I know, I know. Blogs are vain. I'm a douche. Let's just get all that out of the way. This is kind of long. There's a too long, didn't read at the end.
Right now, I'm typing a blog post in my basement at 2 AM. I can't sleep. I'm typing with two hands and hoping the shoulder surgery I just had won't mind my using my right hand to type too much.
I'm also in college. A risin' sophomore at Chapel Thrill, UNC. It's a wonderful place; most of my friends that go there are now out all across the world, learning arabic or making water for starving african children or ending poverty and saving the world.
And then there's me. With the lame excuse of a shoulder surgery to back me up, I find myself with weeks upon weeks of free time. Trust me, it's incredibly relaxing. I'm incredibly relaxed. But it also threatens to be incredibly boring. There already seems to be a dearth of things to do. How is that possible?! I'm young! Life is for living!
But anyway, the biggest crisis I'm dealing with right now is that my summer has no meaning. This summer seems to be the first one that I've had complete control over, and I've given myself weeks upon weeks of nothing. These threaten to be weeks upon weeks of self indulgence, laziness, and if we're honest, probably marijuana.
My solution? Find a way, every day, to do one thing that has greater meaning, one way or another. I'm not a part of any organization that's pushing me to do things, I have no summer stipend, this is just me. I don't think this'll be close to easy. I'm not sure it'll even be possible. This blog is mainly a form of accountability for me. But what I do know is, it's gonna help me find out who I am, what I should do with my goddam life, and how to live purposefully. Thanks Thoreau (...right?).
So to start out, what the hell has meaning? Isn't relaxing meaningful? These are the questions I need to answer before I can even start, so I'm gonna lay out a few things that I feel have meaning. This is kind of all streamof thought so when I'm wrong AND ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU THINK I'VE LEFT SOMETHING OUT, tell me. Please.
1. Self-improvement is always a meaningful act (Mike Edwards). That is, purposefully improving literally any aspect of one's individual self, physical and mental. Learning a new skill? Putting yourself in a new situation? Improving your physical self? Check. Check. Check. This is the most straightforward category there is.
2. Art has the potential to be incredibly meaningful, and really contemplating a good piece of art can absolutely change the way one thinks and is therefore meaningful. I mostly mean this in regards to music and literature, but certainly many films are meaningful, but I don't mean Avatar. I mean... something else. ...wes anderson...?
3. Any creative act is a meaningful one. Mostly this can be related to art, but any creation, whether a trebuchet, photograph, song, or relationship works.
4. New Experiences can have serious impacts on our lives. I think putting ourselves into new experiences is crucial to development.
5. I can't deny the fact that surrounding oneself with nature is a meaningful act. I'm not quite sure I can explain why, but it does have an effect on me.
6. "Sometimes, some of the most meaningful acts are not done for yourself, but for others. Helping others can be the most self-improving and gratifying experience possible." --Caitlin Caudle. Couldn't have said it better meself. She's got one of these too, somewhere.
That's all. For now, I guess. Let me know what I've missed or that I'm going about this all wrong.
I'm not really sure the exact format of the blog yet. I think I'm going to write about a new thing every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and then say what I did along with those posts. That's still up for grabs. I don't know if the meaningful music and books and films will be posts to themselves, or just something I mention.
I think it'd be REALLY AWESOME if some other people wanted to write a post about something meaningful they've done. I want to be able to look back on this and see all sorts of things I can do to really improve myself.
TL;DR Hello, I'm going to be trying to do something meaningful every day, I think self improvement, art, creativity, new experiences and nature are meaningful, I'm not sure what the format is, tell me where I fucked up.
Thanks.
