Type B+ Journey
Sharing a little piece of my soul with anyone willing to accept it.
Sunday, September 1, 2024
So This is Life
Friday, September 1, 2023
10 Years Later
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
And Now
Written in December 2022
Dear Molly,
It's been nine years and three months since you started this blog. It's been six months since you graduated college. It's been four since you turned twenty-four. And now?
Now you can say that your twenty-third year rivaled your fifteenth for most tumultuous of your young life.
Pippi (the best dog ever) died in December. It wasn't unexpected, but it was sudden. She was your family Hanukkah present in 2008. She'd had a tumor on her leg for over a year, and then it ruptured.
On January 1st, you wished that 2022 would be brighter than 2021. January was fine.
In February, things started to fall apart. You got a new roommate who blew up at you when you tried to apologize for being messy. You were on edge, and planned a trip home for the first weekend of March.
On March 5th, Grandma Phyllis was admitted to the hospital. You flew back to San Jose on March 6th. On March 11th, Dad called you to say she was going downhill, and you booked the first flight home for the next day. Early in the morning on March 12th, she died.
You flew back to San Jose. And then you broke down. Rehashing the details is just painful. You'll share about the middle part of the year when everything has been resolved.
So yeah. Now you have a driver's license, and two college degrees, and they mean diddly squat. You didn't have many job prospects because you don't have relevant work experience nor reliable transportation.
The sad truth is that you're still not always proud of yourself. You still feel like you haven't done anything remarkable. You just spent six years of your life in limbo. Your mental health went down the toilet, then you got an AD/HD diagnosis, which broke you and mended your soul all at once. You've been reconciling with that diagnosis ever since.
The reason you feel that way is clear enough. At the end of the day, your college diploma is the same piece of paper everyone else got for graduating. Sure, yours has a lot of words on it, but a whole degree in music has only made your imposter syndrome worse.
It's been six years since you were singled out and made to feel special. And that's because as a college student, you weren't. It will always hurt that no matter what happens in the future, you finished your undergrad without getting any sort of special recognition in the form of a piece of paper suitable for framing.
But more than that, you never got the feeling of being selected, chosen, and wanted by your peers. They love you in orchestra, but if you're thrown in a room with a bunch of music performance majors and/or the marching band, they don't always know what to make of you. "To know you is to love you", but they never seem to want to get to know the real you. They see you at your worst, and as you've been told, somehow can't grasp what you'll be like at your best. Big surprise, you still buckle when under external stress. It's caused you to suffer so much. You constantly feel judged. It's sad but logical that you've developed a fear of workplace bosses, given how more than once, they were looking to find fault. It's mind-boggling how they lose humanity in the process.
At least you have skating. It's the one thing in your life that has never let you down. The Rinks-Lakewood ICE is your happy place, no ifs, ands, or buts. Full stop. No question. This has been true since 2009. Since you were in fifth grade. Coming up on 14 years. Longer than it hasn't. And this will never change.
You didn't realize the full extent of it until to you got to the rink complex in San Jose. It's state of the art, sure, but it's sterile. It's not that the people aren't nice, they're just not welcoming. Lakewood is lived in. Cue the corn and cheese, there's no place like home, there's no place like the rink, and there's no place like your home rink.
But you've buckled down, busted out, and broke through. You've paid your dues. The tides will have to turn eventually, right?
And maybe they did, just a little. You're working as a skate guard at Lakewood now, although you've been stuck with the cosmic skate shifts, which have never been your cup of tea.
