A written set of journals making their way into a blog mini-series.
The first time I learned heartstrings can attach quickly, was when I went to Syracuse University for a Graphic Design Summer Program, for high school students.
I went with my cousin, who I hadn't seen in quite some time, but high school students from different parts of the country formed our small class of strangers, learning and or expanding their knowledge of graphic arts and design.
Here, I met some of the best people. We traveled to Niagara Falls, walked about Syracuse's campus, went out to eat, studied, worked, designed, laughed together. It was honestly a taste of college life, but, at the time I didn't know it yet.
But what was truly fascinating, was that within these 2-weeks, I felt as though I built a mini life outside the one I knew from home, living with my parents. As a 17-year-old, filling my days with novelty and excitement was the best time.
I formed the closest bond with one girl from PA who referred to the sugary drinks America loves too much, as pop, instead of soda (this I absolutely loved). #Friendsforever
When I left Syracuse, my heart went numb. Was this normal—to love a place that your body didn't even settle into, a bed that didn't even get to mold to your shape, a street that never really heard someone call out your name, or a person that you never really even told the whole you about?
This idea that heartstrings can have this sort of pull, was intriguing to me. How, in just 2-weeks of time, can unknown places and people become so important to you?
Journal #3 - August 2nd, 2018 10:48 PM AKDT
A "random thoughts" journal.
"If we listen to nature, it will tell us..."
"...and [She] just gave it all to us."
"...where is, away?"
The first of August, today, we learned more about one another—speaking on what brought us here and how this trip in particular was intriguing to us.
We volunteered [for Denali National Park] and in ways, this helped me reflect on why we came to Denali and allowed me to expand on humanity's purpose here on earth.
* * *
It's funny how well you get to know individuals and create bonds [just] within days of meeting. [Or, at least that is how it is for me.]
It's incredible how we can innately and instinctively acknowledge another's traits and build an idea of character and personality through [shorts bits] of time.
* * *
I can't believe tomorrow's Friday—already August—and I'm 5-full-days into my trip, with 4 more days left to hike to the Alpine, take a bus to Seward for some whale watching and...done.
* * *
If I can climb a mountain—I legitimately feel as though I can do anything.
What power nature has on a person.
Imagine, if all [humanity] could be exposed to such things.
—And, here I am about 10 years later since I went on the Syracuse Summer Program and 3 years since I went to Denali, realizing that I romanticize everything.
Imagination takes control allowing me to feel experiences heightened in a way that maybe some others are not experiencing.
What can I say? I live in a world of whimsy (such a Pisces).
But even so, Alaska dipped me into my past a bit, allowing me to nostalgically experience the pull of heartstrings, knowing that the time and closeness you are having with a group of people won't always last forever.
Only 9 or so days I spent in AK and that was enough time for my beating drum to attach to people, places, and things again—only a matter of time.
The greatest thing that I learned from that day though, was that humanity's purpose—I think—lacks because our lack of connecting. We are so separated in thought and being, that it's hard to come to solutions or be amongst one another without malice.
How sad.
Imagine if we all took the time to fall in love with and admire people who we cross on the street or pass by in the grocery store.
(Noooo—not the in-love-romantic-lovey-dovey feelings) I'm talking the simple understanding that the stranger you are treating, meeting, and speaking to, is someone's child, someone's brother, sister—a person that someone else hold's dear to them—so what if we all were kind in that way, a way you are kind to a loved one.
If we all sat down for a minute with a stranger, I think we'd realize how much we are the same in the way we "human" throughout life. Sure, there are many of us with various differences, but that doesn't make us any less or more part of humanity.
What if we were, to romanticize the Earth, the creatures and humans that inhabit it?
How would we connect with Her and others then?
Now you see what I mean about how I romanticize things, huh?
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