Cherish the Ones Who Love You

Let me open up to you here. Ten years ago as of the initial date of this post, I was a student of Lamar University (Beaumont, Texas, USA). What was supposed to be a four-year journey towards a career in computer animation, became an 11-week fiasco of me being sad, lonely, and depressed. Part of the reason was because there were people whom I didn't feel connected with. And some of the ones who did care about me would probably leave me. That lone semester was one of the worst times of my life. I wanted to pursue this kind of challenge learning outside of my hometown of Houston, thinking that I would fare better and feel personally happy being on my own than be in Houston with family. It worked... for 11 weeks. The moment I became unaccepted towards others led me to feeling more sad, more lonely, and more depressed than I've ever been in my life. The more people just turn on me and leave me behind, the more depressed I feel. I almost begin to feel like there is unrequited love happening- as if my respect for someone is less (sometimes MUCH less) the same level of respect others have in return for me.

Anyone who knows me personally knows that Halloween is one of my least favorite days of the year. The reason why is because so many negative things have happened to me on Halloween. October as a whole is usually a month of concern for me. Anyhow- it was Halloween 2002 that served as my final day as a Lamar University student. It was the completion of my misery. It meant that the people whom still remained respectful and kind to me would no longer be able to see me around campus. And as far as my life was concerned at that time... it was time for me to go back to the drawing board and find out how to continue living the rest of my life. So I returned to Houston, and all the furniture and stuff from my dorm came back to Houston along with me. All the while- missing the wonderful people I have been thankful to be associated with. Just like my blogging friends and various online friends- the people I've been associated with encompass an entire international audience.

This depressing experience helped me to appreciate something...

Cherish the ones who love you. Be thankful people love you, care about you, and respect you.

...and the reason why is because while you may enjoy the company and support of certain people in your life, remember that you could be on your own with absolutely no support or love from others. I love brightening someone's life by offering compliments to others and showing my kindness and compassion. As I felt like I have done permanent damage to people and things around me, it is always nice to know that I can still offer love and support to people and things worth offering love and support for. I sometimes need to remind myself and prove to myself that I can make a difference to others and my environment. Even my fiasco of a college career at Lamar University has helped me to realize I can do much more to win others' respect as well as prove my respect on a consistent basis. I have endured levels of depression worse than some of my days in High School from this poor college experience. But more than ever, I learned to appreciate and be thankful for all the friends and supporters I have. While it is not realistic, I often wish those who love and respect me can stay with me until death.

Now on to the main things I want to preach...

--- Cherish the Ones Who Love You ---

As special as meeting someone new is, and as special as making new friends can be; it is even more important to cherish the ones who love and respect you. Why so? People in your life will come and go- ranging from friends to family. You can live life on your own, but it is always nice to know there are other people who care about you.

I try not to forget people, especially those whom I consider great people. I am thankful some people even remotely care about me. That's why I am thankful for all the support I get from others. Sometimes in social networking, I try to reconnect with others who drop me because I still see the good in people whom somehow have dropped their connection to me. I obviously feel sad that someone just doesn't want to connect with me anymore. Either that, or don't want to connect with me online as we may be away from cyberspace. I even do a combination of randomly tell people how much I appreciate being friends with them and even randomly comment on a picture or a status update. I want to show that I still care even if I am mostly silent. Most important in my mind- I still care and still am respectful even if I am mostly silent.

I am not going to make the best decisions, and neither will friends and/or family. I may not do everything asked of me from friends. I may do things that I am unaware is HURTING others rather than HELPING others. But at the end of the day, all I wonder is if I am still worth your time and if I still matter to you. I am not trying to be your best friend; but I would appreciate it if I am at least a respectful and loyal friend of yours. I have been someone who has been depressed and have isolated myself from others. The last thing I want to feel like is to feel like nobody loves me or that I serve no more purpose to anybody. I am not going to hate someone just because he/she somehow hates me for some reason I am unaware of. I will instead feel like I could have done more to keep a bond going. Or in some circumstances, I may come to the conclusion that someone simply didn't love and respect me as much as I thought someone did. And I admit- I can be too naive and too trusting sometimes; but that's only because I can see the great (not good) qualities people have. The problem would simply be that I did not get to interact better with those great personalities of others.

The important lesson to learn from all of this- cherish the ones who love you. Remember and honor those who care about you and consistently care about you. That's as long as people in your life still love and care about you even later in your life as they do at present.

--- One Important, Unrelated Lesson ---

I always try to be helpful and respectful to others. One lesson I have basically taught myself is if people are impatient and irrational to be helped or be given positive reinforcement, let them be. Cut out people in your life who need help but lack patience. Get rid of those who you try to offer support for that either don't appreciate being helped or lack the patience to be helped. As I typed in a very old blog post here on JBS:

"Don't help others if they can't help themselves."

-John Marine (me)

This experience came about as a former Facebook friend of mine experienced basically everything taken away from her that she's worked hard for. A happy and positive life was turned into turmoil for this woman (too many details to mention). At one critical point of need, after I've remained positive and patient with her, she decided at one point to basically be disappointed with me after all the loving support and complimentary words I've offered to ease her mind- and drop me as a friend. So I basically did something rare- once she dropped me as a friend, I basically decided to not help her any longer. I've done everything within my power to help, but I can only do so much. Not once have I stopped caring for this person. Not once have I hoped she fail to win back everything she's fighting for that she's lost. I always remained positive and hopeful things got better for her because I know the feeling of how nobody cares about you, and I didn't want this to happen to her any longer. But because of her irrational and impatient chain of thought, I basically stopped offering my help for her. I didn't even attempt to try to re-add her as a friend (which is what I normally do when some people drop me).

So you learned one lesson from me... and now another. Aren't you glad to read "John's Blog Space?" :)





The Internet can be such a negative thing. So I do what I can to provide positive energy and love. I hope my blog post was both positive and empowering to you. You don't have to take my advice, but at least know I care. Especially as it involves loyal people- every Follower, Subscriber, Facebook like, Twitter follower, YouTube subscriber... I am thankful EVERY DAY to have so much support from people around the world. I could literally cry tears of happiness knowing I have so much support from others with the various topics I provide and with the personality I lend to the Internet. This said, I certainly cherish all the loyal folk who care about me and my work. I just wish I can meet many more for as long as I live and for as long as I'm living. Thank you for reading!

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