Back in the Blogging Game (Maybe)

A problem I have with infrequent blogging (and journalling) is that when I want to write, I have a bajillion bottled-up topic ideas that I can't decide on one, so I get paralyzed and do nothing. But not today! Today, I'm giving myself 10 minutes to sit down and write whatever comes to my head. No chance to edit, no time to rethink it. Just write and release.

I was talking to a neighbor a few days ago about how sometimes you only have to try a little bit to succeed at something, because most people do nothing. Obviously, that doesn't hold true in ultra-competitive environments, but for a lot of things, just a little effort will set you apart from the majority.

Want to get into photography? Just walk around shooting for an hour and see what happens. You wont be an expert but you'll have done something over 99% of the population didn't do that day, and you might get a good shot, or learn something new.

Want to be a world class twerker? Give yourself 5 minutes to go twerk on the street, and then ten more to sit down and re-evaluate your life. Progress comes one baby step at a time.

Anyway, my ten is up! I could've written more if I wasn't eating a quesadilla, but looky here I've blogged today! I'm betting the next time I sit down and write, if I do it soon enough, will be much easier. And hopefully it'll become a habit.

Until next time. Deuces!

-Stuy

Outdoing my dreams & Hawaii: Day 1

You know that moment, right when wake up, when your realize your dream is a dream and you've got about 33 seconds to soak it all up before all those unbelievable memories fade away to oblivion? You try desperately to keep dreaming, mostly because you want to see what happens next, but partly because you know that whatever you're about to do that day just wont be as interesting as trying to figure out why you're pitching at the World Series and no one seems to notice you're naked.

If you've hung around me long, it's likely you've put up with some rambling about how awesome my dreams are.  Exciting. Passionate. More vivid than double rainbows. The kind leave me disappointed the moment I regain consciousness. Maybe you've enjoyed a similar nightlife, but if not, I'll explain a bit.

Every night, as my eyes settle, muscles soften, and I slowly drift towards REM, my mind is hard at work finding new ways to acquire that addictive adrenaline rush derived only from battles of uncertain outcome. I soon become wholly engulfed by wars of purpose and resolve, a thrill not in the least diminished by the plethora of fierce romances set to scenery composed only of beautiful memories. But this frequent blessing doubles and a reminder of my comparatively duller real life and often has me inquiring, rather pessimistically, whether real life can ever compare.

Every so often, my hope is restored when the thrill and beauty of true life experience at last rivals my dream life. It is on these rare occasions that I am so smitten with my wide-eyed ventures that I hardly give my dreams the time of day, so to speak. And that's if I remember them at all.

The most recent of these real life event's was on my latest trip to Hawaii a couple week ago. Since I've been meaning to get back into blogging for the past year (I've at least filled a couple journals), I figured now's a good time to start. Since I could really a lot to say, I'll keep it simple by just posting couple of different journal entries (slightly edited so they make sense to people who aren't me). If you hate reading you can just look at the pictures. Whatever. I don't judge.

----
Hawaii. Day 1:

This morning I woke up at six in one of the LAX airport's many already busy terminals, just in time to catch the early flight to Honolulu. Since I was blindfolded, ear-plugged and tucked tightly in my sleeping bag, which was wedged behind a couple chair-benches jetting from the wall, I was neither bothered by the mad flux of passengers, nor did they seem to notice my choice encampment. In fact, my semi-awkard position seemed perfectly off the radar to all but a few curious youngsters who stared shamelessly as I counterbalanced my disheveled appearance by slipping on some slacks and a button-up. People treat you better when you dress nice.

Thanks to the arc of the planet and the invention of time changes, I was in Hawaii by 11am. Having travelled the last grueling 4500 miles by sitting on my kush-tush and sipping Seattle's Best Coffee, I felt the five mile stroll from the airport to Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu (the only royal palace on American soil) would be good for my body and soul. I had read about 150 pages of Hawaiian history on the way out, so the trek would allowed me to geek out over the historical sights I read about while providing opportunities to swing through local shops to get a vibe of the culture on the way over.

Among the first notable places I stopped was Burger King. Having spent a couple weeks on Oahu a year ago, the lack of huts and hula skirts didn't surprise me, but there are other important, yet more subtle idiosyncrasies that can teach you much about a place, if you pay attention. Things like the price of burgers as compared to those in LA and Atlanta. Things like who works at the Burger Kings and how the customers interact with each other in the lines. What languages you overhear and how parents dress their kids. All these things, if you pay attention as you roam, can reveal a lot.

After a delicious and familiar lunch, I set out on the rest of my journey. With the first couple miles, I found out the location of a local homeless camp, cruised through some seaside parks, figured out the primary bus routes, and scoped general layout of my surroundings. I walked through Chinatown, absorbing fragrant oils mixing midair with the somewhat less pleasing aroma drifting out of the open air meat market. I passed the club we had rented out for Invisible Children's 25 event last April, the college I had previously planned to attend, and other familiar spots, adding a healthy shot of nostalgia to my new explorations.

