I wrote this as part of an application. I thought I’d share. =)

***

Using every letter at our disposal, we remix sounds like mockingbirds and shuffle words like card magicians. With a metaphor for every feeling and experience, we find ways to make the ordinary sound like a sunset frozen in descent – an awe worth the examination of each edge of its frame. Sentences are crumbs that lead you along the trail toward the inner workings of our minds, and sometimes our hearts. We can make you hear the melody of our thoughts with every ensemble of words.

Wherever we go, we are highly aware of our surroundings and search for the perfect words to describe them. While crossing the Bay Bridge, I saw thousands of hearts beating, creating the movement of the water’s surface. When the sun disappeared behind Bethany Beach, the waves became shining metallic sheets, curving with the moonlight and shattering against the shore. Pulling into the driveway after a short getaway, planes flying through the night sky looked like blinking stars slowly aligning.

If I didn’t carry a diary in my bag, I would lose track of all the scribbled sentences in the margins of my notes, textbooks, and planner. A journal is a time capsule, a necessity to every storyteller today. In the past, the spoken word alone carried narratives through generations. In some parts of the world, it still does.

Whether we are part of a literate culture or an oral culture, we all have a story to tell. We turn our experiences, knowledge, and ideas into highly intricate sculptures. Through the process of creating art and meaning, we become acquainted with wisdom. With 26 letters, 40 sounds, and 1,000,000 words at our disposal, it takes a lifetime to master the art of storytelling. At the same time, we must remember that it is not about being the best, it’s about being your best. There will always be someone better, so we can’t fulfill our potentials with external motivators. Otherwise, competition would blind us from learning from one another. Everything we need is within us. After all, that’s where the story begins.

~ Salma

Falling in love is like having the world turned upside down. But it’s happening as gradually as the orbit of the Earth and you don’t notice the shift in ground. You begin to skip across the sky thinking that the world is right side up, with the sun stroking your feet and the grass waving from above. No melancholy can cling to you. There is beauty in a line, a single curve, and every second of time.

Falling out of love is like having the world abruptly flip back over. Without warning, you are hurled to the ground.  Your body is just as confused as your mind. Your stomach is still used to gravity functioning in reverse. Nothing can sit right and the very thought of food makes you want to puke. It takes a while to adjust, and it takes even longer before you can see straight again.

Anger gives you strength, but it has the density of hydrogen. When you really need a sturdy fortitude, you’ll lean on a nonexistent wall and fall right through. Seek strength in acceptance and in peace, in wisdom and in truth. Only then will you stand again.

I’ve heard many interesting interpretations of my blog’s name, “Bottled Ships.”

Because my father has an obsession with boats, I had a friend think the name was subconsciously influenced by my relationship with my father. This thought had never occurred to me. Someone else asked me if I chose the title because a boat inside a bottle has no where to go. It’s ready to sail the world, but it’s confined against its will. I had never thought of that either.

I describe what a bottled ship means to me HERE.

Interpreting the world around you is a way to interpret yourself. What you see says something about who you are. Pay attention to that. You’ll learn a lot about yourself, how you think, and the way your experiences have affected you.

So, what does a bottled ship mean to you?

Appreciation, respect, responsibility, boundaries, self-discipline: instilling a deep understanding of these and related topics are crucial for a successful, happy life.

Some individuals never realize that all their problems with people are a result of a lack of boundaries. Others allow themselves to be pushed into the backdrop of life because they never developed a strong sense of self-respect and self-worth. At the same time, some can’t tell the difference between self-respect and selfishness. There are also people who fail at maintaing relationships with friends, family, or significant others because they don’t know what it means to appreciate the people in their lives. Even more people don’t reach the finish line of their goals because of a lack of commitment and self-discipline.

The Self-Help aisle in book stores is saturated with guides to relationships, success, weight-loss, etc. The foundation of all these topics, the basic building blocks of these books are the brothers and sisters of the topics I began the post with. But because people don’t learn those skills at a young age, they spend hundreds of dollars trying to solve the resulting problems when they’re adults.

When these character traits are so important to how we relate to ourselves, others, and the world around us on a daily basis, they should be taught during childhood. If there was such a life skills workshop, would you enroll your child in it?

If the class is important enough to teach, should a Life Skills teacher be compensated just like a Science or Social Studies teacher is? Or should it be taught for free?

But now, consider the flip side. If you are the parent, would you pay for such an education for your child?

Throw in the concept of spirituality into the syllabus: a deeper connection to yourself and the universe; seeing life as more than day to day happenings and completed check-lists; the idea of the soul and the part it plays in your life. (This has nothing to do with religion. Someone can be spiritual but not religious, religious but not spiritual, or religious AND spiritual. They are very separate.) Does that change your answers to the previous questions?

Please comment. I want to know what you think. =)

I just added a new essay, “The Day I Broke My Brother.”

I’ve dedicated a section of the sidebar for easy access to my essays, right under my weekly quote box.

Enjoy,

Salma

Effective October 1, 2009, it is illegal to text and drive in Maryland. If pulled over, you can get fined up to $500.

Sadly, I admit that I am one of those people who steer with their left hand and text with their right.

I’m a textaholic. I type paragraphs at a time, then check for spelling and grammar before I hit send. Something hilarious is happening and I have to share it with one of my friends, or I’m doing something ordinary and message someone out of boredom. I’ll even have long in-depth conversations that can last for hours. Why not pick up the phone and just talk? As a writer, I gravitate towards anything that allows me to illustrate my thoughts on a page, even if that page is two inches wide. It’s an odd thing.

But if you’re in a room with someone, texting is like carrying a conversation with two people at the same time. Your attention is divided and you aren’t fully involved in either dialogue. The same thing happens if you’re at an event and texting someone who isn’t there. There are all these people around you, but your head is elsewhere.

