"Time to wake up. What is reality? Obviously, no one can say, because it isn't words! It isn't material, that's just an idea. It isn't spiritual, that's also an idea - a symbol. Reality is... this!" - Alan Watts “Stargazing with your family, swimming in a bath overlooking New York City, hiking up a mountain at sunset. Moments where you lose touch with reality take on a new significance in this hectic and complex world, where everyone lives in a world of illusions. Jobs, education, family, money, and all sorts of problems constantly occupy everyone's minds, which are always thinking, calculating, and planning. I’m not saying all that is bad. Those problems exist with good reason, and thinking is an important part of our brains. However, it’s become the quaking mess that everyone is sucked into. This world is so used to our ways as humans, with ethics, religions, morals, and politics. In reality, we are just the smartest species on our planet that are the top of the food chain - focused on our lives, destroying the planet, and absorbed in problems. We are nothing compared to the sheer scale of... everything. Or is that true? We’ll never know if this world might be simulated, falsely calculated, or illusions woven by our minds. There are only a handful of things we know as 100% true, like the fact that we exist. There’s a famous quote: “I think, therefore I am”. I exist since I think, but do you? Of course if you’re conscious you know that you are, but you don’t know if I am, and vice versa. In fact we will all eventually be forgotten, and might as well have never existed. We cannot be remembered forever - the world will end one day. If so, why bother with life? You should bother to either help yourself or help others. Once you discern illusions from reality, maybe you will find that you appreciate the journey to success, not necessarily success itself. Perhaps you will be kinder, wiser or more humble, no longer caring about fame. Or maybe you will appreciate what nature has made over billions of years, not what mankind has over a few thousand. Or maybe - just maybe - on the journey or at the end, you will find moments where you lose touch with reality.” - lMPERlAL Note: The speech above was written for an english exam I had a few months ago XD. Personally, although I'm fairly younger than most people in my grade, feel as if I'm older. Opening speech by Alan Watts in his speech "Overthinking will kill your reality". R.I.P, my favourite philosopher. ♬ Illenium - Reverie Time taken: 5+ hours (Just an estimate from counting, might've taken much more time) All code and art by me in SVE (Rough process inside) Inspired by the vast expanse of space and the power of the mind. Whatever cosmic or existental entity(s) created this universe(or the world in this case)(the laws, history, E.T.C) thank you so much, it must've been lots of work. Thank you for hosting this contest Thank you scratch.mit.edu developers/team for creating this website Thank you Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak for inventing the macbook pro that can handle all the lag when I was making this piece. Thank you parents for bringing me into this world. Thank you , for inspiring me to get into this world of designing and illustration.(You won't see this and you didn't even know but thanks anyway) <1+<1=<3
