Melissa Bartels:
CLASS OF 1997
Oak Park River Forest High SchoolClass of 1997
Oak park, IL
Melissa's Story
Melissa is from Chicago, Illinois. Melissa's schools include Oak Park River Forest High School. Melissa later attended Triton College (Photography and Visual Communications) , Columbia College Chicago (Jazz Vocal Performance/Music Business) , National Academy of Sports Medicine (Certified Personal Trainer) .
Music Melissa likes includes Chicago Jazz Calendar, Fans of Chet Baker, Milton Suggs. Books Melissa likes include Da Vinci Code, Khalil Gibran, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Movies Melissa likes include Run Lola Run, Frankenweenie, Nacho Libre. TV shows Melissa likes include Art of Living, The Mordern Family, Absolutely Fabulous.
One of Melissa's favorite quotes is:""And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Who you are speaks so loudly I can't hear what you're saying."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."
"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you are right."
-Henry Ford
"Everybody can be great...you only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
"It's never too late to be who you might have been."
-George Eliot
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"Only a life lived for others is worth living."
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.":
"A human being . . . experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening the circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
-Albert Einstein
"By believing passionately in something that does not yet exist, we create it."
-Nikos Kazantzakis
"The Gra...Expand for more
nd essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."
-Alan K. Chalmers
"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."
-Kahlil Gibran
"If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth."
-MITSUGI SAOTOME
"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these."
-G.W. Carver
"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves."
-James M. Barrie
"The degree to which you can be aware of your own humanity is the degree to which you can accept, with open eyes, your suffering."
-Stephen Colbert
"Our lasting happiness can and needs to be independent of our circumstances....It's an inner state of peace and well-being that you carry with you where ever you go...When what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony...All it takes is the development of happiness as a skill and an attitude, rather than a goal."
"There are happy moments, enjoyments and pleasures but they are as fleeting as we speak of them. They do exist but they are so interconnected with their opposites-- affliction, misery, worry, anxiety, doubt, fear, sadness and pain-- that you can hardly take one without having the other. They are inseparable sides of the same coin. This being the case, we need to be reminded: that this is not really you. It is the substance in the coin that is the real you, which is not affected by either side." -Rumi
"In the pursuit of knowledge,
every day something is added.
In the practice of the Way,
every day something is dropped.
Less and less do you need to force things,
until finally you arrive at non-action.
When nothing is done,
nothing is left undone."
-Chinese philosopher Laotzu".
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