Reflections on another time, another place.

The last month, to say the least, has been a blur. It's been that camera shutter, held open, slipping through my fingers, as palpable and yet unattainable as running water. I don't find time enough to sit and think and evaluate my actions, but instead I let them whisk me away from reality and find myself traversing new obstacles and challenges, leaving the old ones ignored and unresolved.

In the past two years, I've arguably experienced more than I had experienced in my first nineteen years. I've lived in another country, and come back. I've pulled my hair out trying to balance academics, social life, the dreaded extracurriculars, and important personal time (which, I've mentioned, I unfortunately neglect first of the above commitments). And most recently I've spent time in a big city, doing 'big' things, and making 'big' plans for my future, post-grad. 

But then, routine comes along again, making it possible and, albeit, desirable to become complacent in regularity. I dislike regularity for its boring-ness. And yet, as I'm sure most humans do, I love its predictability. I know when I'll be where and what I'll be doing when I am there. I choose to believe that everything will go according to plan, even when secretly I know that almost nothing ever goes exactly as it should.

And then time passes me by, waving at me, maybe secretly laughing at my ignorance to its passing, and I find myself two weeks into my final year of schooling, and finally stopping, reflecting, and remembering moments of importance from these past few years.

So for the sake of resisting my own 'rückkehrunruhe,' let me name a few:

• dancing in an utter downpour of rain while The National plays "Bloodbuzz Ohio" in concert
• riding lime-green traincars, Greystones-Dublin, Dublin-Greystones, with views of the Irish Sea
• surprising friends on a weekend trip to their university and freezing my butt of in the midwest
• the best overnight stay ever, in Downhill, N. Ireland (see above photo)
• more concerts: The Lumineers, The Head & the Heart, Gotye, Bon Iver, Civil Wars, and Milo Greene (four times, is it now?)
• losing myself in stories, in books, and finding my own way of learning and experiencing the world
• biking through Golden Gate Park and eating my weight in ice cream
• falling in love with the PNW
• and most importantly, making the best friends in the most unlikely of circumstances

It's not all been Instagrams and postcards, but there have been many memories that I need to put down in words, to remind myself there are more extraordinary things everyday than one might at first recognize. So while it may be blur, I'll take it as is because I wouldn't give up this fuzzy mess of experiences for anything.

Until next time,
Max