Sleepless in Columbia

Insomnia creeps into the mind, pulsing in the veins, keeping these thoughts alive. Creating the breaths that live between each sigh of frustration, quiet cultivates inside of an empty chamber where the silence reverberates back to a solemn heart. Counting the dust specks that collect on the ceiling, one wonders how old one has become in the time past. Questions such as these, that hold little meaning and certainly no real answer, become the sleepless as the sleepless seeps into insanity's grip. Time is a threatening factor when there is no time to rest, to reset, or even to forget. Instead -- life stares you in the face even when you close your eyes (for closing your eyes does not substitute for an unforgiving mind)... you can hear its heart beating as worthless dreams never reach the unconscious, although deemed vital to one's well-being. Never missing a moment, life becomes even longer. Embrace? Or rinse it all down in a glass of water.

101

I'm so complex that it seems so simple. So easy. To sit back and let me react to the world in the ways that I know best is to finally understand me. I never react the same way, and I always am predictable in this fashion. I'm obsessive, compulsive, and a perfectionist. Everything in my world fits in the way it should, and if it doesn't, I feel a constant hovering sense of dread and anxiety. I'm a being of opposites, however, because I'm random and spontaneous at the flip of a coin.

Therefore, I write. Thus, I am sensible.

I've always enjoyed writing whether it be blogging or poetry, fiction or rants and raves. It's a sense of getting to know yourself, where it all gathers and festers... my mind holds a lot of groundwork for why I am the way I am. Writing, to me, captures the essence of the thing, as Socrates argues each individual must strive to do. Why not start with oneself? Writing is where I make sense. Therefore, I am.

I'm 19, and I have a lot of passion for arts. The arts seem to bring to light the perspectives of the world that the general public look past. The complexity of life can be found in all forms of art -- photography, paintings, dance, literature -- and somehow makes it all beautifully simplistic.

So I guess this blog is where a few of us will allow our perspectives on life and its many assets to gather and perhaps even make sense.

A quarter past midnight.

A quarter past midnight is about the time where your mind starts the tedious process of retaining and sorting through the unbelievably large amount of information we gather in our heads each day. Sadly enough, although the amount of things we think about, gather, sense, and experience in day to day life is so large it’s beyond measure, what we actually retain is nearly minuscule. My aim, in this blog, is to try and capture some of these thoughts and memories that might otherwise be lost to the obnoxiously efficient and rational filtering process of the human brain. Although a Gander of Thoughts is not restricted to any specific purpose, it is not without one either. It is day to day thoughts and experiences that several people at an age and place where change and experience is inevitable. This blog will not only document our growth – but it also will prove to be a unique perspective on our surroundings, society, and even country itself. With that out of the way, who is the man behind this blog?

I’m a 19 year old college student who drinks strong coffee poured over a tall glass cup full of ice every single morning. I’ll drink anything with a bite, preferably 20 proof or more. I’m someone that lives to experience rather than experience to live. I enjoy life to its very fullest, writing about it from time to time. A happy cynic, who joyfully accepts life’s fateful realities. All experiences, both good and bad, are worthwhile because they create the person I am. Good music, good friends, and an interesting story make life worth living. I enjoy going on adventures and finding joy in things that nobody else takes the time to notice.

There’s no biography of me – but through my writings and stories you can piece together an idea of what I am like and what I have seen and maybe even a little of what I have experienced in life.

-D