Youthful Life: X

Truth - Once you leave home for the first time, nothing is ever the same. The change that occurs after high school and during college truly is profound. In retrospect, each time I've left it's almost been longer and longer since I returned home. My tolerance for being away from the place where I feel most safe, comfortable, and loved has grown considerably and the lingering feeling that being anywhere else is wrong remains. I wonder if that little notion of uneasiness ever subsides. How do you make a new place home when all you already have monachopsis?   "Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word solitude to express the glory of being alone." Paul Tillich Monachopsis is defined as the subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place. For this new stage in my life, it has become even more relevant. I don't really know how to describe it....

The 20s are all about staying true to yourself. College can often be one of the most challenging places to do so however. The pressures to change yourself, to fit in, and to experiment with new things can sometimes be overwhelming. Everyone wants you to let go, to be free, and wild for the night but who everyone else is is not necessarily who you want to be. To each his own they say, and there is more than one way to have fun. Everyone has a different definition of a good time. Don't knock it until you try it, but you don't have to try everything to know what's wrong for you. This is the true story Captain Straight Edge and the #Turnup of Doom (*cues the crashing thunder and flash of ominous lightning).   Every single day you wake up and load up on everything you need to prepare yourself for the day. You wipe the nasty ass eye-crusties from the corners of your eyes, brush those pearly whites to near blinding perfection (floss to spite your antagonistic dentist so you...

The 20s are all about opening your eyes. The world is massive place and there's a seemingly infinite amount of things to do, places to see, and people to know. College is like a microcosm of the world at large and it's an opportunity to really branch out. The thing about is, you will only see what you allow  yourself to see. Tunnel vision may keep you on a straight path where you'd like to go, but you miss out on what's around you which can and sometimes is more important. Take the side-blinders off, stop and observe what's right there. It's front and center. This week has continued my personal journey into rejoining the world after a semester long descent into social hibernation and resentment. My experience on my college campus, just like everyone else, is a unique one. I would say mine even more so is uncanny in my unbelievable social identity. Walking around campus I decided to keep track of the number of people who greeted me. In one day it was just ov...

The 20s are all about coming into your own. As college students, and young adults the big point of this whole experience is (other than to get your education aka diploma and gain to access to higher levels of social capital) to grow up. There's a reason the age group is 18-25 for young adults, because we won't be fully developed and truly independent (in general) until then. Even more so, who will we become, especially if mom and dad have any say in it? Under parental control. The other day I heard this not-so far fetched theory that children either become two things, exactly like their parents, or completely opposite of who their parents are. You can probably easily guess which one I am. Then this theory mentioned siblings and how they're all just different combinations of your parents (genetically that's definitely true), but the personality, mannerisms, looks, etc. that make us who we are though. I sat and thought about my mom and dad (judge me or not but I have,...

The 20s are about determining your own happiness. We are ultimately responsible for our own contentment. We can choose  to be happy. We can choose who we associate with. We have the option to let to, to live in the moment, and be comfortable. It's all up to us. Choose to be the best you. More and more, sometimes is not enough, sometimes it's too much.    Friendship , that is a bond between two people (emphasis on the reciprocal nature of that nature), is one of the most powerful things in this world. An to make conversation, to care, and to support another person is an amazing one. You know that feeling when you stumble upon someone and you instantly feel drawn to them. You feel like you understand them, they get  you and things just seem to work. You wonder where has this person been my whole life. Friendship is that rare moment of clarity where someone acknowledges that their struggle relates to yours. In college friendship takes it's most potent forms. As a...