Prague, to me, was something very important.
Thinking back I believe that being in a place of such grandeur and significance made everything much more acute. I felt that things could never be humdrum, even when they clearly were. When times were good, life was bliss. Never have I had more fun. There were times when I felt an extreme clarity of the soul, where for five minutes I could shut off my brain, and simply experience the world around me. But when things were difficult, I felt a weight on my shoulders like never before. I would actually feel as if the universe itself was trying to crush me.
Prague gave me the perspective to question the very fabric of my own reality. I often got to ask myself questions I had never before considered. But in a lot of ways I invested too much in Europe. I demanded that it free me from all my problems, all my responsibilities, and that it give me the power to escape the mundane American existence that I had come to dread in the years immediately following college.
It has been some time now since I left Prague behind. My experiences there seem like a dream to me now. Everyday the memory of my days in Europe fades a little further as I again become consumed by my American distractions: a troubling political system, disturbing farming practices, schools that turn compassionate, motivated teachers into jaded, apathetic zombies, and a population so overwhelmed by the media that they seem to be more invested in who wins Dancing with the Stars then who we put in charge of creating law in this country. With all this on my mind the images of Prague slip further away from me everyday.
So finally, I fully realize why I started this blog in the first place. It was less about broadcasting my goings-on to the people I left behind, that was more of my intent in Volume I. Only after the fact do I come to understand how important it would be that I kept this blog. I always have something to look back at and remind me of the time I stepped out of what I considered my boring existence and attempted to be more than that. This has always been for selfish purposes, and for that I apologize to you, dear reader, but I do hope this has given you something as well. Not often have I used this forum for philosophizing, but before I end I'll give it a bit of a try. Living in a foreign country is an experience that anyone with the means to should try. People have sometimes told me that they wish they could just pack up and leave the way I did. But really, it takes very little to do something different, merely an idea, and the motivation to act on it. Hell, leaving? That's easy. The hard part is coming back.
I'm bad at endings so I'll just say: Thanks for reading!
Thinking back I believe that being in a place of such grandeur and significance made everything much more acute. I felt that things could never be humdrum, even when they clearly were. When times were good, life was bliss. Never have I had more fun. There were times when I felt an extreme clarity of the soul, where for five minutes I could shut off my brain, and simply experience the world around me. But when things were difficult, I felt a weight on my shoulders like never before. I would actually feel as if the universe itself was trying to crush me.
Prague gave me the perspective to question the very fabric of my own reality. I often got to ask myself questions I had never before considered. But in a lot of ways I invested too much in Europe. I demanded that it free me from all my problems, all my responsibilities, and that it give me the power to escape the mundane American existence that I had come to dread in the years immediately following college.
It has been some time now since I left Prague behind. My experiences there seem like a dream to me now. Everyday the memory of my days in Europe fades a little further as I again become consumed by my American distractions: a troubling political system, disturbing farming practices, schools that turn compassionate, motivated teachers into jaded, apathetic zombies, and a population so overwhelmed by the media that they seem to be more invested in who wins Dancing with the Stars then who we put in charge of creating law in this country. With all this on my mind the images of Prague slip further away from me everyday.
So finally, I fully realize why I started this blog in the first place. It was less about broadcasting my goings-on to the people I left behind, that was more of my intent in Volume I. Only after the fact do I come to understand how important it would be that I kept this blog. I always have something to look back at and remind me of the time I stepped out of what I considered my boring existence and attempted to be more than that. This has always been for selfish purposes, and for that I apologize to you, dear reader, but I do hope this has given you something as well. Not often have I used this forum for philosophizing, but before I end I'll give it a bit of a try. Living in a foreign country is an experience that anyone with the means to should try. People have sometimes told me that they wish they could just pack up and leave the way I did. But really, it takes very little to do something different, merely an idea, and the motivation to act on it. Hell, leaving? That's easy. The hard part is coming back.
I'm bad at endings so I'll just say: Thanks for reading!
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