Friday, September 28, 2007

Elephants and Oddly Dressed People

wow. It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’m sure you’ve all deeply missed my thoughts on life, and so I decided to take a few minutes and share some things that have been on my mind lately. To start out with, the circus is in town. and I had the “awesome opportunity” to see the elephant parade. and I couldn’t help but ask myself, “What the heck????”

. . . . I’m just sitting her at my desk, coding away on some website, and I look out the window, and about 20 elephants are walking along the Trax rail. . . . ? “wow. an elephant” I thought - and then I snapped out of programming and thought, “Oh my Hell, an elephant!” Not only elephants my friends, elephants with bejeweled riders in brightly colored clothing. This strange array of elephants soon led me to asking the question of why the circus was ever invented in the first place? Were/are people so bored that we must make a spectacle of weirdly dressed people walking the tightrope and wearing gigantic shoes? Does anyone even think that’s entertaining? I mean sure. . .the elephants caught my eye. But mostly because I’m used to seeing the trax train, not an elephant train.

Onto better things. I - Kat the Geek - have decided that we all go through life faking it. Let me explain. I think we learn to use our imaginations at a very young age. When I was 4 -I could have sworn that my basement was a lake! I would walk around every single day in my swimming suit, and I would enjoy every second of my day, because everyday at my house was a day spent at the beach :) Well, I’m afraid that mentality has never really left me. You see, here I am. I’m 21, ready to graduate college - and I still live in a reality completely composed within my imagination. In Kat-land, I’m following all the right steps. Working hard in high school to get a scholarship, going to college - attending parties, dating, following the normal life of what college is “supposed” to be - in essence, just a constant future resume builder. My nights are spent at the library, then it’s on to Little Ceasear’s for some cheep pizza. Next step in life is obviously to find a job - so I did that too. What am I getting at you ask? . . . well, I’m just starting to question why we feel the necessity to imagine that we’re all supposed to follow that standard mold of what life should be? Aren’t we just acting as I did as a 4 yr old? Ignoring most of reality, just so I can have my day at the Beach?

I guess I should explain a little more . . . there is just so much going on in the world today. And yet, as young Americans, we’ve been trained to employ that imagination and just go along with our daily life, all too often ignoring the blatant and harsh realities that exist around us. What I’m not doing with this post is being pessimistic. What I am doing is petitioning myself to become a little less selfish. I get so caught up in the dream of what my life should become, I ignore those around me who could possibly be in need of my help. I need to come down a little bit from this life that I’ve always pursued and start to think about what I can do to let others reach what their imagination and dreams have always encouraged them to become. . . . only a thought