Not many people have asked me to start a blog hell even I hadn’t given it much thought until I started writing this. But recently a friend of mine had put this idea in my head and the more I thought about it I figured what better time to write than when the whole world is ending (goddamn Mayans! with their terrible math). I thought I’d start by talking about myself. I had what you would call a pretty uneventful childhood, you could even call it boring. A working dad, a mom who is a housewife and a kid sister. The most common theme throughout my life has been the monotony of it. There has been a lot of changes throughout my life but nothing so insane that it bears mentioning and I believe this is what that has been fuelling me. I took to reading from a fairly young age, it is something that I picked up from my Mom and I suppose even my Dad (definitely a different kind of reading; Textbooks, he is a big nerd). While the origins are pretty clear the reason as to why I continued the habit has evolved along the way. I always had a vivid imagination (you could mention any scenario, the more ludicrous the better and I could picture it in my head. A surprisingly handy (wink* wink* or was it wank) skill when you don’t have access to porn). The more I read the more I started to imagine that I was in those stories, their stories became my stories. Growing up the very first dream that I had was of being someone famous, having a life that matters, having a story worth telling. I guess I always had this idea that I had to be remembered well after I’m dead. As a kid I had this dream that I would get a Noble prize and probably have an equation with my name on it (growing up with my Dad it was a pretty nerdy life, besides it’s way easier to blame him for growing up a nerd than questioning your life choices). Anytime I read a formula in the textbooks there was a begrudging sense of admiration and a fascination towards what these men & women might have done to have reached the pinnacle of human achievement. This thought kept me going for a long time, at least well into college. In college I wanted to be the guy that everyone knew but this contradicted my status as an introvert. There was a part of me that craved attention but an equally painful and at times awkward part of me that just couldn’t handle any. Two situations that I find extremely challenging to handle is how to react when someone tells me they’ve lost a loved one or when someone compliments me. I like to believe that I kind of handle the former situation better (I guess blushing looks cute on certain people while all I look like is a flustered sun-dried tomato). Any-who the point that I am trying to make is that I’ve always been fascinated by stories and believe that everyone needs to lead a life that is worth telling. I have always strived to be the person who has the best stories at the table, the one who can be a part of any conversation effortlessly, the one who can entertain everyone. You could say it’s a sort of life philosophy. Obviously, just like anything nice in life there are a couple of hurdles to this, the main one being that I get bored easily and also the fact that I suffer from extreme motion sickness (I know most people don’t think it’s a real thing to suffer from kinda like having a peanut allergy). Anytime I've had to travel I have suffered from legit anxiety attacks, this usually manifests in the form of an upset tummy (I’ve heard that people release their bowels when they are about to die so by that logic I die a little every time when I have to travel). But I have largely managed to overcome this issue by way of reading about stuff and places. I know It’s like using cheat codes but sometimes in life you just need to use them. You don’t need to learn life the hard way or do things the hard way. Ironically, I learned this lesson the hard way. I know the world has a way of vilifying it and making you feel guilty for it but If there’s an easier way to get something done just go for it. Fuck the world. We don’t owe it shit. I’m not exactly sure what I was ranting on about before I got side-tracked by my rant about the world and how unfair life is (that’s a story for a different time). Before I end this rant, I would love to leave you with a quote that has had a profound effect on my life. It’s not so much of a quote as it’s a song lyric (I’m pretty sure that if someone had written this a thousand years back it would definitely be quoted in the bestselling book of all time):
'Cause baby you're a firework
Come on show 'em what your worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y
So treat your life like a firework and don’t say no (try to reduce it, maybe to like 3 no’s a day) to trying out something new (except for any drug that involves needles and shady butt stuff and also Pho, cause that’s just fancy left over water and that sucks).
