new year

Happy New Year all! Yes, let's start this year out on a positive note. Let's make this year about positive, innovative changes. I've decided to make this blog a bit more personal, especially since my previous ones were quite frankly.. vague and random. I was lucky to acquire some new knowledge that assisted my current disposition towards life and like any new discovery, there were positive aspects as well as negative ones. I feel refreshed and ready to conquer the world once again. There is no feeling greater than the one I felt when laying on a beach with the warmth of the Caribbean sun on my skin. One of the more troubling feelings can be the one depicted when I landed in icy NYC with the wind whipping my hair around my face and the immediate shivers than enveloped my unprepared self.
Nonetheless, I had a very spectacular vacation.

I saw and felt the true definition of family especially pertaining to extended family. I stayed at my grandfather's, so there was a lot of family and minimal privacy which for me was new, but enjoyable only for those two weeks. Coming from living quarters that involved a much smaller family, it was quite a spectacle. Family- you simply cannot live without them, the jokes, the warmth, the undeniably everlasting love...but, you also cannot live with them, the arguments, judgement calls, nosey-ness and alliances. With family, I felt that the closest analogy would be that of a Broadway production. There are the characters, the script, and finally - the huge opening night. With my family, there was definitely the characters. There are the ones who seek the constant attention and will repeat the same story over and over again until your ears bleed or until you scream and beg for forgiveness for whatever you've done to deserve that form of torture. There are those who grace the stage with an air of arrogance, for whom you should erase your agenda and immediately attend too. Then there are the caretakers who sacrifice their selves for your comfort and are there to listen. There is a larger cast, but regardless of their characteristics they do love and care for all of you. Family wouldn't quite be the same without these people and involved.

I appreciated this vacation more than any other ones I've had in the past prior to this trip because I knew they would get rarer and rarer. It has simply become quite difficult to leave all of your obligations and escape for two weeks. Island life is beautiful though. Everyone seems much more mellow and carefree but all of this free time does lead to more gossip time. Everyone knows everyone! And I mean KNOW. They are able to identify not only your entire preceding generation, but your career status and current tribulations as well.

As you get older, your perception changes dramatically and you see things much differently.

You appreciate everyone for who they are and expect less from people and more from yourself. Everyone has clear cut differences and simply don't see things the way you see them solely based on their own personal experiences. This isn't particularly directed towards the fact that I traveled outside of the country into another, but it's like that way in every aspect in life itself. Conflict arises based on perception, two or more people simply cannot see eye to eye on an idea and therefore try to impose their own beliefs on each other rather than step back and gather what they're both trying to imply. We see this even in the Supreme Court for example, when a new judge is appointed we applaud them for not taking stances based on any previous ideologies, but is that the way they actually make judgements? No, they are seated there NOT to please anyone and their judgements are based solely on...guess what? Their own personal experiences! Yes, those who sit on the highest court of the nation use their life experiences to pass judgements that in turn impact our lives. Understanding perception and individuality was key in my survival over the holidays. The better your understand people, the better equipped you are to handle any situation that finds it's way to you...my little piece of advice for the new year.

Next topic...interconnectivity. I returned from a blackberry-free vacation alive. In fact, I'm still transitioning back to it. I honestly forgot for a long time what life looked like outside of my phone. We bbm, im, text message, facebook, myspace, twitter and place our lives on hold so we can conduct these exchanges. What ever happened to LIFE during this process? Life is passing us by and what are we doing? Our heads are stuck so far deep into our phones that we are completely missing it. When we're driving, working, in class, with friends and family...we're physically there but mentally somewhere else thanks to our trusty pda's. Is this what it is all about? I can understand the texting during a snore fest of a class, but what about when you're with friends you haven't seen in a while? Or with a sibling? We ponder why there are so many troubled young adults today and maybe this activity will one day be later classified as a form of child neglect, or friend neglect or person neglect. Besides being blatantly rude, I think you're truly selling yourself short because how much attention are you able to give the person(s) you're with and how much are you giving the person(s) you're texting. Life is complicated because we make it so. Clear example just given my friends.

Good luck & God Bless