Vantage points

A couple weeks ago I gave a presentation at the study abroad orientation for the students who are taking their big journey in the spring. It was a bit surreal, because it's hard to believe I was sitting right where they were a year ago already. That is wild. I could probably get an idea of what they were feeling at an orientation for leaving the country for about half a year. It's scary as hell, especially for this group who are the Latin American and Spanish speaking countries group of the program. These people have to deal with not just a change of scenery and customs, but also a language. It's can be quite overwhelming, especially in the beginning, but the moment when it actually starts to click is truly amazing. And it's bad enough that everyone has to sit through the part where they tell you try not to get kidnapped, and don't drink the water if you are going to the fallowing places: A, B, C,.....X, Y, Z. That's enough to scare anyone. 

I can't help but think about what they are about to go through, how it will change them, probably for the better if they let it. It's so exciting, I wish all of them the best in their travels. 

And then this thought spiraled into a series of thoughts that basically equate to some other aspects in my life that I have a different "vantage point" on. It's on just about everything now that I really think about it. Time seems to be flying faster than usual lately. With graduation right around the corner I've been doing a lot of self reflecting, as cheesy as that sounds, although I'm sure that's pretty much normal. We are at a pivotal, and pretty stressful point in our lives right now. We all know it, and we all can feel it. I can hear it just by walking by groups of people in the academic buildings, mostly. The "what am I going to do for the rest of my life" is definitely in the air. And really, who knows? Just the other day my friend asked if I would be interested in moving to Colorado after graduation and live in a nice house with a low rent fee, and it got me really thinking. I would just be crazy enough to say yes, and who knows, maybe I will do that after graduation. I am totally leaving my options open, where ever the road take me, if you catch my drift.

Going back to the idea of vantage points, It's really interesting, for me as lest, to see how my blog has progressed, the different vantage points in writing. It's a different kind of journey right now than when I started it. A lot has changed in a year.

Yesterday I signed the piece of paper in my advisers office that says I have met all the qualifications for graduating, and my graduation date will be May 18th, 2013. Now that is crazy. I can feel the icy breath of reality upon my neck (to partially quote Hocus Pocus). I can go anywhere, and that idea is really exciting to me. Ever since I got back from Madrid I have been craving another city to dive into, that seems to be where my direction is going at this point in my life. I do love nature as well so that could very well change. 

I'm stating to get less panicky about this decision and am really starting to go with the flow. It's not the end of the world if I don't go straight to grad school; I'm excepting that. Although I haven't made a full decision yet, I still may go straight from undergrad. But I'm going to except whatever happens and make the absolute best of it, because I'm graduating, and I'm ready.   

This is a bit off topic, but I wanted to share this truly inspirational piece I found on the Huff Post. I think it's something we should show more of these days, respect. Respect for each other, that seemed to be lost a very long time ago when we decided it would be a better idea to figure out faster, quicker ways to kill our own kind, rather than be civil to each other even though we may be a bit different.

So let's grab a fork, eat some turkey until we're as stuffed as the stuffing, and do what the Pilgrims did. Oh wait...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. 

Sleepwalking

My counseling professor said a couple weeks ago that many us, he would go as far as saying that the majority of us, sleepwalk through life. I've thought about what he said ever since and I think there is a lot of truth behind it, and I would go as far as saying, especially for our generation. We are the masters of sleepwalking through life, I myself included. Going through the motions, never taking risks with our heads buried in our smart phones on Facebook.

I'm not trying to turn this into a bash on social media, although I do think there are bad and good sides to it.

The problem is for some reason, I'm not sure when, but we decided to stop taking risks along the way. I don't know if it's because we got comfortable, or what, but what I do know is we need to wake the fuck up.

Let's play again. I don't know who the fun sucker was that decided once you hit a certain age you can't play anymore. Let's take risks. Instead of saying, "Oh, I don't know..." just do it. I don't mean that for everything of course, if you think you might go to jail you probably shouldn't do it. But seriously, if you ask elderly people what they wish they did more of when they were younger, many of them say they wish they took more risks. And I don't know about you, but I don't want that to be one of my greatest regrets.

I look around my campus on my way to class, I try to keep my head up, or if I'm on my bike more alert. However, looking back at my is not a face, oh no, it's the top of people's heads. And frankly, it's starting to drive me crazy. I just want to scream, "Look at me!" What happened to the days of smiling and waving to complete strangers? Saying, "Morning" or "Good evening." Those days shouldn't be dead my friends.

I know this seems like a small trivial thing, but for me this is more than just a smile or a wave, it's about our attitudes towards one another. I think it's safe to say there is a growing lack of respect for one another. Just the other day all the students received an email about an assault in the middle of the quad. It was one against five, and from what I heard that man is still in the hospital. Let's stop the violence.

This past weekend was the Global Awareness Conference put on by one of my absolute favorite professors here, Becky Burch. The key note speaker was a man by the name of Arn Chorn-pond. Please check out this video of Arn and the author of the book about his life, Patricia McCormick.

Overall, Arn went through hell and back in his village in Cambodia and horrors we couldn't even imagine. He is a remarkable human being because he channels all he went through into his work on improving conditions in Cambodia by exposing what happened during the Khmer rouge, and trying to educate and help female prostitutes. He is also restoring the traditional music and instruments of Cambodia since so many were killed during the Khmer rouge. He has done work in America as well with gangs and educating American about Cambodia as a whole. What is truly remarkable to me is Arn's personal goal. He is trying to unite America and Cambodia through the power of music. Next year in New York City Arn will be putting on a concert with Cambodia's finest musicians called Season of Cambodia .

Even after all Arn's been through, his take home message is: love each other. Even though he saw his parents killed, his sister and brother starve to death, and systematic killing of just about everyone around him, his goal in life is to educate and restore a sense of love and respect back into this world, and to stop the violence and killing. Now this, this is the kind of attitude we should be modeling. Thank you Arn.

Let's love each other.