 New beginnings always appear to be good solutions in our lives.When we make mistakes we want to erase them from our memory, when we are bored of the path that we are going through we subconsciously demand a new beginning. We consider many things as new beginnings, like a new boyfriend, a new year, our birthdays, a new week or simply a new semester in school.When you give some thought there are lots of questions behind it, you will see.Why are we so sick of our lives so that we want something new? What did we do wrong in the first place? Are we so weak so that we always make new decisions and are not able to keep old ones? These are the questions…
We always make some new decisions when we are in the edge of a new chapter in our lives. “Starting from Monday, I'm on a diet,” “This semester I'll work harder,” or “This year I'll be more patient about everything”and it goes on and on. Anything familiar?
Here we are in the beginning of a new semester, full of thoughts and new decisions about to be made. There are many things to do and not much time to do them. No matter how many decisions we make we generally find ourselves in the same situation. Even if some of us try to control everything like maniacs or try to plan everything, it does not quite work like that. Also some of us just choose a different perspective with the philosophy, “Life is too short, just go with the flow.” This generally means we are one step back from making a new decision about our lives. The “secret” is hidden inside all that. The path is full with hidden surprises, some of them good, some of them bad. Our character hidden in the mask of a “decision” helps us to deal with the negative thoughts in our minds. We always want something more as a typical Homo-sapien.
We want to be successful, we want to be thinner, we want to be rich, we want to have a relationship that works-the list goes on. Well, then, why do we want all these things? Even if I know this is one of the biggest clichés, I will write it anyway: “Life is a journey.” It is a journey that we hope will end in ultimate happiness. Our journey includes many chapters that have something in common. They all include different thoughts and different ways to reach the same thing. We want all those things because we think they will make us happy in the end. When the new path we choose does not satisfy our expectations (the expectation is of course happiness) we simply change it. Seneca, a mid-first century Roman philosopher seems to agree with me “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.”
To be exact, the beginning is the most important part of the deal. What you decide determines the goal you have in your mind. And the goal is related with the prejudice you have been imposed by society. Even if we have it all and keep all the promises we gave to ourselves we don't stop wanting. Because there has to be something unreachable. There has to be a goal to reach so that we can work and earn our happiness. Nothing is free, especially happiness.
I suppose you all know the phrase, “No pain, no gain.”
Let me give you some teachings from Buddha for perspective. “There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth...not going all the way, and not starting.” You better give up your mind and make some new decisions. You better hope to keep those promises with yours fingers crossed. It is worse not to think about it at all or not to make any promises to yourself. I hope you all reach your goals this semester. Welcome back to school.
By Nazlý Çelebi (ECON/IV)
n_celebi@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
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