10 Guidelines for an ambiguous high school senior Choosing a College:

1.       Let’s face it: at 18, most people are not going to know what they want to do or to get  out of life.  Give yourself a break and choose a school or a major at that school in something you are interested in at the time and give yourself room to change.  You probably will.  After all, as Pedro Arrupe said, “the minute you cease to change, you cease to live.”  People at 40 are making entire career changes so chill out and relax your stress for it is nothing but a detour.  You will get to where you are going and stress won’t help you. 

2.      You have allies everywhere.  Literally, all over the world.  Find them.  Freshman year is hard: Do not despair. 

3.      Unlimit yourself from the beginning.  Never say “I cannot afford school x,” I am not smart enough for school y.”  You can do whatever the hell you want.  There are grants and scholarships for people like you.  Find a school that will accept you for what you are on paper and as a human in the flesh. 

4.      It’s odd discovering where your parents are wrong and have led you astray.  You don’t have to listen to them.  They are not you.  Only you are you and your choice is your choice, damnit. 

5.      The most important thing I learned after first term of college was to juggle like a clown and I taught myself.  This one’s up to your interpretation.

6.      Ultimately, college, as in all things, is merely what you make it and someone who earns your same degree is not the same as you.  You are an individual and no one has gone to the same schools that you have gone to in your life in the same order that you have gone through them.  And still, if someone has been in school with you for an entire life: nobody can see what you can see the way you see it.  You graduate from the University of You, in any event.  The name of a school is merely an umbrella term to prove your endeavors’ legitimacy. 

7.      If you are unsatisfied, you always have the power to change your circumstances.  This is Chaplin: “You’re life can be a wonderful adventure.”  If you let it. 

8.      The odd thing about places is that it doesn’t really matter where you are in the world—what matters is how that place makes you feel, if you have the room to grow there, and if you can be yourself at this place. 

9.      Steve Jobs: You can’t connect the dots going forward—only when you look back does the chronology of your life make more sense. 

10.  You are confronted with a challenge that is both absurd and simple: freedom.  You can do whatever you want wherever you want.  You wanna go to India for service?  Do that.  You wanna go to Boston College for psychology and theater?  Do that.  What’s stopping you?  Seriously- what is it?  I’m curious.  Whatever you are passionate in right now—do that.  Do the one thing that gives you energy when you haven’t eaten in 10 hours and your low on sleep.  That thing that lifts you up once you’ve forgotten the idea of light.  For Christ sake- do that thing.  And if you haven’t found that thing yet, then experiment like a mad man and search for it everywhere and in everything.  Do that.  You and the planet will have been better for it. 

Airport Humor

I love walking in airports alone. Nobody has a clue who I am therefore I can be anybody in the world to them. I'm sure nobody gives a shit but its fun to pretend.

-Un

I am ill from thinking so much about myself and my own process.  Yes, the unexamined life sure as hell is not worth living but a life spent second guessing every damn motion leads you to a stand still with yourself, slowly making miniscule, miniature circles in the sand of your life.  Whether on the stage or at a party: the most interesting thing is the person looking back at you.  Be there for them.

Discourse is necessary.

Not any one person in this world will agree with every single thing that you say or do. If they do, they are blind. If they don't agree, good. Then we have opinions, discourse in conversation and through which we learn the most that we possibly can about different perspectives. At the end of these conversations, our foundations of belief may be rocked and one of two things may happen: we will defend our opinion and discover its legitimacy within our own being or, we change our opinions. Or we are just dumbfoundedly confused for a while until we discover what our opinion actually is. Not one person in this world will agree with everything you say or do and how wonderful. That means we help each other grow and become more dynamic and interesting humans. Fuck ya.

Write--do. Do--write.

If you want to write something interesting, do something interesting with your life.  It is that simple. 

London went to the Yukon.
Kerouac traveled across country.
Twain traveled to San Fransisco.
Melville fished.
Thoreau went to the woods.
Jung built a tower.
Gregory Boyle created jobs for homeless.
And so on.

You can also walk, talk, dance, run, sing, and play in interesting or different ways, which can be worth writing about and the product of which might be some fefu fofu tofu poetry stuff, which is all good and well but my contention is that an exterior change, like Kerouac's traveling, makes for more interest for a reader.

It is this simple: If you want to write something interesting, do something interesting with your life. 

Go.

Dear reader-

I need your input.  I need some feedback on the blog: how do you prefer to receive blog posts?  One at a time?  One per day?  Or in random chunks like I've been doing it?  I just need to know what my audience wants so I can adjust accordingly.  What is best for YOU?  Please let me know and please keep reading!  :)

Wisdom in Ramblings

In the heat of the moment, listen to the angry man yell for there is something of wisdom in his ramblings.

Read.

When I was younger I labeled myself as a "non-reader."  I hated to read because I was always was forced to read things for school that bored the hell out of me.  I recently discovered that I love reading more than most things in this world because I am reading things I am interested in and not just doing the rote and usually very boring and un-inspiring reading for school. 

My point is brief: there are words waiting for you, for all of us, like swimmers on-their-mark about to dive into the water.  These words are on corners of bookshelves in obscure or obvious locations that are waiting to become a part of you, to become one with you like soap in water. 

Always skip school if there is something better to read.

Hey, you.

Ya, you.  You impact people, damnit.  You are impactful.  Own up to it and make a choice to impact others in the way you've always wanted because that thing you've been searching for is right in front of your face and its been there forever.  Making the decision to "choose to not be impactful" is not an option.  You impact all the time and accidentally every second of everyday.  What you are doing right now is changing the world.  Not in a grandiose way, necessarily but rather, you are part of the ocean, as it were.  I just wish we were all a lot more conscious of how much we impact others all the damn time. You do!  Fuck. Own it.  Please.