Cheque 'Mate'

The world is nothing more than a classroom; those who excel in the subject's life do not worry about exam day.

In fact, those who listen attentively to the teacher and are genuinely willing to not be intimidated by their own mistakes are never afraid of lessons.

However, those who never cared about this and are not interested in learning feel fear on exam day. They fear failure, and they fear looking at themselves and seeing their flaws. So, it’s much easier for them to convince themselves they have no flaws. This is a way of avoiding the problems they create.

When Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, she experienced pain. Learning hurts.

But when we understand that it’s just an exam day, the more exams we take and the more we dedicate ourselves to learning, the process itself becomes the focus. There is no more extended space to dwell on failures or successes.

The moment your senses are attuned to the guidance and what you do with it becomes the most important part of this school here.

If you are not wise enough to learn from someone else’s mistake, perhaps you will learn when it’s your own. If you fail to grasp the lesson, maybe you’ll learn when someone makes a mistake against you. But perhaps even that won’t suffice, and you’ll need to lose yourself completely to find yourself again.

By resisting the pain of knowledge, you will feel it. But the day you discover that after the pain comes an apple, the pain will stop hurting, just like receiving a lollipop after being brave enough to take a vaccine as a child or the healing that comes after enduring the bitterness of medicine.

However, do not chase the apple; pursue knowledge, even if it means being expelled from paradise.

Knowledge is the enemy of suffering. To suffer is to resist pain; resisting pain is to remain ignorant.

When I sought peace the most, I lived in war. When I finally entered the war, I found peace.

If I pass by the bakery on my way out of the house, I return through downtown. Never the same path, never the same soundtrack, never the same scenery, never the same answer to the same leading question.

I invented my own language of patterns. Do you know why? Because they repeat. That’s how you learn someone. But if you don’t want anyone to learn you, change your patterns. Unpredictability is never captured by anyone except its own essence, which is guided by change.

Have you noticed people’s patterns when playing chess? Some are audacious—they start attacking immediately and lose their queen in the first move. Others are not as audacious but still don’t attack quickly. However, these lack ambition; they are content to take pawn after pawn from their opponent but lose focus on the checkmate.

I used to play defensively and began to realize I was constantly losing. I was afraid to show the world who I indeed was; I was just comfortable being invisible, but in the meantime, everyone painted the picture with what they thought most resembled me.

The Gloom is afraid of light, but it always operates in the dark. Darkness knows it ceases to exist in light, so it stays only around the edges. It comes close but will never be able to enter.

While I played chess defensively, others always liked to attack.

There was folly on both sides. Excessive defense does not lead to checkmate, while excessive attack can cause you to lose all your pieces quickly.

That’s why I learned never to leave my queen unguarded. You can try any square around her—diagonal, L-shape, straight line—but you won’t take her. This time, I don’t just protect her; I don’t merely defend her. This time, she’s face to face with your king. At the necessary distance, in the necessary place, at the necessary moment.

Check 'mate'.

Darkness never reached here. It is so fearful, falsely moralistic, and cowardly that it will never arrive in here. But this time, the light goes to it, and it simply will cease to exist.

Thiara Màtos.