Ella Franklin - Assignment 19

Logsdon, you're killing me with these prompts. I have few rules in my life, but one of my biggest ones is to never take advice.

It's just as closed-minded and pretentious as it sounds. I know. It's not like I've never in my life taken anyone's advice. But I went through this time where all I did was look for advice. Everywhere, anyone I talked to. I tried to make something so much deeper out of something someone had said to me really just to get me off their case. "But I just don't know if he likes me back." "Ella, boys are assholes." "I want to quit but I feel like I shouldn't." "Just do what's in your heart." What am I supposed to make of that?

At the core of this "rule" I've made for myself is the principle that you learn from your own life best. I have learned so much from just looking back at how life plays out.

Actually, as I'm writing this, some things I've heard in my life that I've remembered and kept with me come to mind. But not things that I would consider advice. Advice is instruction on how to live. I think you find the best way to live by yourself, and no one else should have an input. But what has stuck with me is an insight into life that has helped me understand everything that happens in life.

There's this documentary about the Eagles, the band. You know, like in The Big Lebowski. "I hate the [exploitive] Eagles, man." I love that. Anyways, there's this documentary about the Eagles called The History of the Eagles. It's a great documentary, I highly recommend it. The Eagles were such a wreck. Anyways, two quotes come to mind from that documentary. First, Don Henley, drummer/singer in the Eagles, said, quoting his friend, John David Souther (also a good musician), "Time passes, things change." This has crossed my mind several times. Because it's true. It's not any kind of prophecy but it's a justification. The other is a quote from Joe Walsh. Now, Joe's brain is fried from the drugs so the quote is kind of messy and long, but I just found it on YouTube! What he says rings true to me. It's not advice. Lord knows I'm not gonna take advice from Joe Walsh on how to live my life, but it's an insight into life. It's helping me to understand it rather than helping me live it, and that's the only way I'll accept advice.