The end of the beginning

One year down (to those of you reading this at Northwestern, good luck on midterms!). In many ways I feel like I'm the same guy that couldn't stop crying when I left Kim last August, but in a lot of other ways I feel like that person is somebody I used to know (and, at times, would like to rediscover). There's a quote from somewhere, I forget where, that says that once man has changed the relationship between himself and his environment, he can never go back to the blissful ignorance from which he came. A change in perception, by necessity, requires a change of location.

It still feels unbelievable the top of this blog now says "sophomore" instead of "freshman" (I'll give you a moment to go check... okay). I've met some really cool people out here, many of which I probably don't know about yet, and a number of other non-cool ones. I can't wait to be 21 and go out more, but most of the people with whom I would want to go out will have graduated at that time. I miss all of you reading this terribly, and can't believe I'm not going to see you all for another 3 or 4 months (and then only for a short while). Part of me hates growing up, but part of me thinks this is what I've wanted to do for the last... 5 years at least. I mean, I'm going to intern with people who, legit, work with survivors of the Darfur genocide and represent their interests before THE International Criminal Court in the The Hague. How cool is that? On the other hand, I miss a lot about Missouri. I miss driving around just for the hell of it, listening to 90s music, prepping for public forum, climbing into Kim's bed for an hour and a half after school to just cuddle, talking about politics with people that actually understand where I'm coming from on a daily basis, sharing new music with people (wow, this list is getting long). I don't know. I'm sure next year will be completely awesome, and I'll have a ton of fun, and stories, and all that, but I still haven't decided if this coast is necessarily the place for me in the long term. Until then, however, here's to the now. Wherever this finds you, I hope you're all well. I hope you've enjoyed listening.