It's Pronounced Eh'teeee

“People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to so it anymore. I’ve finished my war book now. The next one I write is going to be fun. This one is a failure, and had to be, since it was written by a pillar of salt. It begins like this:” (Vonnegut. Pg. 22) There is a balance in the world that is our minds, between forgetting and remembering. It is easier to forget, ignore, and avoid, or to dwell in the past, than to stay in between. I do not want to become one of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (Santayana. 1905) or a the type of veteran who forgives and forgets. If I ever get the opportunity to forgive those who changed my life for the bad, I shall, for I would remember them in forging a new future for myself, a better one. Furthermore, now that it’s all over, a part of me is thankful that they showed me the wrong way so that I may find the right one. In a way, they showed me the true path.

Once, when I was younger, I longed to play the violin. After taking a few lessons from a professional concert soloist from Russia, I hated the instrument. The fault was not mine nor the instrument’s requisites themselves, but the teacher’s. The inability to communicate took a toll on my love for the stringed instrument, along with the effect of Miami’s moisture and temperature on the teacher’s (Eddie(pronounced EH´TEEEE)) perspiration glands and his lack of deodorant. I had recently moved to the US, and thus, had very limited mastery on the English language. And so did he. Now that I look back, I thank my teacher in such sense that he showed me what commitment was required to study such a complex instrument. It could not be taken on simple whim, but rather supreme dedication and love. I could have not regained my will to play the instrument were it not for my ability to forget my previous experience upon first learning to play it. Were I to obsess on the set of events, I would never have gained the confidence and willpower to take it up once more. I had to forgive and forget. However, if I had altogether, I would have received lessons once more for the wrong reasons, and thus, I would not be as dedicated as the study of the violin requires. Whim is not an option."Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (Santayana. 1905).