Why not?

Welp. Here I am, blogging. I don't know who's going to read this, but I just found the blogs of many people I know and decided I might as well join in. 

I think I know exactly why people blog- First off, if there's one thing people love the most, it's talking about themselves. I don't care how humble you are, you're the center of your own goddamn universe. And most of the time, no body wants to hear about you, unless you're on a date in which case they will PRETEND to care about you (unless they actually care about you- but this doesn't happen very often). Blogging is like talking about yourself with the illusion that somebody is listening, caring, and thinking exactly what you want them to think.

But, as they say, when in Rome...

I've been pondering recently about keeping a journal, then discarding the idea just as quickly. My handwriting is so bad it could be another language. Writing hurts my wrist. Screw writing. I've had people look at the way I hold a pencil and tell me "Good God, man, you're doing it wrong!", but to hell with it.

That's pretty much my attitude to a lot of things. "To hell with it." Another thing I don't like doing is stressing out over things. The SATs and AP tests are coming up and if I want to get into Berkeley I better start studying... but I'm not gonna sweat it. No pressure. 

Some people stress about these things. In a move of questionable intelligence, I've taken to heart a mantra from the comedic book The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy- "Don't Panic".

No matter how bad the situation seems, even when I'm in really deep shit, don't panic. It's a fucking proven fact: stressing out about anything has never helped anyone. It's really quite the opposite of what you should do.

I think people care about mundane things far too much. I've found myself wondering, for some reason, "If my house burned down right now, and everything I owned was permanently destroyed, how much would I care?"

Hardly. Really, if you're reading this you may think I'm depressed or something, or that I don't own many things of value, but that's not true. I'm pretty happy most of the time and I have some expensive electronics and whatnot. 

So here's the plan.

I decided that before going to college, or possibly partway through it, I will hike the 2,200 mile Appalachian Trail. It runs from Georgia to Maine, and typically takes 5-7 months to complete. I'd be living on nothing but what I can carry on my back, stopping every few days to restock in towns a few miles off the trail. I think months of being with nothing but my thoughts would really teach me something about myself. Getting away from the material bullshit, you know. I'm really a bit Jekyll-and-Hyde about materialism. I'm a sucker for tech gadgets, but without fail every time I get my hands on them I realize I don't really need them. I don't have much backpacking experience, (read: none) but I figure I can wing it. 

P.S. - I suppose I might as well talk about winter break. I spent most of winter break doing absolutley nothing and enjoying every last second of it. The Italians have a phrase for this: Dolce far niente- the sweetness of doing nothing. Well, doing nothing and playing lots and lots of ukulele, which I'll talk about later I suppose.