Beginnings...

You can always begin in the middle, anyone who has had to face the trials and tribulations of life knows that sometimes you gamble, sometimes you lose and have to start again. The greatest danger is being taught as a child this is a bad thing, that failure is the end of days. In truth the most important lessons are learned from mistakes and the greatest successes come from failures. History may only record the successes but there are many that can testify that while necessity is the mother of invention, mistakes are how you get there. Some of the most important advances in science and common useful items (x-rays and post-it notes anyone?) are products of mistakes.

Today I struggled with finding a temporary job to earn me enough money to move to the place I want to be, seemingly losing the temporary job I already had because times are tough, searching for apartments and jobs in Burlington and resolving a thousand other issues. If I faced each of these problems and defeats as indicative of a large failure of character then by the end of each day my world be destroyed. Instead by taking each in stride and moving onto the next step it become part of a larger and more powerful process.

Time has taught me that almost consistently my expectations and predictions bears almost no relation to what has happened. So what I try to take from that is to instead focus on making my day amazing and empowering. With these thousands of little beads I can make a remarkable life.

The Magnet Moves

As I write this I am in Buffalo on the way back to Bennington. The last couple of weeks time has been in short supply so this is the first I have had time to blog about it.

There are points where you are presented with obvious choices and breaks that begin a distinct new chapter in your life. For me there was going to Vassar, moving to California to live with my sister, then moving to Pittsburgh to be with friends. Now my options are fairly simple: on one hand I could wait for my job to be eliminated because of State budget cuts and start searching for new work in Pittsburgh and saving up to move back to Vermont while accruing more debt in the interim, or just simply go now. My parents were going to be in the neighborhood at the beginning of July so the choice was immediate and surprisingly easy. Within a single day I had gone from trying to move next spring to moving in three weeks.

It is remarkable to think of the experience I have had in Pittsburgh, from wide-eyed innocence upon my arrival to a complicated and hard engagement which I ended I have come to a certain kind of maturity here. And the friends I have made are amazing. I held a going-away party and invited people from work and from the Northside and this is the result. Put a bunch of artist together anywhere....

So I am going back to live with my parents for a couple of months in Bennington to make enough money to move up to Burlington. Joining me in that windy city (okay, let's be honest, it is a large town) will be my girlfriend Heather, a vital part of this next chapter. It should be an interesting journey no matter what happens. My eyes are wide yet again but rather with potential than innocence.