Chicago by Sufjan Stevens
I find myself at peace listening to this song.
It’s been quite a while since my last post, and a lot has happened over the last few weeks. There were things I enjoyed, things I want to remember. There are things that happened that I want to forget, that I wish did not happen.
But why? Should we really wish to erase our troubles from memory? This experience reminded me of an essay I wrote about my bridge named Jeffrey (yes, I name my bridges, and I’m proud of it), in which I said:
”Every one of us is a bridge. The world beleaguers and breaks us countless times throughout our lives. Each person has a unique truss – a support for each of his experiences […] when we are broken by the world, we are rebuilt, strengthened by the experience such that we shall not give way so helplessly again.”
I think it’s time I finally believed in what I had to say. I look back on the past week, not with grief, not with regret, but with appreciation; appreciation for a lot of things - for the wonderful months that preceded it (they were nothing short of perfect), for the learning and growing up as a result of it, for the strong friendship and trust that I gained from it.
As the song says, “All things go, all things go, to recreate us…”
What happened this week is just one of those things. There will be more, and we will be ready for them.
Life can be a periodic oscillator every now and again, but take comfort in knowing that it is damped by time.
from Light in August by William Faulkner
I find an amusing contradiction in the origins of this post. The post itself comes as a consequence of my boredom with my Literature assignment, but its content is inspired by that very assignment. I think that excuses this brief diversion…
I must say, this excerpt is quite random (but hey, that’s what this blog is for) - it doesn’t advance the plot, it doesn’t offer much insight. It simply offers additional sensory detail, but somehow, I feel like this excerpt fulfills its purpose remarkably well. The magic lies in one word: pinewiney. Well, what does that mean? Frankly, I have absolutely no idea, but it creates such a beautiful image! I am baffled by Faulkner’s ability to invent words that are just so appropriate and powerful in context. If only I had read this earlier, my favorite word on the Princeton supplement may have been slightly more unique.
Midnight City by M83
I have no idea how many times I’ve heard this trippy song in my physics class, but I finally know what it’s called! My first reaction to hearing it without any background noise, without the usual interjections of “ohmygod it’s the song!”, without imitations of the song’s high-pitched vocal outbursts: “there are words?!”
On a (slightly) more serious note, the song is really quite intriguing. For a song with (few) lyrics primarily about “waiting,” (the word is actually repeated 15 times) there isn’t a whole lot of waiting going on in the video. It makes me question what I’m doing right now. I think I’m waiting, I sometimes tell myself I’m waiting, waiting for the news in April. But I really shouldn’t be: if it’s good news, great; if not, well, it wouldn’t be the first time. It’s not worth dwelling upon.
It’s really quite amusing how so many seniors, after trudging for months through the quagmire of college applications, find themselves hopelessly bewildered by their newfound freedom.
It’s the first day of 2012 - what a perfect day to start blogging! Well, it’s one of my reasons. The other is slightly more important. Sometime around midnight, watching with nonchalance as 2011 faded away, I reflected on what I did for the past week I had off from school. College applications, a sleepover, Odyssey of the Mind meetings - as productive as they’ll ever be, a trip to the mall, more college applications, conversations with friends, remembering some of the … weird … obsessions I had when I was young, catching up on sleep and also depriving myself of it at times, etc, etc, you get the point. Again, this was a week. I can’t even imagine all the things I must have done in the last 365.25 days, all the memories of frivolous joys collecting dust in the crevices of my mind. And so, I made myself a promise: sometime around midnight, on December 31, 2012, I will remember everything. Or at least, it’ll be here. That’s not cheating, is it?
Well, here goes…
