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Jade's Journey to Share Her Story

How Jade overcomes struggles and manages her racing thoughts so that she can empowering others

By Magree Yizhou WangPublished 3 years ago 10 min read
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Magree wearing a jade in qipao or banner [Manchu] gown.

Her mind is racing a light year a minute now. “What is time again? Isn’t it just relative after all?” Jade asks and closes her eyes to invite more vivid memories to come back.

Oh, these are just rhetorical questions that she often asks aloud. Now that she does not need to explain to anyone, not even her roommate, the nature of her questions, she is for the most part undisturbed. However, some thoughts are like black mambas and come back occasionally to hunt her down.

“Where else can you escape? You are trapped by what’s on your mind, Jade Qin.” a voice in her brain speaks up, calming down all the other thoughts and feelings. She cannot recall whose voice it is as she tries to focus on the voice for a second or two, but immediately a melody carries her away onto her next mind-traveling era.

She starts to sing, of a tone she’s never heard. This time, it is not because of her unfamiliarity with her own voice after remaining silent for so long. For a tiny bit, warm and joyful childhood memories flood out, but she demands herself to concentrate on the tone. This tone is almost not hers. At least she can hardly believe it just came out of her throat and brought power along with it. If the tone were to have a physical structure, it would be a staircase to a more elevated world! A world that is not under raging waves!

Suddenly, she looks around, grabbing anything close by to check that she is experiencing this in reality. At the moment, a wooden comb her father gave her is the closest item she can grasp. Even though no one is around to watch and judge her, she is still very conscious of how people might perceive her. So as she pulls the comb close to her heart, she becomes alert to look around and listen intently this time.

It is just her and nature alone...in the physical world at least. She has removed herself from any neighbors or any crowded places. The decision is not an easy one since she had struggled with the thought of escaping reality by moving to a new place which is basically transplanting herself into another environment and hoping to thrive there.

The main reason why she is able to come to peace with herself and negate that thought is that she has regained her identity. It was lost and mistaken for so long, and during that dark period of time in her life when she was conforming to the world and kept on denying what her heart and spirit felt, by putting too much weight on what people around her say and want her to feel. The perceptions that other people might have of her were pulling her in all directions apart from her authentic self.

Her mind had been set on becoming this masterpiece, yet the way she was living was hopeless in her own crystal eyes. The process of sculpting herself out from a bloated physique was against much resistance, yet it had to be done urgently to save her fading identity. The truth is that if she did not stop consuming too much of what the world had to offer, she would be soon consumed by the world.

Though she began with much fear and frustration yet so little faith in herself, Jade always has this unmatched persistence in her bones to resurface herself every time the storm raises the waves high above her head. Even without her small black notebook which she named Void, she had been able to manage her racing thoughts for the most part since as far as she can remember. However, her racing thoughts grow with the more experiences she has on Earth.

The recent few years have been very exotic. Each day can be filmed to publish as a movie, but none of the movies she knows really contains anything similar to her struggles. There were times she was drowning. Even though she had mastered the physical laws of forces, it was something more than gravity that dragged her down. Her faith was like buoyancy which had been hardly enough to sustain her in huge storms. At least she never let go of her faith even when her heart got wearied and her limbs were giving out because of fatigue. Every time when she is about to give in to the forces of her circumstances, her core being is like this inextinguishable flame sourced by God’s everlasting fire that withstands even the darkest and coldest days.

She is not in the battles of life alone. There are others who fight alongside her. Though they have their own struggles, the fact of them being there fighting is a huge comfort. Just as many who view Jade as this mature and successful woman, knowing a little bit of her struggles helps them see a more realistic picture including the unpleasant journeys and how resilient she has to be.

With the increasing difficulty life presents her, Jade constantly tries to find ways to cope. She first gave much thought to the word “cope” in eighth grade’s Social Studies class. Her teacher was a wise elderly lady who stressed the importance of developing almost like a personal mechanism in order to deal with the claws of the world and its scar-leaving abilities.

At that time, Jade had a different set of struggles now that she thinks of them just as baby struggles, yet they very well served to better prepare her for the oncoming full-grown struggles. Not that she knew what to do each time the next big waves wash over her, but the more conscious she became at how she functions with stresses from outside and how her thought process can be improved, the better she is at surviving and tackling the difficult times.

