Leap Into Life
Life is a bunch of generals, things that everyone experiences. A family vacation, going to summer camp, a certain age, an adventure, or a school year. All of these are generals (that might not be a word but oh well). The thing is: we don't just remember 7th grade, for example. We associate 7th grade with things, like learning Latin or meeting new people. Or maybe, we associate it with inside jokes or simple words that bring back memories. A song you heard for the first time or a story might bring you back to a time when you heard it or read it. To sum up this wordy collection of wisdom: to make these generals special and memorable, we associate them with a variety of things. I just got home from camp. How can I put aside everything that happened at camp and write a post that should be written by a philosophy major who rose from the dust and has a lot of life experience? Instinct, I guess. It just felt right. "I mark my summers by last nights," is what I announced dramatically to my tent mates on the last night of camp. To them, it was probably the poetic, melodramatic person in me saying that. To me, it was true. My first year, two tent mates had left early and the rest of us scootched our beds together and talked. My second year, my counselor tried to get us to write an ode to our tent. It turned into an ode to jumping jellybeans and she gave up. My third year, we sat in the center of our platform tent and ate the candy my grandfather had sent me. My fourth year (this summer), we put a camping tent in our platform tent and ate food, my counselor (shhhh) smuggled it up, while talking with each other. I also mark my summers with words, simple ones. Ones that only I will truely understand. To many, it can seem impossible for one word to remind us of something. For me, any mention of the Hunger Games brings me back to countless friendly debates about Katniss' hero's adventure (if you have any ideas on how she grew PLEASE comment). Every time I hear the word "Oprah" I think of her wierd, ego filled quotes (no offense, Oprah) detailed in a book, you really should read, called Oprah Speaks. So what nugget (even if it's pretty small) of wisdom can you gain from this 9:30 at night blog post? Maybe, it's just to be aware. When you hear a certain song, does it remind you of the first time you heard it, how you danced to it, or what you did while listening to it? Or go a little deeper: think about your generals. What words pull you into a memory. What words make you smile or cry? Good luck on your associating!
0 Comments
|