Acceptance

What is, is, and I can’t change that. That’s what drives me. When I looked back at my life, my belief came up everywhere, in music, religion, and even my personality. And this all came from a source no one would expect.

George Carlin is my idol and always will be. He took a good look at the world and decided to inform others of the cesspool of society we lived in. He shaped me into a realist, something I am proud of to this very day. And yet, he also made me want to argue with people who refused to see reason. And so, in my great wisdom, I shut out their arguments and bombarded them with mine. Religion was first. I began to heckle anyone who even gave religion a chance. Yet I made no headway, as no one even tried to see logic.

So I moved onto music. I started debating that rap was terrible and that no one can consider it music. I also briefly took up arms again country music, but quickly hurried back to rap, since country usually takes root south of my home. I continued to tell people that rap was simply jargon and that it shouldn’t be listened to. Again, I fell on deaf ears. Finally, I took a look inwards and saw something I didn’t like. A large, angry high-schooler who wasn’t being listened to. So I started to try to change myself, to convince myself that I was someone else. I even contemplated working out, heaven forbid. Yet even this didn’t work, and I was left the same as when I started.

At the end of my escapades, I looked at what I had succeded in doing. I had become an angry teen, I had changed from a realist to a cynic, and I had even driven away a friend or two. I was heartbroken. Why didn’t anyone see what I was trying to say? And you know what? I couldn’t answer. I didn’t have one. People are the way they are, and you can’t change someone’s beliefs, no matter how hard you try. This was my first stage of acceptance, my first stage of recovery. I started accepting that people believed other things. And even though I find quite a lot of those beliefs absurd, there are many that have changed the way I think about the world.

Ever since I started accepting things, I’ve noticed how much nicer life is. I like a few rap songs now (I’m still against country), I’ve abstained from the tireing topic of religion, and I now look in the mirror and love what I see. If something is going to happen, it’s going to happen and you shouldn’t try to change it. You should just be happy with your life and all the oppurtunities you have to change the things that can be changed.

I believe in accepting what is and changing what should not be, if that task is achieveable.