Fantastic Fifteen #3

Hello happy people! :)

The third quote for the day is something so simple yet so true. Something about happiness and positive attitude. Something about not giving up but instead keeping your hopes up. Something simply worded by the jolly gentleman, always seen through black and white screens with his melon hat and walking stick. Et oui, Charlie Chaplin lui-même.

NUMBER three :

"You will NEVER find a RAINBOW if you are looking down."

~ Charlie Chaplin

There are so many anecdotes I could write about where this quote applied to my life. However the question is which one should I choose to share on this post. We all had had these moments in life where things are too good to be true, and somehow you know something bad is going to happen to screw it all up. Well, most of us have had these moments.

I shall reminisce about a recent event.

Flying to Toronto on my own, I was lucky to have few family members established here already. Nonetheless, I chose to live independently. My university has a gorgeous campus. It is a hybrid of modern buildings and an old fashioned manor. It is also a mix of prison looking residence houses but gorgeous rose gardens and field of green grass. And that's where I lived for my first two years. My first year, it was scary indeed. New location, new people, new eating habits and so on and so forth. I always lived with family so being on residence, a room to myself, food to myself, having to take care of studying schedule, working schedule and a new routine of life was a whole new world to me. Classes were exciting; subjects I did not even know existed, such as the philosophy of law which i loved - funnily enough, in which i also failed at the end of the semester - gave me new ideas for different careers options. My professional life escalated quickly; started as a french language monitor to changing department as the assistant in the translation office of my university. New friends and acquaintances from all around the world, from whom I could learn more about different cultures.

Upon my second year, I blended in this routine and I was happy with it. Moving into my third year, I decided it was time for me to have my own place. Of course, I could not afford an apartment to myself so I rented a basement room. But it was still a change from the student residence life. However, the routine slowly became so monotone like it was a tasteless, sparkless day to day repetition. I loved my jobs, because at least I got to meet different customers, face different sort of difficulties, even notice different details everyday while commuting to work. My studies, on the other hand, started to get boring. Except from those rare enlightening moments in class, where the lectures feel personal to your values or what your professor says actually makes sense to you and you finally feel like you're progressing in your major.

Anyways before I get carried away, that routine became something I dread at times. And instead of looking forward to experiencing new opportunities that life could offer, I just felt like I was stagnating. Life had offered me some perks here and there, and it just forgot about me. I started doubting my major, doubting if I should just drop out of school even though I was so close to graduating. I kept telling myself, one more year, one more year. And after this 4th year, I shall be liberated from school and find my happiness in a work life that excites me, in which I can really help people and progress. I was so close on giving up because I focused on all the bad things possible in my life at that moment. For sure, there was so many bright sides in my life during that period. But somehow, I was paying so much heed to what is bringing me down, that I did not cherish what I already had. All my friends were still by my side, though I kept thinking that I was just a loner. My bosses from my two different jobs valued my hard work and kept being so nice to me, but I just concentrated on the fact that I could find other jobs to actually help the society like I've always wanted. And most surprisingly of all, I was damn sure that I was a complete failure at school, that I would not pass my class and move into my fourth year that I did not realize that I was actually graduating that year. I WAS GRADUATING THAT YEAR.

Queen of procrastination that I am, I kept pushing off the fact that I had to take more courses for the next year. Little did I know, I actually did not have to. So upon emailing the school to get a progress report so I could choose the right courses, they announced to me that I was eligible to graduate. And so I did!

I was so cemented in my negative thoughts and I forgot to look up and have hope. Have hope that everything is going to be alright. That no matter how much rain is falling now, the rainbow awaiting me is going to be such a view. A breathtaking sight in which the red reminds me of the fresh juicy ontario strawberries; the orange reminds me of the begonias and marigolds happily swaying in the wind; the yellow reminds me of the warm sun we've all been waiting for after a long winter; the green reminds me that I can finally go read my book in the park and lie on the grass that tickles my legs; the blue reminds me that Lake Simcoe is waiting for me to dive in its water; the indigo reminds me of the refreshing air conditioned atmosphere in the subway and buses while I'm commuting to work and the violet reminds me of all the magic that has soon to happen because summer is a time where I can meet new people, create new bonds.

See you for the fourth quote,

Until then, don't forget to bring your rainbow with you everywhere you go!

Your girl out there,

xoxo.