Unknown

First, I thought summer would mark the end of school: of graduating and of moving in with the one person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. And then, I thought it would bring an end to everything I'd held dear; I thought it meant the start of a new life in a different city for him, goodbyes, and thousands of "what if...?". Shortly after that, I believed summer would be something of a reprieve from sorrow and confusion. Now I see that summer was truly a time of anger and of pain, of screaming fights and insults that stick inside the mind for years, of hatred.
I understand now that disappointment should be expected around every corner. Nothing is ever as easy as you want or expect it to be. That's life, isn't it? Ever uncertain, always changing, forever indistinct. I guess the only thing to be said about it is that it's nothing to cry about. After all, what's an adventure without a little bit of rocky sailing?

Purification

I've always believed that with knowledge came pain. In a sense, pain is knowledge. With me, it has always brought a clarity of thought that I've never had in situations where I didn't feel pushed to the very edge of sanity, forced to make a choice between a feverish search for truth, and a loss of everything I hold dear.When backed into a corner, you must evaluate all the options: turn back, forget; stay stagnant, refusing to make a decision; or look forward, seeking truth and desiring growth.
People have always questioned a person's necessity for growth. But truly, what are we without knowledge, without understanding? Does mere "being" dare you to dream -- to achieve? Can bare existence impregnate you with the curiosity required in order to discover all the things we need to know? Science, love, happiness: to achieve any, you must grow, you must learn to adapt, to understand, to sympathize with those around you so that we don't destroy one another.
Let us not forget that Adam and Eve may have been perfect, yes, but they also knew nothing and did not progress. It was a choice that changed the world, as well as them. They brought sin into the world, but sin and pain and death are necessary evils in order to experience redemption.