May 2023
Today I heard the strangest, I heard the strangest song
A DJ a star away is playing it to turn us on
(Ay)
My heart started glowing, I feel it inside, it's flowing
I say I know, I know, I know, we're only human
I know, I know, I know how we're designed, yeah
Oh I know, I know, I know, we're only human
But from another planet
Still they call us humankind
Today I had the strangest feeling that I belong (belong)
(Ay)
Before, I was dying, I feel it inside, now I'm flying
I say I know, I know, I know, we're only human
I know, I know, I know how we're designed, yeah
Oh I know, I know, I know we're only human
But from another planet
Still they call us humankind
Before, I was dying. I feel it inside, now I'm flying
I know, I know, I know
We're only human
I know, I know, I know
How we're designed
Oh I know, I know, I know
We're only human
But we're capable of kindness
So they call us humankind
Friday, January 21, 2022
Another Cycle 'Round the Sun
Caught in between ten and 20
And I'm just dreaming
Counting the ways to where you are
And she feels better than ever
And we're on fire
Making our way back from Mars
Time to buy and time to lose
15
There's never a wish better than this
When you've only got a hundred years to live
I'm still the man, but you see I'm a "they"
A kid on the way, babe
A family on my mind
The sea is high
And I'm heading into a crisis
Chasing the years of my life
Time to buy and time to lose yourself within a morning star
15
There's never a wish better than this
When you've only got a hundred years to live
Another blink of an eye, 67 is gone
The sun is getting high
We're moving on
And dying for just another moment
And I'm just dreaming
Counting the ways to where you are
22, I feel her too
33, you're on your way
Every day's a new day
Ooh-ooh-hoo, ooh-hoo-hoo
Ooh-ooh-hoo, ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo
Time to buy and time to choose, hey, 15
There's never a wish better than this
When you've only got a hundred years to live
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Blogi-versary
Just look how good Cassius become
Mohammed, Mahatma, and Nelson
Not scared to be strong
No I'll never be no one in my whole life
Or you could turn and see the way they're wrong
And get to keep on dancing all life long
Just look what Amelia and Joan done
Or Rosa, Teresa, the war won
Not scared to be strong
No I'll never be no one in my whole life
Or you could turn and see the way they're wrong
And get to keep on dancing all life long
Yeah you could be
You've got bright in your brains and
Lightning in your veins
You'll go higher then they've ever gone
In you I see
Someone special
You've got fire in your eyes and
When you realize
You'll go further then we've ever gone (look)
Just turn it on
My funds was insufficient and it felt I'm in prison
Until I realized I had to set my mind free
I was trusting statistics more than I trust me
Get a degree, good job, 401k
But I'm trying to turn Ks to Ms what does it take?
And maybe I could be the new Ali of music, probably
Instead of doing it just as a hobby like these boys told me to
I guess you either watch the show or you're showin' proof
Prove it to them you prove it to yourself
But honestly its better if you do it for yourself
Never complacent 'til we hit the oasis
One life don't waste it feel my heart races, success I taste it, I
We on the verge again and every single day that we deserve
Someone special
You've got fire in your eyes
I see heaven inside
You'll go further then we've ever gone
In you I see
Someone special
You've got bright in your brains
You can break through those chains
You'll go higher then we've ever gone
Just turn it on
Someone special
Don't go to war with yourself
Just turn, just turn, just turn it on
And you can't go wrong
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Seven Years and Seven Months
When you started this blog on September 1st, 2013, you wanted to begin to tell your story to the world. At 15, you couldn't have fathomed the story your teenage and college years would turn out to be. Let's recap.
15: Upheaval.
16: Loneliness.
17: Growth.
18: Change.
19: Belonging.
20: Complacency.
21: Achievement.
22: Existence.
Lately I don't set alarms
But that's because of the ringing that's happening inside my head
Inside my head
Yeah yeah
It keeps me safe from harm
At least I tell myself I'm safe from harm
But really it's probably filling my dreams with dread
So I get out of bed
Yeah yeah
Yes I'm neurotic I'm obsessed and I know it
I can't take vacations and the brain won't believe me I'm on one
Hawaii under warm sun
Yeah yeah
Don't worry about me
Happens all the time
In the morning I'll be better
In the morning I'll be better
Sing it again
I think I lost my mind
But don't worry about me
Happens all the time
In the morning I'll be better
Things are only getting better
Sing it again
That's right I tell myself I'll change
But then I begin to realize that the problems inside my veins
But it's inside my veins (vein)
Yeah yeah
I swear I'm not insane
Yes most likely not insane
Everybody goes through moments of losing their clarity
At least I'm never boring
But I've been losing sleep so call the doctor said take one of these
And call me in the morning
Don't worry about me
Happens all the time
In the morning I'll be better
In the morning I'll be better
Sing it again
I think I lost my mind
But don't worry about me
Happens all the time
In the morning I'll be better
Things are only getting better
Sing it again
Sing it again
Of all the things you love the people places from the future to your ancient past
Of every one of those which one will cause you to let it go, let it go
Need to crash
Well don't worry about it
Happens all the time
In the morning you'll be better
Things are only getting better
Sing it again
I think I lost my mind
Don't worry about me
Happens all the time
In the morning I'll be better
In the morning I'll be better
Sing it again
I think I lost my mind
But don't worry about me
Happens all the time
In the morning I'll be better
Things are slowly getting better
Sing it again