addendum

So I’m keeping this blog going, but as I’m going abroad I thought I’d start a separate blog as a supplement to this one only for the purpose of recounting my travels!

you can find it at http://globetrekkerbhumi.wordpress.com/

 

hasta luego!

pale blue dot

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

— Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

creative

I love when I get emails subject line: Unleash Your Creativity, or something to that effect. I don’t really understand how people have this option in their lives, and it fascinates me that anyone has been able to harness and domestic their creativity to such a point that it has to be unleashed. I guess my creativity is just the WILD CHILD that runs around like hell for days and then passes out for a little while, whenever it wishes.

light

Traveling Light
by Linda Pastan

I’m only leaving you
for a handful of days,
but it feels as though
I’ll be gone forever—
the way the door closes

behind me with such solidity,
the way my suitcase
carries everything
I’d need for an eternity
of traveling light.

I’ve left my hotel number
on your desk, instructions
about the dog
and heating dinner. But
like the weather front

they warn is on its way
with its switchblades
of wind and ice,
our lives have minds
of their own.

a place to go, a place to grow

“It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘Always do what you are afraid to do.'”

I’ve recently arrived home for the Summer break but it doesn’t really seem like a break to me this year. I’ve come home for three weeks to study for my GRE exam, which is coming up quickly, and then I’m off to Virginia to see some schools, deposit my niece, and then return to Orlando to fly to my study abroad programme. I’m so excited. It’s become increasingly difficult for me to sit still these days. I’m constantly looking for something, trying to figure myself out, working to make myself better. Every time I get in the car I just want to drive and drive and drive until I’m far away in a new place meeting people and learning things and tasting foods.

Whenever I’m at school I feel this sense of freedom, like I can stretch and expand as widely and deeply as my lungs will allow me to inhale. But then I come home. And I know I’m the youngest child of my parents, but I don’t know how to explain to them that they have to let me grow up. I understand the dangers of foreign countries, and how to take care of myself when I travel, but I want them to trust me. I want them to understand that at some point they have to let me go and take a train, or bus by myself, and it will in fact be okay. They need to understand that I’ve got a lot more common sense than I’m given credit for, and I won’t, for any reason, tell a stranger where I’m living, or get myself into any other kind of trouble. (On a side note, I blame the film Taken for all of my parents concerns about my travels. I’m guessing they missed the part where I’m not that much of moron.)

It is because of this sheltered path that I’ve now, in some ways, become afraid of things. I’m afraid of talking to people at the airport terminal or in a train because my parents have instilled in me this great fear of all people who are not those I know, even though I’m pretty sure I’ve got a keen sense of a person’s character upon our meeting.

Now I’ve got the chance to face my fears, go abroad alone, and tackle the questions I have for the world and for myself (and I’m scared as hell). What do I believe? What kind of person do I want to become? Where can I find a community of people with the same beliefs that I have? Can I get over my fear of bathrooms and just use a stupid public bathroom without wanting to cry? How can I figure out what I want to become? Where will I find the best formaggi sauce? Or falafel? Can I get over my fear of not having everything I need in my purse or book bag and just go abroad with a couple of outfits and a toothbrush, and find things as I need them?

How can I become the best daughter, sister, friend, writer, student, artist, and member of the global community to all those around me? How can I be open to giving and receiving the maximum amount of love and imagination in the world? Can I share my creativity without being afraid of what those who receive it will think? By whom will it be received? By whom do I want it to be received? Can I live in today without anticipating tomorrow? Can I learn how to dance in this very moment right here, fully in love with every gesture and movement, and every class that it’s taken me to get here?

Where will my lung capacity, and sense of self, grow most? Can I overcome my fear to grow beyond my own bubble?

Right now, I know that I want to grow and expand and learn, but I’m doubting my ability to do it. Can I really get by on my own? I’ve never had to do that before. I want to, but I’m also afraid to. It is with that fear that I’d like to take the GRE, pack my bags and learn how to do laundry in a sink, because, God help me, I’m doing this (whether anyone likes it or not).

I must do always, that which I am afraid to do.

Here I go…