Texting keeps you from being in the now. You are not fully aware of your surroundings because a part of you is focused on someone who is somewhere else. Sometimes you’re even thinking about where they are and what they’re doing.

Being in the present is one of the hardest things to do these days. While you’re experiencing one hour, you’re thinking about the next. We plan and plan. Very rarely do we fully immerse ourselves in the here and now, in the plan we made. We are constantly watching the clock for the next thing to come.

Consequently, your awareness of your current surroundings is limited. How much are you missing that you’ll never know you missed? Who did you just miss out on talking to because you were staring down at your phone and didn’t notice them?

Over the summer, I went to the beach as many times as I could. One of the weekends I was there, I walked the night seashore with my younger brother and his friend. While they threw a football around, I sat on the sand and stared at the sky. I blocked out the world and thought about nothing except the grainy sand between my fingers, the hush of the waves rolling against the beach, and the stark contrast of stars against a pitch-dark backdrop.

Suddenly, a tiny ball of light flared and streaked four inches across the sky. Then it disappeared. I had just seen a shooting star for the first time. I was in awe. It was the most miraculous three seconds of my life. I found out later that it was the week of the Perseids meteor shower.

If I had been looking at my phone or thinking about what we would be doing the next day, I would have missed it. Of course, immediately I wanted to get up and tell everyone I just saw a shooting star. But I grounded myself and kept my eyes fixed ahead. I allowed the feelings of wonder and appreciation swell within me.

You get so much more out of life when you are in the present, when you immerse yourself in your surroundings, and when you give the person you are with your undivided attention. People notice and appreciate you a great deal for it. Your relationships with others are heightened and rooted in a deeper level.

Everything in life happens so fast. Stop trying to race ahead of it because when the world is unraveling behind you, you’re actually losing.

As an overachiever, I want to give 100% of myself to each thing I do. That way, the result is no less than outstanding. But I’ve realized that you can’t give 100% to each task because 100% is all you have.

For example, if I dedicate 100% to class 1, I cannot give anything else to my other classes. Each day, I have to compromise:

class 1 = 40%

class 2 = 50%

class 3 = 10%

What happens to class 4? Well, the next day:

class 4 = 50%

class 3 = 30%

class 2 = 20%

By the end of the semester, all the pieces I gave to each class should coalesce into 100%.

This semester, I have more commitments than I can describe in one breath. My life is laid out in lists on my handy dandy sticky note widget. Different colored boxes span my screen and they serve as my memory containers. Otherwise, getting through all my responsibilities would feel like lumbering through a swamp.

Thankfully, one month into school and I’m still smiling. As I drove to my first genetics exam this morning, I felt at ease. I had had 6 hours of sleep, eggs for breakfast, and even had time to pack food for the day. I’m maintaining a steady jog with both my coursework and extracurricular activities.

How? Writing everything down definitely helps. But the ultimate success factor is remembering that I don’t need to give 100% of myself to one task before I begin another.

Let’s say my life was symbolized by a pair of scissors. If I put all my energy towards one section of my life, it would look like THIS. (One handle takes up almost all the space. I painted that in high school, then had to start over for obvious reasons.)

Now, if an oil pastel drawing symbolized my life and I worked on all the different sections a little bit at a time, it would look like THIS. (Another high school piece. Not a Cezanne, but you get the idea.)

———-

I also created this collage in high school. The assignment was to choose a phobia that you most relate with, and illustrate it. What is my phobia?

Try to guess before you look at the ANSWER.

~ Salma

P.S. Just for fun, here is some more old art:

Photograph of my grandmother’s hands.

Sketchbook thumbnail 1.

Sketchbook thumbnail 2.

Charcoal mannequin.

Pencil Pooh.

Crayon hoodie.

VOTE for me here!

I recently uploaded my essay “Temptation Has Kaleidoscope Eyes” onto Wattpad for this contest:

“Share What You Have Written” Contest

Do you have a collection of your written works sitting around on your computer? Maybe an essay, short story, screenplay, poetry or even a novel? Don’t you think it’s time you put them to good use? You can win $1,000 by uploading it and sharing it with others on Wattpad.

Submit your original written works to Wattpad and be sure to include the tag writingcontest. The grand-prize winner will receive $1,000 in cash, two second place winners will each receive an iPod Touch. The top finalists will be determined by the number of votes received since the start of the contest, so be sure to tell your friends – Facebook, Twitter and blog about it!

~ Salma

Hello! Welcome to my little oasis in the internet. I think I’ll be updating my blog at least once a week, and adding a new essay every two weeks.

So, a thought to begin:

I try to look up as often as I can. I never want to wake up one day, realize that I’ve been too focused on the tediousness of daily life, and have missed out on so many beautiful things that exist effortlessly – the moon, the sunset, the sound of birds in the morning. I would marvel at the gorgeous scene above and around me all the time.

Recently, it struck me that I see the sky as something two dimensional. It’s a flat sheet of blue, with bright circles for a sun and moon, and pecked with holes for stars. They’re all on the same plane. I know the sun and moon and stars are three dimensional… but when you glance up on a daily basis, are you really thinking about that?  I appreciated it all the same, but I wasn’t seeing it for what the sky really was. I just saw the surface.

Next time you look at the sky, look at it as something THREE dimensional. There are miles between you and the sun. And more miles between the sun and the moon. And even more miles between the moon and all the millions of stars. They’re huge too. These specks we see are enormous.

You will immediately feel infinitely smaller. So will your life and its problems. The sky is an omnipresent reminder of how tiny we are compared to the rest of the universe. Remember that. It’s humbling.

Visit me often. =)

~ Salma