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Day 150

Seek not the favour of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them. – Immanuel Kant

It’s 9: 48 PM on day 150 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a toasted-cheese sandwich for breakfast while watching TV, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for 30 minutes, feed myself pizza for dinner, update my Facebook friends about my campaign and asked one of them for a donation – it occurred to me that I was putting too much emphasis on the Twitter users and not enough on the Facebook users.

Today as I was lying on bed tweeting, updating my Facebook status and doing everything that needed to be done I remembered something our old reverend once said in one of his sermons one who is popular with everyone is not popular with God and as I remembered that I thought you know what I do not care if people walk in the opposite direction or change the subject for fear that I might ask for a donation because I know that God is proud of me. Do you measure your success by the extent of your popularity? 🙂

Day 149

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Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough. – Oprah Winfrey

It’s 9: 20 PM on day 149 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a chicken polony and lattice sandwich for brunch while watching TV, exercise for 10 minutes, feed myself rice and curry for dinner and tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today

As you may know I preach gratitude to EVERYONE I meet but today as I laid in bed remembering how guilty I felt for asking my mother to take me to the bathroom I thought to myself with tears in my eyes who feels apologetic about needing to go the bathroom God I hate this: I hate having to check if a place has stairs before I go anywhere, I hate needing to be bathed, clothed and pushed around everywhere and in that moment I said to myself tomorrow the dawn will break and you’ll feel better once again and with that I realized that gratitude gave me the foresight to know that anguish and disillusionment doesn’t last forever. Are you thankful for what you have even in the ‘bad’ times? 🙂

Day 148

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Unless you choose to do great things with it, it makes no difference how much you are rewarded, or how much power you have. – Oprah Winfrey

It’s 8: 45 PM on day 148 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – two donations were made to my campaign – the first one was a $20 donation from Andrea of the Brite2Briter Kids Foundation –and the second one was a $16.15 donation from Abdullah – I am SO grateful to both of them 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for 10 minutes while watching TV, feed myself grilled chicken for dinner and continue reading The Last True Cowboy by Kathleen Eagle – I read for a few hours before it occurred to me that my mom had to turn off the lights and go to bed – there’s just something about reading that I LOVE so much when I read it’s almost like I forget the people who stare at me my mall, my father who prefers that I go to the other room when people come to visit, my mother who somehow manages to minimize everything I do and my sister who I could never quite live up to.

Today lying on my bed trying to concentrate on the words I was reading I couldn’t help thinking I wish I was Justin Bieber for a day and in that moment I was so overwhelmed with frustration because most celebrities – Oprah and Alyssa Milano excluded – write a cheque and think that that is all there is to giving but having donated money to various different charities myself I can tell you that donating money pales in comparison to giving someone else an opportunity to give and showing them that they can live a fulfilled life without being caught up in the vicious cycle of consumerism. Are you doing great things with your power? 🙂

Day 147

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To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others. – Tony Robbins

It’s 10: 01 PM on day 147 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a bread and lattice sandwich – my mother had originally put something made of chicken in it luckily for me I remembered my meat-free Mondays resolution before I took a single bite – for breakfast while watching TV, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – today I woke up to find that the person who had promised to make a donation the previous day had in fact done so – I was REALLY surprised not because I thought he wasn’t a man of his word but because I hadn’t met prior to him telling me that he would make a donation – nice to know that there are people out there who give for the sake of giving 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry vegetarian-style – it taste quite as bad as I thought it would 🙂 – and exercise for 10 minutes.

As you may or may not know I am not big on getting or giving material possessions – there’s just something about going to a store and buying a gift-wrapped present that seems so impersonal to me – and because of that every time I saw a guy giving a girl a present on TV or in a movie I thought to myself why don’t you write her a letter or something and looking back on it now I realize that not everybody will express their feelings exactly the way I do with that said if you’re planning to buy your significant other diamonds this Valentine’s Day I urge to visit Charity Diamonds – 50% of the profits are donated to charity (Note: estimated shipping time is 2-4 days). Is your inability to communicate effectively causing you to judge other people harshly?

Day 146

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There comes a time in everybody’s life where you have to decide that people are going to treat you with dignity and respect or not at all – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 9: 38 PM on day 146 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to continue reading The Last True Cowboy by Kathleen Eagle, brush my teeth, feed bun and baked beans for breakfast, played host to our family members who came for the prayer in memory of my grandfather – it is annually event that takes place usually of the anniversary of my grandfather’s death but this year we postponed it for two days because everybody’s had prior commitments on the actual day – we are Jacobites [pronounced yacobites] – one of three denominations of Christianity in Kerala – our place of origin – and as such we believe that it is necessary for us to pray for the souls of the deceased in order for them to be accepted through the gates of Heaven – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – somebody – you know you are – promised to make a donation – I am SO happy 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for dinner and exercise for 10 minutes.