After a while, I caught a bus to Waikiki to rent a moped. Cruising an island on a moped has always been dream of mine, so I booked it for a solid 34 hours, time of which I made excellent use.  My first journey would be a dangerous and slightly stupid/awesome night ride over the Pali Highway. I survived and made it to Mahealani's house in Kailua on the north side of the island. Mahea is a friend and fellow IC supporter who had not only been a huge help to my Invisible Children team on our last visit, but who had proven herself to be a hostess and tour guide of the highest caliber. After kicking it with her family and and her friend Orrin tonight, we decided to wake up at 5 for a sunrise hike. Straight stoked yo.

Good words.

"How we think and how we respond, has a far greater capacity to destroy our lives than any challenges we face." -Jim Rohn

Quotes From My Journal- Growth

9/4/11
"As you grow older, you can mature in many ways, but positive growth is not guaranteed with aging. You can also increase in your corruption, settling deeper into harmful habits, false mindsets and immature lifestyles. I've made it a habit to reflect on these things daily so that no habit will go unnoticed and enslave me. "

but what?

Quotes From My Journal- The Bedofa

This bedofa you see on the right is a massive sofa by day, and the greatest bed ever at night. It's beyond comfy and I spend a great deal of time in it. It's got plenty of room too so friends can come kick it in my room if the living room is being lived in. Such a great decision. It excites me everyday.



8/25/11
"I really love my bedofa. It was an excellent choice. Royalty does not know of this luxury. Spacious, comfort with practical uses, magical sleep, fun for all who enter. Be free to love the bedofa."  

Maybe We Don't Need So Much Inspiration- Part 2

Maybe we don’t need so much inspiration.
Just honesty.

With ourselves
but more importantly
each other.
We.
Us.
Humanity.

We are bleeding.
Sew me up, friend
or hold my hand and tell me about the time you went through this.

Oh you’ve never suffered like this?
You are useless. I need someone who’s been to the bottom
and admits it.
Or maybe not.
It’s easy to return, a conquerer.
The victim turned victor... congratulations.
I need someone on the bottom now.
Let’s suffer together.
Eradicating loneliness, isolation and shame.
I don’t know all the solutions,
but that’s three down and I don’t plan on stopping!

Oh you don’t understand my doubts?
Weird...
Well, I don’t understand your misunderstanding...
Here we are
both misunderstood.
Since we know what that feels like, maybe we can be friends.
Let’s struggle
together.
And laugh
as
we grow.

Maybe We Don't Need So Much Inspiration- Part 1

Broken.
as I gaze into the brokenness of the world
and myself.
Real.
I’m not depressed
only distressed.

Not at the statistics,
No,
the reality,
and
our response to it
my response to it...

But that’s their life and not mine.
I’ve got my own issues.
I need to finish college and get a job.
I need a girlfriend and to be physically fit.
I need to write poems and play music and think.

Ignore.
Let’s change topics.
Things like that bum me out.
Maybe it’s time for some inspiring quotes! But,
I’ve been through all the happiness quotes in that free App I downloaded 40 times already.
I’ve smiled and celebrated every freaking day.
Choosing to get by, well, but not thriving.
Choosing careful words over action.
Any action over thoughtful action.
Feeling over reality.
Like over Love.

Maybe we don’t need so much inspiration.
Just honesty.

What I've learned, kind of...

Ten months ago, I set out on journey. I was not much younger, but I was much younger. California had always been a dream, and still is. I had fair faith in my self, practically none, yet subconsciously all, in God and I had yet to make up my mind about the rest of the world. As I reflect, I'm sitting in back corner of the upper level of my university’s library, disrupting the silence with my sporadic bursts of typing and wondering what exactly it is that I've learned since I got on that plane to San Diego.

Since leaving the road, and Invisible Children behind, I tried a dozen times to blog about my experiences. I attempted to convey what I thought I remembered with such an exquisite awareness of my own inaccurate projections that I felt it better to say nothing and direct the interested to the under-descriptive lies that are photographs. So now I'm going to finally try and explain my thoughts. If you're confused by the end, or feel like you just learned something but aren't quite sure what it is, then I've explained myself well. But I'll warn you, if you we're to have asked me a week ago, these thoughts would be very different, and if you ask me tomorrow, likewise.

To put it as vaguely simple as possible, I have grown up a lot. “Growing up" is an odd and relative term with such beautiful imperfection, like people, that it is usefully descriptive only when when you want to convey positive inner-growth without explanation. So,for the sake of description, I'll elaborate... I have been cursed with the confusion that accompanies grand awareness. Instilled with both the confidence and fear attached to the realization of ones own potential. Blessed with the magical memories of dreams I never knew were dreams until they came true. I have assured a confidence in the acceptance of insecurity and imperfection, of both myself and others. I have fallen in love with the human struggle.

