I haven't actually written personal posts on Tumblr in a few years and never on this account, mostly because I've learned to just keep things to myself. But I realized that over the past year or so, I've come to so many realizations about myself and I've learned so much about how I work and why I do or feel certain ways about certain things that I think it would be useful to me to write these out so I could reflect on these in the future as well and see how far I've gotten in getting to know myself. SO, today, I had an emotional moment which led to another realization of how my experiences have shaped who I've become and how I react to things. Today, the emotional moment had to do with my brother. My brother, who I hardly have long conversations with because the times I DO get more than two sentences out of my mouth, it's usually me losing my patience with him and trying to advise him on life. He came downstairs and threw this artsy looking craft at me and said, "Remember, you said to, you know, make a craft or something? Yeah" and he left the room. I look closely and it's this paper cut up so it makes a wheel, revealing this scene that matches up on both the inside and outside papers that are folded together. At first I thought it was a craft he made by following directions. I unfold it and see it's one of those little brochures you get of vacation spots in junk mail. It was probably the most creative thing I've seen. I was talking to him a few weeks ago about how people in this generation don't really spend time creating things an spend a lot of their times in front of screens. I told him he should make arts and crafts like he used to when we were kids, like when he made me a colorful paper wallet with a perfect pouch for coins. Seeing this little craft he made actually made me tear up a little. Sometimes it really, really surprises me when I see someone has done something that I mentioned to them a while back, not expecting them to actually listen. When I talk to people, I'm so used to being ignored or half-listened to that when someone actually comes up to me and mentions something I said a long time ago and I see that they took it to heart, it makes me kind of emotional. This made me realize something else: that when I talk to people and when people talk to me, I NEVER expect them to actually listen and understand the conversation and go into it trying to take something away from it. I always see conversations with others as people talking to me to be polite or nice, basically only as something superficial. Words are just words. People say them because they feel they have to or because it's just something that they do when they see someone else they know. I've never thought anyone really cared much about what I had to say, to be honest. They're just passing time. There have only been three situations in the recent past including this one with my brother where I was shocked to find that my conversation with someone was not something superficial that just happened to pass time, but actually had an effect on that person whom I conversed with. These three situations alone are what made me finally understand the statement, "Words have power." Which brings me to the Lesson of the Day: Every word you utter should be said with purpose. Don't speak idly. Your words have power to change the person you are speaking to, and whether if it is a positive change or a negative change depends entirely on your intentions, how they received your words, and their perception. If you have the power to change someone with your words, don't waste it on useless talk. Speak with intention.