Today I was lying on the bed minding my own business when my mother waltzes in and announces that we – all five of us – might be going to India in June or December and in that moment I suddenly had a flashback to a few months ago when I BEGGED my father with tears eyes to take me to my cousin’s wedding in India and when I finally snapped out of it I realized that my father was my father so long as he didn’t have to be seen with me and I knew I deserved more than that so I decided to sever my relationship with him before it eroded my whole heart. Do you put up with disrespect from those you love because you want them to be a part of your life? 🙂

Day 145

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Every birthday, you decide whether to mark it the end of your greatest days or the beginning of your finest hour. – Oprah Winfrey

It’s 11: 30 PM on day 145 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to watch Inception on DVD – it was MIND-BLOWING – there was so many layers to the story I would recommend it to anyone who likes a movie that makes them think because it was written in such a way that you – the audience – felt compelled to connect the dots – brush my teeth, feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and beef curry for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – feed myself bun and baked beans for dinner, exercise for 10 minutes and continue reading The Last True Cowboy by Kathleen Eagle – I couldn’t finish reading it last year because my sister had to return it to the library when her school term ended but on the plus side I’m only a hundred or so pages from finishing it 🙂

As you may or may not I’m turning 20 on March 25^th and although I don’t usually make a huge fuss about turning a year older this year I wanted to do something truly global to commemorate the occasion so with that in mind I asked my Twitter and Facebook friends to do something nice for someone else in the next 48 days leading up to my birthday and it is my greatest hope that you will do the same. Do you embrace your birthday or resist it? 🙂

Day 144

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An idle youth becomes in age a beggar. – Latin Proverb

It’s 9: 04 PM on day 144 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – two donations were made today – the first one was a $53.85 donation from Wayne of the Jindalee Foundation who by the way has donated to my campaign not once, but THREE times – thanks Wayne 🙂 – and the second one was a $5 donation I made on behalf of the person who made a donation via PayPal – which brings the grand total to $58.85 – I know I don’t get any of the money and yet I am SO happy 🙂 – exercise for 10 minutes while watching TV, hung out with my little sister – she actually turning into quite a woman I wonder if she knows how proud I am of her 🙂 – and feed myself pizza for dinner.

I’ve always wondered why some kids, like my sister, were straight-A students while others of the same age were drug-addicts and as I watched her sitting on the bed singing along to One Way by Hillsong United (see below) I finally figured it out – everybody wants to belong to something – chess club, debating, church, etc – and when they don’t they fall into the ‘bad crowd’ simply by default. Are you setting your kids up to be beggars in the future by not giving them enough to do in the present? 🙂

Day 143

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We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

It’s 11: 08 PM on day 143 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today 🙁 – feed myself a fish finger sandwich for brunch while watching TV, exercise for 10 minutes and feed myself rice and curry for dinner.

Today as I was chatting to @PrachiRai (Prachi) – whom I assume is a teenager simply because she shares most of the same interests that other teenagers do – I had an epiphany – change begins with children – think about it if every parent taught their child/children to give and not take love and not hate world peace would be automatic. Are you raising tomorrow’s world leaders? 🙂

Day 142

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A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

It’s 11: 42 PM on day 142 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no donations were made today but somebody – you know who you are – sent $5 to my PayPal account so that I could make a donation on her behalf – which I will do ASAP 🙂 – feed myself bun and chicken nuggets for brunch while watching TV – I decided to postpone this week’s meet-free day to Saturday 🙂 – exercised for 10 minutes and feed myself rice and curry for dinner.

Today as I watched the chaos in Egypt through the 7 o’clock news I was so filled with outrage because at the end of the day being President is about putting the needs of your people above your own and sadly for the people of Egypt Mubarak has proven time and time again that he is incapable of doing so and to make matters worse his actions have jeopardized the stability of countries like Jordan who were otherwise peaceful. If you held the highest office in the land and your people no longer felt you were serving them well would you hear their voices and step down or turn into a dictator and stand your ground?

Day 141

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In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it thou art a fool. – Rabbi Ben-Azai

It’s 11: 15 PM on day 141 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – I woke up to find that somebody – you know who you are – made a $5 donation to my campaign and I swear I was happy for the rest of the day 🙂 – feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – chicken curry and tomatoes for lunch – it was my birthday and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I had decided not eat meat today – hopefully the environmental Gods will forgive me LOL 🙂 – exercised for 10 minutes while watching TV, feed myself a banana for dinner and made some changes to this site (look to the right of screen).

Today sitting in front of my laptop I was torn as to whether or not I should create a separate Twitter account for this blog so I decided to ask my Twitter followers and I got a response from @notjustagranny (Cindy) saying advice from someone who did it….don’t spread yourself too thin. Focus on one you get a better result 🙂 good luck honey and as I read that I realized that I could learn from the successes and failures of others without actually going through it. Are you foolish enough to think you know everything or wise enough to admit that you know nothing? 🙂