extemporaneous poem on plane

 Good morning, it is currently 3:52 AM, June 11, 2024.

I am on board an airplane with my grandma headed from SJU to EWR Newark. It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog like this. The thing is, when we checked in earlier, I asked the lady at the booth seats that were spacious and close to the bathroom as per my grandma’s request, and surprisingly, here I am, in the row right behind the bathroom with extra leg space. Usually, it’s a challenge to write anything on airplanes because my laptop can’t fully open up due to the seat in front blocking, but I don’t have that problem here so I thought it’d be a waste not to write anything. I was GOING to watch this anime called Freiren that I had downloaded at home, though I used my special move, “Restraint!”, and now I’m typing away.

I wonder, what is it about writing that is so intriguing to me? It’s funny to me how most times I plop down in front of an empty document without a single thought in my mind and then as my fingers move, the thoughts also pop up in my mind in sequence, as if reading a book. You start with nothing, BUT YOU’VE STARTED, and so that’s something already, yea? That’s the right thought process, I hope.

That “I hope” is exactly why ideas are meant to be shared. Ideas can be sparked by a single person, but reinforced by many and it becomes an ideology, a plan of action, a lifestyle. This would make it easier for any individual to implement it directly into their own lives especially after seeing so many examples of success and using them as reference.

There was an idea I thought of lately. Competition. What distinguishes healthy from toxic competition?

I was on a plane coming back from ISEF 2024 when I had this conversation with my friend Lugo. That was a great conversation. You know an exchange is meaningful when you can still remember the logic and conclusions you came to together weeks down the line, maybe years down the line.

Now, to answer the aforementioned question, we believe it is the mindset that changes the nature of the competition. Healthy competition would be employing an “I want to be better than you” mindset rather than an “I want you to be worse than me” mindset.

On the surface, the end result is still the same. Yet, the nature is entirely different. What we want is to be motivated by our peers and to strive to become better together. It shouldn’t be a fight to pull each other down until we’re both down in the dumps with one eating trashcan pizza and looking down on the other gnawing on a smelly banana peel. That’s a weird analogy, but I think it kind of works, so I’m going to leave it.

What is worth to be put into words and what isn’t? It’d be incorrect to say that only “good” things should be put into words because we need to challenge the existing to ensure its verity. Plus, times are changing. What was true yesterday may not still be true today. I think that’s the biggest mental obstacle for our elderly nowadays. The fact that something that was their entire life is now completely useless in modern society. BAHHHH I’d be pretty mad too probably. I went off-topic for a second.

The idea is that it’s good to fail. To fail and fail but never bail, you’re blazing a trail. You don’t want to derail, just keep hammering the nails, conquering the ocean like a big blue whale. Leave the husk that was your former tail in the dust and set sail. Set sail, look beyond what you once believed to be jail, look beyond the gale storms in your path, and hail the fact that there is no “right” path. So, stop looking pale when you fail.

Willpower is such a magical thing. I wanted to write a poem and there it is. In all its glory.

They just announced 30 min until we land in Newark. From there, we’ve got a 6-hour layover before our flight to Japan. I’ll see you then.