Youthful Life: X

"Things never go the way you expect them to. That's both the joy and frustration in life. I'm finding as I get older that I don't mind, though. It's the surprises that tickle me the most, the things you don't see coming." Michael Stuhlbarg As a kid I used to spend hours entranced in a daze, dreaming of wonders, possibilities, and opportunities in my own head. I'd imagine my life working as a doctor, delivering babies, and changing lives. Other times it'd be writing books, empowering others through reading, and travelling the world spreading my stories. Soon, reality came flooding back, and things never happened the way I had imagined they would. Life was either more exciting or underwhelming, but never followed the course of the script I had drafted all along. We can plan for life, but life never goes according to plan - at least not ours. And that dissonance between our fantasies and our realities can be jarring, but in it there's a...

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....

Truth - People are never who we imagine them to be; they are so much more. All our predictions of how each and every person will turn out are nothing more than romanticized fantasies There's no way to know what the each person holds inside them or how things will go until you get to know them. Why then do we spend so much making things up instead of being in the here and now with them? Why do we settle for cheap imitations when we can have the real thing? Why take the fool's gold when you can have genuine gold?   "We are treasure chests with more jewels inside than we can imagine.” Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha The great outdoors have never been something that I have been too fond of but there have been times where I've truly enjoyed it. One of those times was my in my childhood when I'd want to explore a forest or near a streaming creek. I'd get down in the mud and make little trenches for the water to flow in. I could spend hours redirecting the flo...

The 20s are all about building your network. There worst thing that can happen to you in life is to be disconnected from those that matter to you most. There's absolutely nothing more isolating then to lose a connection. That's what we do as people. We connect, interact, dialogue, touch, feel and commingle. It's that necessity of knowing that you're not alone. Solace, solitude, and silence are our downfall. Preservation of ourselves and others is sustained through our relationships. This is missed connections.  There was MadTV skit that had the best characters describe themselves on a dating game show (you know things people did before swiping right on tinder) called " Lowered Expectations ." Obviously the characters were all colossal messes of the most epic proportions and their finicky descriptions were totally hilarious. My favorite one was Deborah Johnson playing her iconic bipolar aggressive-aggressive "race-card pulling" (as if that's ...

The 20s are all about indulgence. There is something to be said about doing what you want. So often we sacrifice our yearnings to do what others would us. When you're able to do what you most enjoy particularly when it has become a rarity, there's nothing better. It may be cliché but life really is too short to miss out on what you love most. Live your days as if you're they're picture perfect adaptions that are just about to hit the silver screen.   The experience of going to the movies is a powerful pastime. Purchasing tickets, grabbing a freshly buttered bag of popcorn with it's alluring aroma, and a gigantic overpriced 64 ounce drink. Enter the dimly lit theatre with geometric shaped patterns, stadium style seating, and nostalgic red velvet curtains. Choose chairs and settle in for the previews. Phones off, worries put away, and mind focused on nothing more than where you are. The feature film comes in, production studios set the cosmogonist atmosphere, a...

The 20s are all about being okay with not knowing. For some people, not having their future planned out down to the minute can be gravely terrifying while others relish in the spontaneity of their lives. Often the world of young people is split in two seemingly diverging paths - one that leads to jobs and family, and another that entails traveling on a whims' notice. The reality is you can have both, and most have a little bit of each. No matter what your happiness in life though comes from your inner satisfaction. Do you believe that you deserve to be happy? Some things are just beyond belief. When I was a little kid there was no problem that was beyond fixing when my dad said everything was going to be okay. I remember this one time I had been riding my bike around the cul-de-sac. I was recently training wheel free and zoomed around the curves of the asphalt like a speed demon on a mission. My helmet was fastened tight but I had neglected to put on my knee pads. One ino...