On the road, each experience opened up new ways to think about the world, like learning a new language, or new adjectives. Each day held a unique description of life on earth- details previously unnoticed became the capitals of my thought world, reserving all previously central descriptions to peripheral wanderings in the dim lit caverns of reflection.

Somewhere along this sustained mental shiftiness, I stumbled upon the one of those forgotten truths, better than a 20 in the laundry, that questions are not unlike answers in their ability to direct a man's path. Answers provide steps and goals, but questions provide only a strong inclination towards what are general and sometimes unspecific directions. For me, questions have always been the driving force, from the easily tested wonders, such as, "Can I land a flip off that?" to the questions I realistically never expect any concrete answers to, like, “Who or what is God?" It can seem a futile wandering at face value, the pursuit of questions with incomprehensible answers. But I do it more for it’s own sake, hoping to learn something unexpected and hidden along the way, as I do, even if all I learn is the limit to human understanding.

It's makes for a very intense thought life, rivaled only by dreams and the recovery from decisions made on a lack of sleep.

And now, as my question-led path takes me where I'd never thought I'd end up, deep in the heart of Atlanta for at least the next two years,  I’m as confused and content as I’ll ever be. I also forgot to explain anything about my experience at Invisible Children or much of what I learned. Such is life. Things rarely turn out how you thought they might.

That
is the struggle,
and that
is the thrill.
Love it.

Thanks for listening,
Stuy

Sunset Cliffs- first weekend with our newest friends

Today was the day for our first team dates. Sadly, both my team, Cal Pacific, and team Greater LA were each down a member. So, we combined our adventure time and hit up Ocean beach. William is from Kansas and it was his first experience with the ocean EVER. Purely amazing. You can peep that vid on my  facebook.

As for the below video, it's a little compilation I spliced together on my iPhone. I'm positive I'll have no plethora of free blogging time to get all snazzy with my words this semester, so I'm trying to utilize my iPhone for the documentation of everything fly that passes by. This was a much need break with our brand new families. Dig it ... and start saving so we can road trip to California sometime :)

Intriguing Aspects of Being a Conscious "One"

This is not what I set out to write about, but I just started typing and it's what came out. So, idk...deal with it.

Hitting that miili boi!

At the time this was filmed, I had slept 5 of the last 100 hours. I was surrounded by a mass of others who had been working equally as hard and we we're counting on on the thousands of high school kids around the nation to come through on their hard work in these final hours. I hope you feel the vibes. Watch and enjoy.

Purpose.

With few answers and little knowledge, 

I am content to forever explore.

I'm nothing without you... Part 1

Boom. 14 weeks into my adventure. 10 weeks into tour. And we're heading back to San Diego.

Since August, I've managed to keep up an average of two blog posts a week. Not bad, but not easy. And as I look back though my blogs, I realize that I most often wrote about my adventures, my experiences, what I learned, blah blah, etc. But it was never really about that in the first place was it? The excitement. The adventure. The grand allure of new places each day. All by products of a much greater cause.

As My Travels End...

This Pretty Much Sums It Up...

Adventures as an International Outlaw.

I remember like it was yesterday. Excited. Hyper. Nervous.
Not the like where you pee your pants and struggle with speaking nervous.
Not like striking up a convo with that pretty girl who you later decide wasn't
pretty at all after you stutter over your words and walk away defeated nervous.
Not like when we our car spun out and 360'd off both walls of the on ramp in the rain.
Nah, this was pure adrenaline. Kicking my senses into high gear and making me appear twice as suave.

Such is the Way of the Road

That that has value is in far greater abundance than those who understand the value it has.

Sleepless in Seattle

It's been coming all along.
Creeping slowly,
like a raccoon trying to get a snack while sun's still up.
Like the popping of your ears just as you get to the spot with the best view.
It sprang upon us. We had to face it. We had to discuss it. We had to overcome it.

Because it's worth it.

There is little that I have encounter on this trip so far that I previously expected- Volcanoes, hippies, forest fires. Freshman high school volleyball games in Fruitland, Idaho. Driving vans onto a boat and getting out to explain to randoms how we plan to end a war that no one has stopped in 24 years. We meet hundreds of new people every week, make phone calls out the wahzoo and send and more emails per month than the rest of my life combined.

I believed in wasps long before I was stung.

This was the first weekend on the road without screenings and these are the first nights I haven't been able to sleep.

Ask for forgiveness, not permission.

The other day, we we're at a school and this middle school kid wrote James a note and then wanted to say goodbye to him before we left. He said he had gym class next so I told him we'd stop bye. We go into the gym and the instructor is talking to the students, so we we're just gonna wait until the activities began before intruding, but this kid just runs from his seat yelling "James!" and gives him a hug. Instantly his coach made him run laps he started crying, but later he found us, got pictures with us and totally thought it was worth it the laps.