Voyage

Being a teenager is all about sojourning. Every day of college is a complete journey. From the time of the sun comes up and you get out of bed too when you finally get to lay down in bed at night, it's an expedition. It's a chance to discover yourself and other people and really figure out where you're going in life. It's an opportunity to show the world what you're made of. It's up to you to captain your own ship and navigate the troubled waters. This is your maiden voyage.

Every single day of college is an uphill battle. People come in and out of your life all day, every day. You have to create a map for yourself to know who to trust, and where to go. Some places are for bed in like secret caverns on a rare societies, as well as some people are off-limits. They can't be touched, they can't be known, and it's like to have a force field around them. It's like they have some kind of treasure, some kind of fortune, and only certain people have the map marked with an X. You have to decide for yourself how you're going to get to them and what you'll do with all the booty (in more ways than one). Every social interaction puts people on your map and also removes people from your radar. College is all about connections, and who you connected to and what they're connected with. Stake your claim, go on a treasure hunt, and begin your daily Tom Daley voyage.

Navigating your moral compass in college can be difficult. Everyone talks about experimenting and trying this and that. Does experimenting count as compromising yourself? Where do you draw the line, what's the boundary that you go by? There's no one regulating what you do and who you do it with, but the thing is, everyone has a different opinion of what they consider wrong and right. Make your choice, and do you. Thursday for me was one of those days where I had to be conscious of the choices I was making and how my portrayal of myself was coming off. Getting up at 6:30am is something I didn't I'd be doing in a long while, but there I was walking in the morning sunlight to the Davis Center for a board of trustees student selection committee meeting. It actually wasn't that bad, and everyone in the group is definitely well-spoken and knowledgeable about what we're trying to accomplish so it moves quickly. Back to my room to pretend to back to sleep, and by 9am I as in the office doing work like nobody's business. Would some people consider me a juiceaholic workaholic, maybe or maybe not (I do what I gotta do to get things done)? Tennis class meant playing a full on match against my friend Katherine, super chill girl and funny to bits. For once I actually got my serves in (leading with my racket not my wrist) and won a match (freaking Bryan Brothers self-five). Shower time, and chemistry lab it is. In chemistry we did this reflux (no not old people's acid reflux esophageal tearing stuff) of 1-butanol (smelled like gasoline drenched ravioli) to extract and purify a compound. My lab partner, Miranda, and I definitely work well together but somehow we're always last to leave. No worries, we get it done right and efficiently. The waiting times in class were spent talking to my girl, Kylie, her lab partner Joe (interesting conversation on why everyone has an accent, anyone?) and naming all the American Girl dolls (I have a sister, okay). We finish up, I grabbed food and it was back to WDW to meet with my advisers. No show, but I end up having one of those long person-discovering conversations with my other advisor, Drake - which definitely gives me some insight on who he is and what makes him tick. Truthfully, sailing in the uncharted waters of friendship (damn, look at that metaphor) is a tricky task but when you succeed it's like "land ho." I speak my mind and say my piece and come to the realization that I can't expect everyone to want to work overtime and do the most like I do - it's not fair, and it's not them. I walked to the Verizon store to buy a case for my new iPhone 5 #trendsetting and ran into my suitemate, Jimmy, at the gas station I stopped at to buy candy. We walked back and antics ensued as I tried to set up "Graham" (yeah, I name my phones after my future children, it's not weird). Library to work on a group presentation, and it's late night paper writing until the early morning. Let's just say, Friday - I was a perpetual mess on the verge of a psychotic breakdown - a trip no one should ever see. I chilled out after all my classes and caught up on Arrow and TVD before using Siri to dictate this blog post (awkward cyclical reference). Day done, boat docked - voyage ended.
 
Being a teenager is all about knowing how to make sense of your world. It's about how you orient yourself in regards to where you are, who you're with, and what you're up to. Only you can decide where you're going in college and what the direction (one direction) you're headed in is. No first mate can keep the ship called your life in ship shape except for you. You're the captain Morgan, you're the prince Caspian, and Captain Hook in this story. Take control or the plank, this is your maiden voyage.


My blog post question for the day is ... if you could travel anywhere by boat where would you go and why? I think it'd be cool to go to New Zealand and check out what's down there. So many movie are shot there and it seems awesome.