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| When did I stop being playful?
When did I stop being genuine?
When did I stop being nice?
When did I stop being optimistic?
When did I stop living so simple?
When did I stop acting purely?
When did I start to over-analyze everything?
When did I think and think and think and not relax and do?
When did I care too much?
When did I start planning too far ahead?
When did I care only about my own personal benefits?
When did I become an opportunist?
When did I stop being dk50?
And...how?
And when will I go back?
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| I looked up J.D. Salinger on Wikipedia. Is it true that he visits Dartmouth Coll-yes. He does, in fact. I then stumbled upon an article by an eighteen year-old Joyce Maynard, written during her freshman year at Yale. "An 18-Year-Old Looks Back On Life" is the title. Comical, isn't it? How much life have we eighteen year-olds lived?
For her, plenty. For us, little.
For me, it's been a time dominated by Findapix, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and all the mind-numbing wastes of time that this "Information Revolution" has given us. Yes, why shouldn't I join a group about going to college. Of course I'll accept a friend request from Justine Murphy...we're friends, right? And I love-no, I like-that new picture she posted.
It's a time dominated by looking up stupid, useless, and utterly pointless facts on Wikipedia. When David Hubbard showed me that cool video on YouTube and then I showed him this cool video of a guy falling, but then there was that other video of the guy doing a million different dances, and oh, how fun was that.
It's CNN.com and SportsIllustrated.com and Digg.com and all those other websites for me to know WHAT I NEED TO KNOW RIGHT NOW. A cocktail waitress accused Tiger Woods of infidelity, a family pranks the world about a balloon, a two randos show up at the White House...that is what I need to know to live.
But we are not the worst off. The generation of '91sies can still remember a time when a barrage of detailed and ever-streaming information on a 13-inch sleek black screen did not rule our lives. The 95s, 96s, 97s, and all those high numbers have never stopped living in a virtual, digital world based on instantaneous satisfaction of sudden and insignificant desires.
We still remember.
The days of Lego's and going to Marshall's house to build a fort like they did in the picture books in Mrs. Lindahl's room. We would spend four Saturdays in a row going to Burger Key to get the new Pokemon toy and then rush home to put it in the Colosseum that we were building. Watching movies at the movie theater with Dad, cherishing the smell of stale popcorn, Soda, and week-old gum as we sat in those cushy chairs making plans to see the unreleased movies they played at the previews (they were always better then).
Going to the beach to catch crabs and taking them home to see how they can live (two days, they need to live in water, apparently). Reading. Drawing. Punchball and four square. Cutting up confetti for Anthony's last day of school.
Playing basketball in the rain, getting pumped up for the NBA All-Star game where Kobe was of course going to score a hundred bajillion points, but then getting home too late because it was on East Coast and not West Coast time. Playing basketball in the dead of summer, I don't care if it's hot, I'll be in the NBA in high school. Playing basketball during recess.
But after a while, it was over. We still did those things, we still studied, we still hung out, but our bonds were digital, virtual, encrypted. The computer was not a computer, a $1200 typewriter that could play a few fun games. The computer became an extension of our lives, and we slowly came to be defined by who we were in the digital world.
Yes, my hometown is Arcadia, my favorite bands are the Beatles and Train, I am not in a relationship, and I'm here just for friends. I currently go to Dartmouth College (Class of 2013) with an undecided major, I used to work for Hollister, and I would love to meet you. But I refuse over-my-dead-body to list my phone number.
Can we at least try to take that back? We are the only generation that constantly stays connected in this virtual world, but can still remember what it was like without the digital chains. Let us not be a part of a lifeless, commercial, Your-Ad-Here world, where only representations rule. Let us use the internet to stay informed, to educate, and to learn. But let us not enslave our minds and human functions to such an entity.
Let us not waste our time.
Let us play in the real world.
Let us remember what life, real life, is all about.
Name: Eric Wu
Sex: Occasionall-...just kidding. Male.
Facebook friends: 979
Real friends: enough
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| It's been about three weeks since I've been here, and I have to say, I'm still loving it.
Of course, there have been lots of awkward moments and many times where I kind of felt that I maybe kind of just didn't fit in all too well, but those times always pass.
My DOC Camping Trip was amazing. The people that I met, slept with (literally) under the stars, and sweated with as we hiked 20 miles of the Appalachian Trail over five days are people that I will cherish forever. Spending the last night in the famous LODJ (Lodge) that Dartmouth operates made it all the better. We have an unprecedented amount of inside jokes from within our nine people and I love them all to death.
My floormates are pretty awesome. I obviously have had the fortune of living in the best dorm on campus, which is Fahey-Mclane, right in the center of campus and it is completely new. I have my own room which is connected to my roommate's room and it is huge. I guess most of my closer friends come from my floor, and my closest friend so far lives right next to me!
The partying here is ridic. Four nights a week? Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday?!?! Frat parties are pretty sick and it's awesome that the frats are very friendly to the freshmen and anyone can go into any frat/sorority on a party night. Plus, we get Wale, Gym Class Heroes, Michael Posner (who I bumped into at SAE), Filligar, and Maino. All in one week. How sick is that?
But I guess most of all, Dartmouth is a very, very academic school. Every single one of my floormates, every friend I party with, always hits the books like mad when they're not partying, doing their extracurriculars. I always see people that I rage with on Saturday nights at the library the next morning. Hell, when you have about 400 pages to read every week, you have to spend that time. The classes are pretty intense, but the professors are disgustingly cool. My History 36 - The History of Healthcare in America is taught by the former surgeon general (C. Everett Koop)'s son, Allen Koop.
So do I love this place? Yes. Go Dartmouth Rugby!
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| When you can just sit and talk with friends at Jim's and at the playground of Holy Angels for six and a half hours without getting bored, then life is pretty good.
Thanks Dev, Hernie, MT, and Allen. You are all people that I can kind of talk to forever and never feel awkward or run out of things to say. I'll miss you guys so much.
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|  | Currently
Rent (2005 Movie Soundtrack)
By Jonathan Larson, Rosario Dawson, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Taye Diggs, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Jesse L. Martin, Anthony Rapp, Tracie Thoms
Seasons of Love
see related |
You've worked three hard years to become the masters, the senseis of Arcadia High. All you have ahead now is the rest of your life. Your time here is short.
So please, just enjoy it. Do your applications, do your homework, do your activities and whatever, but most of all, make some memories. Get close to your friends. Go out. Do some fun stuff.
Today, I stumbled upon an Arcadia Alumni group that had about 170 pictures up of the "old days." That will be us in a few years...reminiscing about the times we had, the life we lived, and the majestic bodies we once sculpted. We will lose our youthful beauty, we'll have kids, get jobs, but the best memories should never have to fade.
Take pictures and KNOW that this year is something special. KNOW that these moments are extraordinary...grown-up life always sucks more, or so it seems. Senior year is a time and a place that you will talk about for the rest of your life. So live free and seize the day.
"525,600 minutes. 525,600 moments so dear. How do you measure a year?" | | |
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