Three Rules

I like how if you rearrange the word "Rule" you can spell "Ruel". My name. I believe that's what's called anagram. Okay, that's beside the point.

Rules are... rules. I don't know what the actual definition is, but from my understanding they are something to follow; something to listen to. Like the law, I don't know what the laws actually are, but I'm sure there's a law that says: "Thou shall not kill." If that's not a law, well, it probably should be. That is a rule though, by my definition. It's something to listen to and follow. It's not one of my special "Three Rules" though. Killing someone is just something you should not do.

I live by three rules. And I guess I live by other rules if Human Rights and Religion and the Law were rules. But I don't really think about those things everyday. My "Three Rules" are something that I do think about everyday. I try everyday to follow these rules, and they're actually not that hard to follow. Especially my second one.

I don't organize my rules in an order of importance, but my first one is: "If you could do something nice, why don't you do it?" This rule doesn't actually say to do something nice, but it says why not do something nice? And in all honesty, why not? I wouldn't lose anything if I did do it, so no reason not to. And doing something nice always has a positive impact, be it on a person, on the planet or on yourself. And I always like that feeling of rectitude whenever I do something nice. An example of doing something nice, is just holding the door for someone at a school, or picking up litter whenever you see it. I try to follow this rule everyday, all day. But lately I haven't been doing the good deeds I should be doing, but I do like this rule.

The second rule I follow keeps me from doing useless things, and always helps me to do what I want to do. It is: "If you don't have to do it, don't do it." I know, I know. This sort of contradicts my first rule of being nice. Because you don't have to be nice, and according to this second rule, if you don't have to do it, don't do it. So therefore, don't be nice. But if you read my first rule again. It includes a "why don't you do it?" like a why not. So you don't have to be nice, but why not be nice.

Anyways, I like this rule because it prevents me from doing things that could embarrass me or make me do something I might regret. Because if I don't have to do it, I'm not going to do it. It's a pretty self-explanatory rule. An example of where this rule might apply is, a teacher gives you extra work but you wouldn't get bonus marks for it. In that case don't do it (if it was worth bonus marks though, you should probably do it). An example of where this rule does not apply is if you had, like, a chore to wash the dishes or something. You may or may not have to do it depending on your household but you should do it because "Decency". Which I might explain in another writing piece.

My third rule kind of goes hand in hand with my second rule. There is some context to this rule, as before this rule can be used, you must have something you have to do. The rule goes like this, "(If you have to do it), do it now so you don't have to do it later." The part in brackets doesn't need to be said. I prefer just to say, "Do it now, so you don't have to do it later". You can see where this rule conjoins the previous. It's like the second part of the rule, but I made them separate. If you don't have to do it, don't do it. But if you have to do it, do it now so you don't have to do it later.

This rule is like the key to success in my opinion. It leaves no room for laziness, and gives you the reward of free time afterwards. Because if you complete all your have-to-do tasks for the week within a day, well now you have 6 days to do what you want to do. This rule also applies to homework, which is how I use this rule most often. Like math homework, I'd do it now so I don't have to do it later. I say this to my classmates who never finish their work on time. They should have done it then, so that they wouldn't have to do it later.

All these rules were hopefully easy to understand. It should be, the rules are pretty much explained inside the rule. And in case you forgot, they go like this:

1) If you could do something nice, why don't you do it?

2) If you don't have to do it, don't do it.

3) [If you have to do it] do it now, so you don't have to do it later.

You don't have to live by these rules. I don't even know why you would want to read these rules. Like what, did you expect to find the key to life reading these rules? There are better rules to follow, like the law, but I like to follow my own rules. It's like I tell myself what I should do.

Okay, there are other things that are not said in this short list of rules. Like, what if you want to do it but you don't have to do it. In that case, do it. Nothing's stopping you. Do what you want to do. And if you have a decent reason to not do something nice, like your currently helping someone else, then you have a "why not" to do something nice. Or, like, if that person doesn't deserve nice things to be done to them. It's up to you whether or not you'd do something for them.

I used to have a rule where I would never answer a yes or no question with "no". Yeah it's pretty dumb, I realized that a lot later. Like, what if someone asked me if I wanted to go to Dollarama with them and I didn't want to go. In the case of this rule, I wouldn't say "no". So I'd say "yes" and then I'd have to go to Dollarama.

Back in middle school I told a couple of my friends about this rule and they told me, "what if ________ asked me to the dance?" And ________ wasn't really a likable person, I wouldn't have gone to the dance with 'em. And my friends were like, "well you wouldn't say 'No'." And I just thought, 'then I'd have to go to the dance with 'em.' I wouldn't wanna do that. So I changed the rules and now I'll say "yes" to what I want to do and "no" to what I don't want to do. It should've always been like that; do what I want, not what I don't want. But this rule was sort of the beginning of "If you could do something nice, why don't you do it?". Because back then I figured "yes" was always the better (nicer) thing to say than "no". That is not always the case, though. Sometimes, a guys just gotta say no.

Another sort of rule was, "Try not to swear". It's not so much of a rule as it is (what I would call) a decent thing to do. I'm not much of a swearer, but I have sworn before. I had a weird phase in grade 5, where I swore a lot. I silent swear sometimes, like I would say a little, "sh*t" after I make a mistake in a drawing or something. One time I got really mad at this not-cool guy for killing me in Call of Duty, and I said, "Oh, F*ck you camper." And immediately after that I said, "oh, sorry. I didn't mean that." However I feel in conversation it rolls off the tongue better to just say, ie. "I f*cking hate this sh*t." But I still don't really feel good swearing, instead of swearing I usually replace the swears with a similar sounding word or a cut-off. Like "fup" for the f-word or "shiz" for the s-word.

Okay that's enough about rules. One time I ran into a tree. I think this is an interesting story that I haven't told a lot of people. So back in grade 6 in Arthur E. every recess I'd play manhunt with this group of people. The guy who was always "it" first was this large person who wasn't very smart. I won't say his name because... disrespectful. He was this dude who would always lick his hand and rub it on his face. He was weird and kind of disgusting. So for some reason we found it fun to run away from him...? Not too sure on the details. But this guy was always it.

One particular spring day during a recess me and a couple "survivors" were near a fence, around a corner of the school. As we turned the corner, the guy who was it was like 'surprise motha-fuppa' and appeared out of nowhere and began running towards us. Me and the others obviously immediately began running in the opposite direction. We ran for maybe 50 meters. Around that time I looked over my shoulder to see if he was still chasing us, but I didn't get to look for long as I felt a sudden jolt of pain in the right of my head and chest. I staggered backwards and fell on the ground. I had run into a tree head first.

I heard my friends laughing and I couldn't help but laugh as well. You know, positive through the pain. I could only imagine what I looked like as I hit the tree, like, with my head and chest bumping into it and then just bouncing back. And I was a pretty fast runner back then so, quick physics, when a fast object (me) hits a, probably, immovable object (the tree), I will have a such a drastic change in velocity that I would not be able to keep my balance and fall over. Or something like that, I don't know I'm talking about.  I reached a hand up to touch my forehead. I felt a hard lump and some smooth liquid. I brought my hand back down and saw some blood. It didn't freak me out. I shrugged it off and went to the office to get a bandaid. I went back to school the next day with a little scar and a bump with a bruise.