changing my future plans as I write, but truthfully, I just don’t have a clear plan right now. I know what I want to do for the next few years at most, and I have a detailed romanticized future that includes all that I mention, but that’s about it. I just want to experience it all.

In summary, the langages I plan to learn by 2030:

1. English ✓
2. Mandarin ✓
3. Japanese ✓
4. Spanish ✓
5. French
6. Python
7. Latin
8. Hindi
9. Dutch
10. Cree
11. Arabic
12. ASL

Twelve is a lot, but it’s exciting for me to set these goals. Who knows, maybe one day I might learn them all. One by one, and perhaps not in this exact order. I already had one-third of the list complete before my 17th birthday. By 27 years old, this list will be a piece of cake! I’ll be switching from my mother tongue to Latin mid-sentence like no-one’s business. I’ll be that friend you go to when you want to explore and travel the world because I’ll pretty much be your tour guide. Maybe some day I’ll write poems in Latin. How cool would that be…

Anyway, I hope you appreciate this tunnel of thought at almost 4 in the morning. So, goodnight, or should I say goodmorning? I understand that my psyche might appear a bit tangled, but that’s why I write: to try and make sense of the traffic jam going on between the junctions upstairs.

– your local, polyglot-ish

It’s difficult for me to fathom into words, the constellation I see in my mind. This web, however, is not made of stars nor is it a vessel of fire, each with its own civilization tangled within the depths of space.

I hope you enjoyed the somewhat poetic intro. Let’s dive straight into it:

Why do we gloss over how incredible life is? Come on. How cool is it that we are able to comprehend and communicate with one another so effortlessly, as if it was our sole purpose to seek these connections all along. I wholeheartedly believe that we are a part of something greater. Something beyond us all. I am also certain that someone before me has spat out the same things that I’ll bring up in this trail of thoughts – but enjoy the 2 AM rambling anyway.

I’ve been thinking a lot about why most people don’t care about each other’s presence, and I think it mainly comes down to whether you believe in the whole “fate vs free will” concept or not. So in English, we are reading the books, “Kiss of the Fur Queen” by Thomson Highway, and “After Dark” by Haruki Murakami. The two books complement each other, and touch on the themes of connections, people, and purpose, but are delivered in very different ways. I read “Kiss of the Fur Queen,” a novel about two young Cree boys who are sent to residential schools and abused in the hands of priests and their superiors. However, they manage to fulfill their “life’s purpose” and share their gift of music and dance. It’s sad, yes, but the story unfolded in such a euphoric way that my overall takeaway from Highway was that as long as we find a passion, grow it, and share it with the world, that’s all you can really ask for in life.

My peers read, “After Dark,” which I gather (from classroom discussions) it’s got something to do with how paths that never cross, always *almost* converge. Something to do with a Denny’s in the middle of Tokyo. I thought it was thought-provoking in the way that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Nice, I still remember something from Physics 11 I took three years back. This rule, extending beyond the physical realm, can apply to our existence as a whole. Everything is connected. We are – you and me, through this screen. We are closer than we may think, and you are reading this for a reason. The idea is that on average, all people are six, or fewer, connections away from each other. “Six degrees of separation.”

So why do I bring this up? Because everything has a consequence. Whether we like it or not. Some things are more obvious than others, like a stranger applying to the same prestigious university as you, so that directly impacts your life because you are bound by this common goal, and there is now one more person that the admissions team will have to consider as they make their decision on you. What if we all lived like every our every move will one another in indescribable ways? We’ve all heard about the butterfly effect – the classic, a butterfly flaps it’s wing; the movement was enough to cause a hurricane across the world. In a sense, it already does. Our actions affect others, maybe not to the same extent as to ourselves, but yes, it definitely does. With this in mind, does it make sense to trust that we are not united in some way? And if so, shouldn’t we care more about each other than our individual goals? After all, we’re just smaller versions of solar systems in the milky way, and larger versions of neurons in our central nervous system.

Now, if we look at it from further away, trying to answer the ultimate question, “what is the meaning of life?” there really is none. Everything to live for, is created by man. The concept of a “purpose,” is subject to the individual. Do we all have one? What’s up with people and their desire to rationalize everything? If it doesn’t make sense in the first place, then why do people spend their entire lives trying to understand the unknown? Before you come at me and say that it’s because I’m just a 17 year old senior going through an early quarter-life crisis, that I just don’t understand the reality of how thing are, I’ve just got a lot on my mind lately. Maybe it’s just a phase, I don’t know. I figured, why not share some of the unfiltered thoughts racing through my mind. Okay, even physics, chemistry, biology, the core of science, will be outdated some day. Outdated by our successors. Therefore, why should we learn about things that are arbitrary in its nature? I guess it’s hard to imagine how our world would look if everyone had this mindset.

To conclude, because I feel like I’ve touched on a lot of concepts that probably don’t make sense, let’s go back to the constellation I envision. If you couldn’t guess after all of this, it’s us. We are the extraordinary. I’m still trying to wrap my head around why we care so much about life, and ironically, at the same time, why we don’t care much about others. I mean, REALLY care about others. In the way that you care for your friends, family, or yourself even. Rewinding further back, when I think about why I started to ponder such questions, probably stems from the fact that I care so much. About everything. Over the years, I fell into the habit of just not caring because it was so much easier that way. To think simpler. Of course, in this reality I pretty much have to allocate time for my objective growth and by now, I’ve accepted that I will not find answers to most questions that arise, but it’s still important to ask them. I think a lot of people, as they age, lose their curiosity in search of physical, objective achievements.

Alright, that still didn’t make that much sense. So I guess I will have to follow up another time.

ON A COMPLETELY (but kind of related) UNRELATED NOTE: another thing I don’t quite fully understand is why people fall in love or form attachments to people, things, places, and (insert noun here). Okay, let’s save that for a future ramble.

Anyway, I hope this piece finds you well. After all, we are connected by (less than) six degrees right?

Goodnight.