The Queen Declares that Life is a Bouquet of Balloons

There is an incredibly funny joke out there. It's side-splitting hilarious, bound to induce tears and possibly six-pack abs. It's clever and witty, with a punch-line that's completely unexpected, yet exceptionally well timed. It's the sort of humor that comedians would sell their own mother to possess, and days after hearing you still find yourself giggling in quiet places where giggling isn't allowed. This joke is rare and one of a kind, and I haven't heard it yet.

But I will.

People say that optimism is a false hope, silver linings are merely the beginnings of a gray rain cloud. Positive thought is a fancy way of setting yourself up for disappointment; the higher you let yourself dream the farther you can fall. This is true.

But if you never let yourself dream, you have already fallen. Brilliance doesn't stem from the safe route, from following in the footsteps of others. Stories are not born from mediocrity, are not born from the average, the mundane. We remember the ones who bet everything, who poured their heart and soul into their passions, and conquered. We remember them because they deserve to be remembered. Because their lives refused to follow a pattern, refused to settle.

Life is not a highway. It is not a straight path, or a crooked road. We are not all bicycles heading in one direction, merely changing our speed or the way we face.

Life is a bouquet of balloons.

We truly find out who we are when we cut the strings and see which way we fly. Because we all have the capacity to fly. Some balloons will tangle into telephone wires or around poles, brilliant colors dimmed by their destructive course. Some will soar straight into the branches of the nearest oak, anchored in the tree's solid safety; but still catching glimpses of sunlight peaking through the leaves, always wondering what they missed by not letting go.

But some balloons never stop. They reach towards the sky with a breath taking abandon, sunlight streaming, birds singing, flying higher and higher until they become one with the sky. Until they become one with the status of stars, only they achieved their own beauty.

These are the balloons we remember. They faced more perils than the safe balloons, risked more of their soul and their bounce. But they lived, and that is what we remember.

Because it doesn't matter if your glass is half full of half empty. All that really matters is what you are going to drink.