She uses the small black notebook to further contemplate her thoughts. Yes, explicitly writing out some thoughts on paper really makes a distinct difference. First it helps her to clear her mind. So, no more tangled thoughts with emotional bombs build up in her already complicated life. Jade is able to capture the most vicious mambas with her ink pen on Void’s pages. Right, the notebook got its name from the idea of containing the excessive bad energy in this kind of a mind black whole. No matter how fast the thoughts can travel before entering Void, their effects are completely denied by the ability of Void to absorb all the darkness and condense them, leaving space for beautiful, meaningful and charitable things in life.

This is how Jade is able to overcome the negative forces that keep on dragging her down. While jotting thoughts down, she also has a regular journal next to her where she keeps track of the positive and important ideas and memories. Occasionally, she doodles in there and pastes in a few light objects that she finds interesting as she goes about her day.

Oh, wait! Jade is heading outside. Guess where she is going!

Let’s follow her steps out to the blue skies. It is really sunny and a little breezy. Hear the wind passing through bamboo leaves. See, she is by the lake!

She is looking at her reflection and pondering again. Then, she closes her eyes while enjoying the warmth from the sun's embrace. She starts humming with peace and joy. It sounds like a worship song, and the Spirit resides in her.

Jade slowly opens her eyes and looks as if she is waiting for something to happen. In silence she waits patiently as her thoughts quiet down.

The voice speaks again to her, “You are ready, Jade! Return and tell your story, your struggles, and how you are being built up to be stronger. It is time, My child, to go and empower others.”

Jade nodded with a golden smile. Her joy is contagious! Here she goes, running back to grab her journal and jot down a few sentences.

She packs within five minutes and heads back home. On a train ride, she starts sketching and journaling. Bullet points and mind maps are all great tools she likes to use, organizing her constructive thoughts.

Now, she is back in the city. She turns on her phone as so many notifications pop up one after another. She immediately turns off the sound. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Jade gets ready to embrace a new journey.

Looking through her emails, one headline catches her eye. It is an invite from a local TEDx Program. “Perfect!” She gasps and quickly replies yes to the email. She notes that people sitting around are looking at her, but her brain is so occupied with firing neurons at the moment, so that does not bother her at all. As she brainstorms on her topic to speak at the TEDx event, she arrives at her stop.

She cannot wait to finish up her draft for an inspiring speech to give at the event. So, she jumps off the train and spots a bench by some trees and heads over. Soon she finishes writing intensely in her journal and opens up Void to pull a few examples out in order to demonstrate the types of negative thoughts she has removed from her mind.

Jade is singing on her walk home and greets everyone she sees with a smile. Her family is so relieved to see her back yet a bit surprised at her overflowing joy. They have never seen her so excited at home. She is usually busy with her work, attending meetings after meetings or on phone calls. If not, then she is often in her default mode, battling in her head.

Jade announces to her family that she is speaking at her university to inspire others to resurface every time the waves try to overpower them. It is a month from now. Her family congratulates her as she heads into her room to plan out tasks to complete before her TEDx speech.

Yes, after each time being on the edge of a precipice, she is revived with more faith, hope, and love. The flame inside her gets brighter each time. Let that light shine upon those around her and give warmth to those who are experiencing similar struggles.

On the stage, Jade is a little nervous but soon gains her steadiness and establishes her rhythm. The audience is very engaged. She is happy to see some of them nodding and even a few taking notes.

As the event comes to a closure, a woman approaches Jade and starts to introduce herself. She is the president of an Ivy League school’s reading club. Jade listens closely while thinking about how to connect with her afterwards. Yet, the woman pulls out her card and invites her to speak on her campus and also across some other universities for a sum of $20,000!

Jade has not expected anything like this to happen upon her first speech, but she has always known that as long as she keeps combatting and winning little battles, she is going to make a difference in the world. She does not believe in luck, but she believes in a good and righteous God who oversees each and everyone, blessing those who keep fighting the good fight.

She can hardly contain her excitement without screaming out her reply. She says, “Yes, it will be my pleasure!” and ends up giving the woman a very firm handshake.

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About the Creator

Magree Yizhou Wang

Witnessing local extinction of fireflies,I decided to protect nature.I'm passionate about environmental sustainability and wellness of people,addressing wicket problems by innovative and inclusive projects.I hope to connect and collaborate!

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