Breaking Up with the Love Story

My true love is my best friend. Throughout the years, our friendship has grown into something I never knew existed. He makes me laugh, smile, supports me, and it always willing to give a helping hand. In fact, he helped me write this post. But we are not dating.
From the very first day we met, there was nothing between us but friendship. Our sexual orientations align so that romance is possible between us, but yet it never happens. We are often teased constantly by people who think we should date because hey, it's a man and a woman who can be sexually attracted to each other, why wouldn't they date?
When you have the whole world telling you that your platonic feelings for someone are wrong, it can make you second guess yourself. My friend and I discussed the idea of a romantic relationship between us on multiple occasions and every time we came to the conclusion that it was a bad idea. We simply aren't romantically compatible.
However, while coming to that conclusion, we did a thorough investigation of our relationship. I am not embarrassed to say that he is absolutely one of the most important people in my life. The thought of living without him is too painful to even consider and he has expressed similar feelings towards me. We don't need romance between us to make our relationship one worth having. We are happier as friends than we would ever be as a couple.
So why is it that every time we turn on the tv or a movie, we are bombarded with stories about a male and female friend that fall in love and live happily ever after? Maybe the story is easier to write. After all, the notion that two people would rather die than not be allowed to be friends is absurd, right? Maybe not as absurd as the notion that two people would want to die because they are not allowed to marry.
This post is my long winded way of saying that friendship is extraordinarily important. I will even argue that friendship is more important than romantic relationships. There is a wonderful quotation by Hayao Miyazaki in which he says, 

"I've become skeptical of the unwritten rule that just because a boy and a girl appear in the same feature, a romance must ensue. Rather I want to portray a slightly different relationship, one where the two mutually inspire each other to live - if I'm able to, then perhaps I'll be closer to portraying a true expression of love."

Throughout my life, I have found friendship to be the truest form of love that there is. I know that no matter what, I can depend on my friends to love me and be there for me. Of course we will have fights and we won't always agree, but at the end of the day, they are the ones that inspire me to live.

Put Yourself First No Matter Who You Are

Small disclaimer: Now, I know right away that some of you reading this will be like, "No I have to put God first!" and if you feel that way, then by all means put God first. What I am referring to only counts for people on earth.

Throughout life, one of the most important things you will ever learn is to put yourself first.
Those of you who have flown know about the whole speech the flight attendant gives and those of you who haven't flown have probably seen it on a movie. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, essentially the flight attendant explains where the exits are, how to put on your seat belt, and how various safety devices work. One of these safety devices is the oxygen masks.
If the air cabin pressure decreases and the amount of breathable air diminishes (or something), these masks fall down in front of you from the ceiling. Without fail, every time you hear the flight attendant speech, you will hear them tell you to put your mask on first before assisting others. This same information is also located on the safety pamphlet and if your flight attendant speech comes with a video, you will most likely see a parent putting on their own mask before helping their child.
So why do you have to put on your own mask first?
If you think about it, the reason will become fairly obvious. Let's say you're surrounded by a crowd of 10 people that need oxygen masks, but for some reason these people are unable to put them on. In the first scenario, you immediately leap into action and start putting masks on the other people, but only manage to assist 5 out of the 10 people before becoming light headed and passing out. In the second scenario, you take a few seconds to attach your own mask before helping the other people and manage to save all of them. If you do not put on your own mask first, your ability to help people decreases dramatically.
The same principle can be applied to other aspects of your life. If you do not take care of yourself before taking care of others, you will find yourself unable to help as many people. It may seem heroic and wonderful to leap in there without your own oxygen mask, but in reality, it hurts everyone. You don't see firefighters jumping onto the firetruck before they equip their safety gear. Maybe one person is worse off because they take those extra few minutes, but in the end, more lives are saved than would have been otherwise.
Now let's talk about a current event: Zayn left One Direction.
Tons of fans are angry about Zayn's departure from the band, but I think it's a good thing. I know that the music will change and the other members will have to work a little bit harder to compensate for their bandmate's absence, but Zayn did exactly what I have been talking about and put himself first. By leaving the band, Zayn became a living example as someone who is willing to put their needs before others. And I am all for leading by example.
There's no saying how exactly this change is going to affect the band. Maybe Zayn will return some day or maybe he won't, but I am confident that if Zayn had stayed and continued pushing himself when he needed to take a break, the band would have been worse off. Perhaps Zayn's staying could have resulted in the dissolution of the band entirely. I'm sure their fans would be even more upset about that.
So next time you think about getting mad at Zayn or anyone else in similar positions, take a step back and remember how important it is to put yourself first. Admire them and follow their example. There are a lot of people who need help putting their masks on out there and you won't be able to help them if you aren't breathing too.

Some Things You May Not Know About My Blog/Me

1. When I started this blog, I was 18 (that was a year ago)
2. I came up with the name of this blog a few years before actually deciding to make it. 
3. When I started this blog, I didn't want to advertise it at all. I told my friends that it was because I wanted people to find it naturally, but in reality I was too afraid to show it to anyone else because I was afraid they wouldn't like it. 
4. I have had a blog before, but I did not blog as myself. It was more of a story than a blog. 
5. I actually intend to blog well this time. 
6. Part of why I am giving my blog another try is because a friend I really look up to has had major success with her blog and she seems to enjoy doing it. 
7. Another part is because I want to be brave enough to express my opinion. 
8. I often have trouble sharing my opinion because I don't want to offend anyone, but I have learned that sharing your opinion is part of growing it. If you cannot defend how you feel, maybe you should investigate more into why you feel that way. And maybe I can help change someone's opinion or make them more firmly rooted in what they feel by sharing how I see the world. 
9. I have multiple unpublished blogs about how I have't published a blog in a while. 
10. Before I fell off the face of the blogosphere, I was working on a review of the movie Noah. I never finished it, however, because I couldn't bring it to a good conclusion. It was a good movie, though. 

I have grown a lot in the year since I started my blog and I still have a lot of growing to do. This post is the first official blog in my newest attempt to actually post here regularly. Wish me luck. 

I am back!

Ok so it has been a very long time since I last blogged. I think that the main problem was that I didn't really know how to blog/what I was blogging about. As some of you may know, it can be difficult to accomplish something if you aren't entirely certain what you want your end result to be.
When I started this blog, I started it because I thought I should probably have a blog because a lot of people do. I thought that at first I would publish all sorts of things and maybe eventually settle into one type of post, but instead I gave up entirely. You see, when you have a whole world of things to blog about, it can be easier to simply not pick at all than to try any of them. Now, however, all that is going to change.
The first change I'm going to make is that I'm going to set myself a schedule. I am going to post something every Tuesday from now on (this blog does not count as this week's blog). My hope is that having a set time period to stick to will encourage me to actually write a blog.
The second thing I'm going to change is that I am going to write a blog every single week. This change is different than the last, I promise. You see, most of the time before I would write out multiple blogs at once and publish them slowly, but stop adding to that collection until I was out of blogs to post. Then I would be out of practice from not writing and end up not posting for a while.
The third and final change (so far) that I'm going to make is that I'm going to pick a theme. I guess you could call this blog an opinion blog. My plan is to write about things I observe as I continue through life and my various thoughts on things. I currently am considering mostly social issues, but I may end up posting about current events if the inspiration hits.

So there you have it. Starting tomorrow, I will be posting weekly.