halfway .

I woke up today not even able to fathom how it could only be hump day of the week. Pretty nuts. Although I think the weeks tend to drag on longer the more time you spend awake. And given that we have interim reviews Friday, yeah, sorta been awake longer than I would like to be.

But this is what I signed up for, and while the work is sometimes tedious and always stressful, I still somehow love it! We are certainly a strange bunch, architecture kids.


This week is only the first full week of school, and thus it has felt like we've been in school for forever already. Although I am sure that as the months progress the days will fly by like no tomorrow. And just like that, I'll be halfway done with my college career. At least, with the bachelor portion of it. I'm pretty set on going to grad school.

The scary thing is that I'm beginning to wonder if all that I do on a daily basis in school is the most fulfilling way to spend my life, during what many call in retrospect the greatest years of their life. They say to make the most of every day, every minute, every moment. And thus far, I think I've been doing okay. There will always be things you can't fit in, and there will always be things that you don't want to happen, or on the opposite side of the spectrum do want to happen! Regardless of how the remaining years of college life go, I just want to be able to look back and say, wow, I really made the most of that. I accomplished so many awesome things, and had a blast while doing it. And if I can do that, I'll be one happy camper as I move into what many would call real life, where you have bills, responsibilities, a job (hopefully) and eventually a family.

I'm excited for that eventuality, but scared too. It's easy to say I want to live on my own, to do everything myself and not have to live in a house at home. Well, first there's the money issue. I clearly wouldn't be able to support myself. And despite the frequent bouts I engage in with my parentals, I definitely wouldn't be where I am without their encouragement, money, and help. Figuring things out on your own isn't easy, and it's nice to have someone to ask questions to if you really don't have a clue, or that one roadblock that you hit on occasion. There's no guide to parenting, which is part of what makes it so difficult, or so I've heard. But I mean, people wouldn't have kids if they didn't think they could handle the challenge! I'm sure I'll experience that in a much more complete way when I am older with my own family.

I sort of wonder what my sister's been up to, now that she's out of college and working a full time 9-5 job (though she probably makes it more like 11-7 :P). It's interesting to imagine what other people's lives are like, the challenges and hardships that they must face given simply their status in life.

I realized recently that there are 2 ways to go through life (and probably billions more, but these are the ones that stuck out): You can only worry about yourself, do your own thing, and pray to high heaven that everything just sort of works. You don't care about the other paths that cross yours, you just adjust your blinders accordingly and walk in a straight line towards the end. ORRRRR, you can wake up and smell the fresh air, and look around, enjoy the things in front of you, breathe life as it comes to you, and let your imagination run wild. You immerse yourself in the opportunities and things around you, whether it be people, or literature, or music. You stay open and always view each opportunity as one to better yourself in some way.

Perhaps it is so that the latter is of a Utopian idealistic reality, but I don't think it's out of reach to strive for. I grew up as that guy that didn't give a rat's ass what path you were on, but that's changed somewhat. However one thing that stayed true was my interest in the network of society. Imagine that every person has a sort of endless spool of yarn attached to them. Every place they made a turn in life, or even just changed location, or had some sort of epiphany or experience catharsis, you could put down a pin there. Imagine that network; imagine how many paths there would be! And if you took just one different turn; well, you'd be an entirely different person.

I think it's not too far off to say that the people in life we meet, we are meant to meet. In the same way that the hero in a the hero's journey plotline meets key people that cardinally influence them on their path, we have those people in our lives, that, whether they play a small or large part, are there for a reason.

So my goal is to celebrate those people and explore the reason why they are in my life. Realizing is the halfway point -- and so if you'll pardon me graciously, I'll continue my way across the rest of this bridge....

Lyric of the Day:
"Who's to say where the wind will take you, who's to say what it is will break you, I don't know, which way the wind will blow"