1. “You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.” - Anonymous, from the Upanishads.
This quotation is from an ancient Sanskrit scripture. It may be from thousands of years ago, but the knowledge in its prayers is profound. This quotation gives you the advice to be passionate, to be interested. In this way, you can become passionate, you can become interesting. You will become the thing that inspires the passion and interest in others in years to come.
2. “Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.” - George Burns.
This is not a quotation which should stay with you for life, but at least for while you are a student. I live an 11-hour flight from my family. This, for me, is too far, and I miss them terribly. However, there is something to be said for making it on your own. There is something noble about starting important journeys alone, such as the journey to discover your career path, your preferred lifestyle, the journey to discover who you want to be as an individual, away from your family. If you need help along the way, a large, loving, caring, close-knit family will be a phone call away to help you out, to talk you through your problems at 5 AM if you so need.
3. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” - Nelson Mandela.
Here, I am not speaking only of classes in Maths, English, Science, and Art. I simply think that we should strive to eliminate ignorance. Nobody should have to grow up without the opportunity to go to school, or without the means to be informed about the world, to travel, to experience new things outside of the place in which they were born. In this way, education encompasses a variety of important aspects of exploration.
4. “If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.” - Theodore Roosevelt.
Don’t give yourself a hard time all through your life, but recognize that you are in charge of your own fate. Don’t blame others for things that you could have changed or prevented. Take a good degree of responsibility upon yourself before looking outside to decide why things aren’t going the way you planned. Only then can you hope to change yourself for the better.
5. “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” - Aesop.
Last but not least, maybe even the most important: be kind. Every small thing that you do for another person will be appreciated. Whether it is giving some loose change to a homeless man, helping someone when they have dropped their books, or stopping in the street to make sure that drunk crying girl has a ride home, every act you do to help another will come back to you in a good way, even when you’re tired of being taken advantage of.
