Uncertainty.

"War does not determine who is right - only who is left" ~ Bertrand Russell

During a time of war, we often question the motives and reasons that led to this point. Fighting for freedom? Fighting to defend themselves? Fighting to defend the defenseless? But do we really know what we're fighting for? We're told we're fighting for our loved ones. We're told we're fighting for our country. That's a good thing right? I mean...patriotism is good isn't it? Generally, we may think so but that doesn't mean it's always right. Just because we stick a label on something and call it "patriotism" doesn't mean that's what it actually is. How do we determine what's right anyway? The concept of what's right and wrong are so skewed during times of war we often get lost in the explosion of what's moral and what's not. The United States isn't always right (as much as many redneck, gun-loving Texans may like to believe). Neither are these other countries that we're constantly fighting. We may never know who was right. We may never even know the whole story. All we do know is who won, who lost, and who's left. Since history is always written from the perspective of the winners, we only get a twisted, biased, glorified opinion on what really happened. How will we know who was genuinely right and who could justify their actions? Well...the losers are dead and they can't tell their side of the story and the winners just exaggerate and boast and blow everything out of proportion. In the end, everything is up in the air. We can't generalize one side of the war toward a stereotype and clump the others into another category. No one is truly right. Everyone has their own reason for why they choose to not only to take someone else's life but also to sacrifice their own in the process. No sane person makes the decision to take another human being's life like that with no justification.

War.

So who's right?

I guess we'll never know.

|| M.K. ||

Foreigner

What is an alien? Something different? Something unknown? Something foreign? Something that puts us at a standstill and takes our breath away. Something that we will submit to because we think we not have a choice. As when Columbus landed in America, he was foreign to the native Americans. They felt they were inferior so, they just went along with it. In doing so they vanished. As we take a look at the world today the government is a well known alien, possibly on a personal  basis. They are making decisions, plotting ideas, enforcing beliefs and us Americans just take it.




                                                                                                                                        _Lino

Captain Morgan

Make your next move

Your best move

     It's every decision you make that counts. It was your mothers decision to have you. Was it a good one? Maybe in your eyes. You are sitting here, thinking of your future weekend ventures. Get drunk, get high; college stuff you know. It's clear to you that its not productive but who cares? It's only freshman year. I'll get serious later on and save my best move then. It's ok right? Only freshman year...It's fine right?

Wrong.

What will you tell employers if they ask you of your 1st year endeavors? "Well Sir, my liver has explored the inner depths of the sea with Captain Morgan. My mind has traveled far into the outer stratosphere."

Your opportunities? Internships? Jobs? You tell yourself its impossible. You tell yourself there are another 5000 people on the same list. 5000 people your competing against. Who are you in these 5000? But DON'T forget each and every one of those 5000 will think to themselves, "Shit, there are 5000 other people on this list." Take the advantage of confidence. Put on your suit and get dressed. The weak don't stop when pressed, you can only climb above the best.

-Ricardo G.

Swim

"There was this funny thing of anything could happen now that we realized everything had"

 -Raymond Carver

Take your step forward. It's true anything can happen. Life is the challenge of realizing whether or not you can make it happen. The day you were born, you were destined for something. Whether it be garbage man or leading scientist. Is it destiny? fate? What granted you passage to the present. Some roll through their lives floating down the river. Others swim against the current. Some climb out and start walking, or running. Others build a boat to flow down or invent an engine to stream up the unknown. Life, an infinite possibility; one what should be forged by your own hands. You look back at your life... Seeing your failures and successes, the mistakes you've made. These things you've done. Without your physical body, all these choices and thoughts that were enacted at your specific chronological order is who you are. And you look at today, everything that could happen, happened.

-Ricardo G.

You do not want to be the first,right?

You don't want to be the first,right? You want to be second or third. You do not want to be Facebook
is not the first in social media. They are the third, right? Similarly, you know, if you look at Steve Job's history, he has never been the first"

Being first does not mean to be the best. Trying to achieve the first place you could stumble and step on somebody....so you need to be careful, because in this case your championship would not make sense..
Being first requires big responsibility in front of the others for all your words and actions.
Steve Jobs was the ordinary men, who has never been the first, he just knew what he wants and did it.
He made a revolution in Apple technology by converting it from huge expensive graphic mashines into easy, affordable and amazing devices. He left his trace in history, and who cares now if he when that first, second or third...
  I am a second person, even though having all leader's quantities. I can be very good in supporting and helping someone, but not the one who make the decisions. I am the first for myself and my beloved ones. I am the first for my child and it means that the main goal of my life is achieved.

Natalya Perfilova

Tear me open.

Jamie Goldstein

Writing II

Prompt 9

“Make your next move your best move.”

Hit me with your best shot; you have one more move to make. It’s not you, it’s not me, it’s us. Fuck you. Just hurt me already. I’m so fucking tired of you being nice. Blow me down; cut me in two; burn me, shred me, set me ablaze. Knock me over with the gust of your indifference. Tear me apart in the vortex of your interminable wounds. I want to feel something from you. Give me the best pain you can muster. Let me fear your worst.

Cremate me in the firestorm of your past. Let me be your crucible. It won't hurt me. I won't flinch. I want to bleed for you. Give me the pain that you cannot bear. Let the monsters in your closet devour me. Let me sacrifice myself to the gods of your torment. 

I need you to talk, but would you please shut the hell up? There’s too much fucking static buzzing in my skull for me to think right now. Give me something to write on. I bare my soul for you and we pretend like it’s not there. Write me that love song in blood, not ink. Stop hurting yourself. Maybe don’t. Maybe you need to feel something. I do, but I don’t fucking cut. 

I need some new pains, these old ones don’t quite scream like they used to. Christ I’m scared. Shit. Just let me do something stupid. Just let me fucking do something. 

I want to scream out for something good. 

I want to scream for you, and everything you’ve stood for.

I don’t need you to save me, I need you to blow me away.

So knock me down, you have one more move to make. Hit me with your best shot.

Next Best Move

“Make your next move your best move”

What? I’ve been have a rejected sort of week so I guess I should take this advice with my next step but only after so many rejections can you still muster up the courage to make any sort of movements, yet alone a best move. I’ve been rejected by a field hockey club and the NYU soccer team, both of which have never even saw my play in either sport. Last fall I didn’t make the dance team and to be honest they look like stuck up pricks with their NYU bedazzled leotards and jazz shoes that I didn’t even want to be on the team. But I was so desperate to be a part of something that I tried almost begrudgingly. But clearly simply my name reeks rejections. Is it my first name or my last name? Or a combination of the two? Either way, it doesn’t matter because I’m still up in my room in the north tower piling on the pounds and getting exorbitantly out of shape to the point where I get winded and out of breath and also, embarrassingly enough, I get a headache when I take the stairs. Pathetic, I know. Either way should my next move be the best move? Or should I just forfeit, and keep my pride and dignity intact? It’s never been like this struggling to even get a chance to prove myself. It’s immensely discouraging. You can gather a lot of information from a silly email and none of it from the words. And it would be a lot to swallow my pride and push for the opportunities again. This is awful, in my head, I want to give up and surrender and blame the controlling extraterrestrials and the external spiritual beings who puppeteer all the goings on of the universe.  Should my next move be my best move? Right now, due to my ginormous, cumbersome ego, my best move may be under the covers of my bed and let the waves of sadness wash me away.

Katherine Benjamin