It’s like we’ve never met before [Later post from 2013]

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Mediterranean…

 
Mom: Where r u, I don’t see any postings from you.

Sina: I’m in Santorini.

Mom: Just every 3 days send me an email please. thanx.

Sina: I don’t think I’ll be doing that.

Mom: You don’t have a choice.

Sina: Oh Mom. I’m Sina, your improbable, youngest child. In all things in life, I always have a choice.

 
 
Alternate Title: “Rule 5, yo.”

Rule 7 at Work

Colleague 1: How did you find the number of units?

Colleague 2: There are two sources: the official site has 995 and Wikipedia has 161.

Sina: I believe Wikipedia more.

Colleague 2: I trust the official site more.

Sina: No way. Wikipedia is the standard.

Colleague 2: What are you talking about? This is the original source.

Sina: I dunno, I’m just more inclined to trust Wikipedia. I feel like the official site is more likely to be mistaken or intentionally misleading.

Rule 7 with my Cousins

Pedram: The original old testament describes an ora around Moses, but because of poor translation in the middle ages, ora was translated as horns. So in a lot of the statues from that time, Moses is depicted with horns.

Shiva: Really?

Pedram: Yah. Look it up.

Sina: Is it on Wikipedia?

Pedram: Yup.

Sina: Alright I believe you.

Rule 3 Unabridged (Abridged)

“I just want to tell you something before you leave. You are all going to junior high next year and then high school after, and then university or college years after that. Some of you will go to different schools. And even if you do go to the same schools, you will make new friends and some of you won’t be friends anymore. You may not think so right now, but it’s true. Sometimes people are going to do mean things to you and you will sometimes do mean things to others. You will have hard classes and you will have easy classes. You will like some of your teachers and others you won’t. But no matter where you go in life and no matter what you do, no matter how bad it gets, no matter how bad it seems, I want you to know one thing: It will pass. Believe me. You will get through it. I promise you.   *pause*   *pause*     Good luck and have a great summer.”

– Mrs Ward, Grade 6 Teacher, Last day of school, June 1996

Rules 15 and 16

We make all our choices based on the limited information we have at any one time, doing the best with what we have.

Rule 15: No single choice alone defines who you are.

Rule 16: Whenever possible, it is much more efficient to learn from others’ mistakes than to go through making your own.

Rule 13

A corollary to Rules 4 and 5.

Corollary: The universe pushes and pulls you towards certain paths. But no path in your life is inevitable. Your decisions matter. Make them as wisely as you can.

Which I extend to create a new rule by applying Rule 5 to all other rules.

Rule 13: All life rules are, in reality, guidelines. No path in your life is inevitable.