Drew, Ryan, and I are brainstorming to come up with a name for my blog. This is an incredibly important point in setting up a blog and I am sure that anyone out there who keeps one, knows the feeling. At the time it reminds me of choosing an AIM screen name in high school... or naming a baby
As I reminisce on the difficultly of the choices that beset the high school version of me and tremble at the thought of having kids, Drew asks me for the name of an architectural tool. Ryan responds, "John," starts giggling, apologizes for the quip and quickly asserts that I am the furthest thing from it. Ryan is always doing this sort of thing, making jerk comments and apologizing moments later because he is really is the furthest thing from a jerk. Drew makes those comments and does not apologize afterward because that way only his friends know he is joking and everyone else is left to question themselves while admiring his alacrity and sarcasm.
My first response to Drew, after the giggles subside, is a joke. The Parallel Rule.
The Parallel Rule is a piece of equipment off my list of essentials for M.Arch 1 students. At first glance it is a $250 stainless steel ruler. However, upon closer inspection (reading the item description from online retailers) it turns out that this contraption is far from simple and is actually a complex device that uses a pully system to mark out perspective lines in an architectural drawing.
It is a joke suggestion because Drew and I could still not find anything to justify the price and only laughed at the esoteric product description. While I may have a remote inkling at the use of such a tool, it is just an example of one of those things I will have to figure out upon arrival.
At this point I realize it is the perfect name for my blog as it serves dual purposes.
First, it emphasizes the great unknown in my future (yes it is an expensive unknown and one that I hope to be able to use for the rest of my life) and I want this blog to capture all of the adventures, trials, humors, and moments.
Second, it emphasizes the nature of my separation from you and that while my life may be taking place in New York, and yours on the opposite side of the country, we are traveling along parallel tracks. This I would like to call, the Parallel Rule. However, it is important to note that unlike parallel lines, which go on forever without intersecting, I will be seeing you all again, it is just a matter of time.
Tuesday, July 28
A New Life
I suppose the proper way to start this blog is with the story of its conception.
Move-out day is a week away and I have been struggling all summer with how to cope with separation. This detachment is not just the severing of myself from undergraduate life at Westmont, from life in Santa Barbara, but from the people who have made my life all that much better since I left home four years ago. To be honest, I have never truly needed closure before this summer and the unfamiliarity of this territory has been making me uneasy.
And yes I do need closure. I need to say goodbye to a certain period of my life. However, I do not want closure with all of you who care enough to read my blog (I wish I could call it something else). While I am moving across the country, your friendships are too important to close doors on.
It was a dear friend who suggested keeping a blog as a way to keep my friends up with my life. Not to suggest that I am somehow outstripping you by going to grad school and indeed, I will have to try even harder to keep up with the type of people I associate with (you). It is just that distance is hard and this is an easy, non-imposing way for the people who I care about to keep tabs on my adventures on the East Coast. Because... I guarantee some adventures.
And so, here I am tonight.
Move-out day is a week away and I have been struggling all summer with how to cope with separation. This detachment is not just the severing of myself from undergraduate life at Westmont, from life in Santa Barbara, but from the people who have made my life all that much better since I left home four years ago. To be honest, I have never truly needed closure before this summer and the unfamiliarity of this territory has been making me uneasy.
And yes I do need closure. I need to say goodbye to a certain period of my life. However, I do not want closure with all of you who care enough to read my blog (I wish I could call it something else). While I am moving across the country, your friendships are too important to close doors on.
It was a dear friend who suggested keeping a blog as a way to keep my friends up with my life. Not to suggest that I am somehow outstripping you by going to grad school and indeed, I will have to try even harder to keep up with the type of people I associate with (you). It is just that distance is hard and this is an easy, non-imposing way for the people who I care about to keep tabs on my adventures on the East Coast. Because... I guarantee some adventures.
And so, here I am tonight.
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