Dreams

This is a semester for living without limits.  I'm trying to take on challenges that are too big for me to comfortably tackle.  I'm already having to stretch my limits frequently and do things that I'm not fully skilled at in order to be the most effective.  It's not easy, but I'm gaining from it.  As work is ramping up, I've decided there's one quote that I think summarizes why I'm doing all this.

Today, I met someone living out their dreams.  She was a 16 year old self published author, giving a book signing in Rice's Coffeehouse.  That's a dream big enough to scare most people.  But she had a book table, a full costume, and was speaking confidently to people five or more years older than her about her work.  Publishing a book is dream many people I know, including myself, have; it is often an unfulfilled dream though, due to insufficient effort or dedication.  It's a scary thing to do, and puts yourself in range of criticism of countless people if you succeed.  Seeing someone daring to do that, to try to make that dream a reality was inspiring.  If you want the see her website and work, it's here: http://samirabellissimo.com/

What is one of your dreams that you've held back from fully pursuing, and what's to stop you from trying to achieve it right now?

Hindsight and Green Light Tonight Before the First Light

Hello World!  It is a fabulous 2013 here, slightly wacky with a chance of insanity!

I know I haven't posted much at all recently.  While I have no excuse (shame on me) I did have a few technical difficulties that hindered me, such as my computer refusing to speak to my hard drive for 2 months.

Somehow, I survived through these unbearable first world problems of being forced to use one of a dozen computer labs on campus for all my computer needs.  But now my wonderful computer is up and running again, so naturally blog posts were soon to follow!

As a quick recap of what perspective breaking madness occurred while I was not posting, I'd like to supply a few photos as evidence:

Captions?  Nope.  Each picture here has enough of a story behind it to warrant an entire post.  I know I'm not going to find the time to blog about all of them, so here's the deal: Anyone reading this can comment and ask for the a post on one they happen to be curious about, and I'll do some explaining in another post.

Anyways, the year is over, and what a year it has been.  I've *only* visited 11 states this year, road tripping a total of 7000 miles.  Plus going to Ecuador, and getting to climb a 15,000 ft peak there.
I got to learn Scottish dance, two stepping, modern dance, contact improv, more swing dance, and perform onstage in both a musical and a dance show.
On my bucket list were accomplishments like:
riding a segway, getting pied in the face, slapping someone with a fish, eating bugs, blowing up a small appliance, dancing on a roof in the rain, photobombing president Leebron, street tumbling in a parade, juggling flaming objects, cooking on my own, living off of survival rations, dumpster diving, (No, those two don't have anything to do with the quality of my cooking), successfully pretending to be a mannequin, riding public transportation in my underwear, shot off fireworks over the ocean at night, hacking through the rainforest with a machete, being photographed by almost 100 strangers in one day, performing in a flashmob, and teaching a large group of strangers how to do the wobble.
I'm very pleased, not only that I've accomplished all of this, but that I've done so while only having to explain myself to 4 law enforcement officers and half a dozen retail employees.  I also did so with *almost* no damage or desecration to any historical monuments, art installations, or places of worship!

As for the coming year, this one is going to be a doozy!  This year I'll be focusing on a couple of themes, mostly living without limits, active thankfulness, and extraordinary normality.
Hopefully, these are things I'll write more on and explain as I delve deeper into them, otherwise I might as well just post random pairings of words that sound poetic:
Sentimental euphoria.  Flashlight love.  Mediocre guacamole.  Gastrointestinal tuning.  Yak thongs.

With those profound word pairs to finish up everything, I leave you now to go carpe annum!