The Wondrous Book of Beliefs

The world can be one big, confusing, never-ending book. Each page can entrance, frighten, or pain readers with their wonders. Many have a page or two marked; finding something they truly believe in. I have found passages that speak to me. I believe today’s people are too grown up, live too fast, and too afraid to show their colors to the world.

People on this earth live far too swiftly. It seems no one appreciates life as it is anymore. According to schooldigger.com, Clements High, my high school, is ranked sixteenth out of 1,287 public schools in Texas. Needless to say, we have countless assiduous students who care about their academic career. However, so many of them are lifeless homework zombies. They don’t go out with friends, unless with a study group, and spend their entire weekends studying. It may get them into the top ten percent, but when colleges see that applicants have almost no social life, they lose interest in what the students have to offer. People, especially the study-bots, need a prescription for chill pills. Childhood is said to be the best years of someone’s life, and I intend to extend that time as far as possible.

A problem I’ve seen, though, is that people lose their inner child too soon. Angel Man taught me something I’ll never forget. He sits on street corners in San Francisco wearing a heavy silver suit and hands out hugs and high-fives, and he always says, “Never let go of your inner child.” In a way, Angel Man really is fighting the plague of growing up too fast. My father stopped watching cartoons when he was seven years old, when most other boys continued to watch Bugs Bunny and Scooby Doo. Forty-three years later, his eighteen-year-old daughter eats Fruit Loops and watches Thundercats for hours. He nags me about it, always saying I should watch something my own age. Something my own age is The OC or One Tree Hill; soaps about high school and how dramatic it is. They’re very mediocre in my opinion. So, I ignore someone who says “grow up.” Adults are boring.

I don’t think others seem to live their own life. I remember walking into math class wearing a top hat. A classmate approached my desk and asked, “So, do you, like, dress up as a different character every day, or something?” I replied, “The only character I dress up as is I.” I explained to her that I simply dress to fit my mood. Then she said, “Wow, that’s so cool. I’d never be able to do that.” I don’t understand why. How can you not dress or express yourself as you want? Sure, the media says this is in style and everyone is wearing that, but I believe it’s tedious and tiresome.

In the big book of life, I have found my pages. No one ever made me mark passages I didn’t want to, and I don’t plan on changing that, no matter what.