For No Particular Reason.

Bloggin America

Everyone always talks about seeing the world. All of these American college kids can’t wait to blow obscene amounts of money on a trip to Europe, Asia, or South America for a “semester of enlightenment” in studying abroad. Don’t get me wrong, I am one of those American college kids who did that very same thing and couldn’t have imagined a better, faster, or more memorable way of getting rid of that money.

The enlightened Europhiles always talk about how much they discovered themselves while being abroad (myself included). They said they learned so much about being American by being away from America (probably a direct quote from me this time last year). But since I returned from Italy last July, I have traveled more extensively around the US than I ever have before in any calendar year. I even had the chance to take an East Coast road trip from Tampa to Boston, crossing through 12 states in three days. As I listened to American tunes and peered out the window and saw the American landscape, I realized you don’t have to go all the way to Europe to learn about being an American. There’s a lot to learn right here. 

Why don’t more Americans seem to be excited about seeing the world that’s already surrounding us? What do we have against taking a spring break vacay exploring some exotic locales right in our own American backyard? Most of my friends have never had the opportunity to travel around the US, except to visit family or take occasional vacations to the obvious touristy hot spots. I am fortunate enough to consider myself fairly well-traveled around my native land. Thanks mostly to being a sidekick to my father’s Major League Baseball Stadium tour-de-America, I have visited 33 out of 50 states. But that’s only 66%. That’s a solid D in American exposure. I’m ashamed. Hmm, maybe I should have “studied domestic” in Kansas or something…

Here’s the point to all this. I’m inviting you on a trip. A free trip around the United States… all expenses paid for an entire year. I’m starting an interactive fiction blog about a teenage girl whose family dumps their obligations for a year to see the USA. They will average approximately a week in each state. Although it is fiction, it will be based on my experiences from traveling around America. However, since I am making a D in Uncle Sam’s grade book right now, I’m gonna cheat a little. I’m asking for your help. Mostly everyone I know has likely been to states I haven’t been to. I’m looking for at least 50 people to help me tell the story and be a part of something amazing: a creative venture unlike anything the Internet has ever seen before. I have created the fictitious character who will be our representative for this all-American road trip. Her name is Ami. You can meet her by visiting her blog at www.blogginamerica.wordpress.com.

Contact me if you want to help. Tell your friends about it. I don’t care if you’re a total stranger. Even if you haven’t been to a state but want to write about it based on interest and tour book/Internet research, I encourage you to do that as well. Let me know what you think!

Let’s go find America.

Things I Didn’t Know I Loved

The glittering ball drops,

As we welcome January with open arms,

My television set booms with life as the confetti rains,

I never knew I loved the first midnight of the year.

As we’re blanketed in the crisp air,

I don a rainbow sweater and a smile,

Chilly, cold, but never quite freezing,

I didn’t know I could love these Florida winters.

Cupid is the symbol for a candy-filled carnival,

My eyes roll at the pink hearts and teddy bears in the stores,

The greatest romance is told through entwined hands under a passionate kiss,

I never knew I loved to watch people fall in love.

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Back to School

Four weeks ago, I graduated college. I have certainly done my share of reminiscing about the past four years at the University of Florida. I walked the campus with a camera in hand and tried to capture as many memories as I could so I could cherish them as a photographic keepsake. It wasn’t until about 30 pictures in that I realized this would be an impossible feat. The only way I’m going to be able to truly remember my college years will be to revisit the campus years from now and reflect. Seeing as how I haven’t even officially received a hard copy of my diploma yet, I don’t feel far enough removed from my college years for a proper reflection.

Four years ago, I graduated high school. My high school years linger in the back of my mind, but most of those memories are stored beneath dusty yearbooks and crumpled up photographs. Tonight I took a bike ride to my high school on a whim of nostalgia. Make no mistake though: I never once rode my bike to school because my house is about seven miles away. But once I started pedaling on a seemingly routine evening ride, I knew exactly where I was going and couldn’t stop.

The campus was eerily quiet, as it should have been on a Memorial Day Monday evening. I hopped off my bike and took it through the hallways — peeking into my old chemistry classroom. It was almost pitch black but I could still make out the outline of the lab stools and the huge periodic table looming over the blackboard. I passed by many of my old classrooms, whose name tags introduced new teachers to me or reminded me of the familiar ones who never left. I did a line of pirouettes across what is now a wide open space in the foreign language courtyard outside the 300 hall. There used to be a gazebo there that we would go under to pretend to prepare for our AP Spanish exam. My bike became cumbersome, so I dropped it off by leaning it against my old Spanish classroom. No lock. Even though it has been stolen before, I somehow wasn’t worried about it. I just felt safe here.

Scrawled along the sidewalks, brick walls, and wooden planks were the words of the graduates: Seniors 2010, aka the Sen10rs. I could relate to these kids, since I was also the Class of 2010… of college. Yet this sidewalk-chalk wisdom seemed to have all the answers. The names of the couples who claim they will be together forever. Been there. The territory-marking of a student who thinks if he writes his name in pencil on a piece of wood that it will withstand even the next rainfall. Done that.

Words like “success” and “future” and “dreams” adorn the walls where quotes read like the pages of Poor Richard’s Almanack. Some of these kids can’t even legally vote or buy a lottery ticket yet, but they have the hardened experience and inspiring words of fuzzy-haired and crinkly-eyed philosophers. “Only you can make your dreams come true.” Oh, how little they know about the world. How little I know about the world, and I’m four years their senior. But I can say that I have learned more about myself, about people, and about the way the world works in the last four years than I have at any other point in time. And I will continue to learn as I continue to live.

I encourage whoever the heck actually reads this blog to revisit your high school or some building of importance whenever you have the chance. A drive-by will not suffice. Your yearbook is frozen in time, but that doesn’t mean the school is. You might learn more in one hour of reflection than you ever did on any other day when you actually attended the school.