Change Life

They say one should always be careful when planning a career.

And after all, the future is an uncertain mess made of decisions, possibilities  and the finite human existence.

Then why do we plan?

The answer's pretty simple: for most of us, it's because we're expected to. A lot of us find it's a way to give meaning to existence. I think everyone does it for food to some extent.

But above all, I think it comes down to boredom.

Human society itself--every great creation you've ever seen or heard or loved--comes down to boredom.

Keeping this in mind, surprisingly, makes a lot of decisions easier for me to make. People are bored and devised a system where you have to do things in order to eat, so why not do the things you love if you can?

Why not take a chance and do something you actually enjoy, even if it's not to gain those little bits of paper we trade around for goods and services, and see where it takes you?
This life is an amazingly short one, and you're only going to live it greatly if you roll with it.

Grow.

Explore.
Have fun with yourself!

And whatever you do, don't be afraid to try again when you mess up.

A professor of mine always begins his lectures and tips for art making with the phrase "We don't make mistakes, but if you want to change something. . ."

It's fitting for life, too.

Go change something.

With Love
Nick Strange

A Matter of Timing

A girl in black jeans and a beanie sat in front of me today. She was carrying a paper-mache head--soon to be a goblin--and a black backpack with some slight residue of glue. Her huge project struck me as odd enough to begin a conversation on, and after explaining the head for for 3D Design, I asked her how long she's been in our humble community college.

She said three years.

It was her fifth semester here, and after taking her generals, she planned on transferring to another school for a studio arts degree.

Of course, I had to ask the dreaded "what do you plan on doing with your degree?" Question. She, like many here, didn't know what to do. She even called herself a "slacker" for not narrowing down her major.

And ended our conversation with the professional yet overused "I'm still undecided" response.

Coming from a Mexican-American family, those three dreaded words sends me down the eternal loop of childish shame.

My mother studied in Mexico's UABC after her “prepa”* days were over before meeting my father and falling in love. In Mexico’s school system, you're essentially assigned a roll to live with for the rest of your life depending on your skill-set. From the moment you enter high school you're given a curriculum to stick with until you’ve got your degree and field.

"And none of that 'switching majors' thing!" My mother says with pride whenever she explains her time in school, most recently with the bank lady whom helped me open up my first account. Our lady was an immigrant herself, fluent in English and Spanish with a son in UC something or other. And her and my mother agreed on one thing: "I don't understand how it's done here in the United States! You're spending so much money and you're undecided?!"

With such a mindset, it isn't hard to understand the helicopter parent phenomenon: With such fleeting and uncertain life goals, it’s only logical to not leave their sides! Our children are still foolish and confused and need us around!

And it's partly true.

It's far too easy to get caught up in the financial matters and chose a major with the intention of making back the money spent to acquire it in a short period of time. Logically speaking, it should be the first goal of every new college student--find the jobs with demand and specialize in that!

The real question is, then, “why don't we?”

Complex questions deserve complex answers, do they not? We can search back to the very beginning of human history and find rebellious generation after rebellious generation and write it off as just that--someday, we will all assimilate back into the inevitable glow-cloud of adulthood and turn into our parents and thank them for their troubles.

If I'm not mistaken, that's Kieron Gillen's entire "Young Avengers" plotline at the moment.

Too many of us tremble in fear at the idea of turning into a stiff in a cubicle, to the point we've come to glorify staying young in music and media. We're constantly joking about not being grown ups by posting youthful throwbacks on social media sites, and are even beginning a rewrite of what it means to become an adult^.

Wistful, dreamy little buggers, we are, trying to align our dreams with a practical reality. And thus far, this generation's had a lot of help dreaming--Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube have made it easier than ever for people to get in contact with those "lick-your-face famous” people we admire. And since they all come from relatively successful lives, their unified message stands as advice worth listening to: Never stop dreaming.

That powerful message is being wired into the minds of every young adult with an internet connection and a love for pop culture--that’s a lot of young adults. This flies in the face of the free-market private colleges`, where the logical choice would be to major in a financially stimulating field.

Despite being in love with the options a free-market economy gives, I am not a firm believer  every damn thing on this earth needs to-or even can--be successfully marketed.

Like health care.

Or college.

So "Why don't the kids just study something useful?!" Because your life shouldn't be determined by returning an investment someone made on you. You’re not merchandise.

Unlike the shiny new products lining every store in America right now, we might not even be good at what's in demand right now--and I don't just mean the obvious lack of mathematic and scientific skills in our country. I'm talking about even more basic needs: we weren’t all cut out to be nurses, doctors, or engineers(!).

Some of us aren’t made for those fields.

And some of us just don’t want to go into that line of work anyway.

In a nation of affluence, we'll see fifty, sixty year old people leave their old workplaces and in retirement try to find some form of spiritual meaning in their lives. More and more young people are picking up on the idea of fulfillment in their futures--after all, many are still without children or major responsibilities beyond their own livelihoods. They have nothing stopping them from trying. We thirst for this level of fulfillment and happiness that can't be found if we comply to what is logical. Which is why there's now an entire self-help industry surrounding being the best version of you possible.

The Live your legend program was started by a guy living in San Francisco who wanted to help those people wanting a new slice of life. Most of the product on their page is absolutely free (I know, right?), including a 27 question guide they feel is important to ask yourself. One question stuck with me the most: "What would you do for someone else for free?"

That question--that all-encompassing question--might just be the solving matter on what we should study in college and if it'll be worth drowning yourself in debt for. What would you do for someone else for free? Would you draw? Would you dance? Would you clean? Would you organize? Would you write?

So many successful people seem to have that "get up and go" drive towards what they wanted to make out of themselves. Those glossy, autobiographical legend stories of normal people with a special drive we can all paste ourselves into like that soldier poster in the Captain America movie. I wonder how much of it is bullshit.

To me, it seems like many of us are sitting here feeling like Steve before the serum, trying to fit into the one-size-fits-all propaganda poster.

I wonder how many of them began as timid Steves trying to do what they would've done without pay anyway. Like Tom Hiddleston once said, success comes after you allow yourself to care.

And many try and deal with this fear of caring and fear of failing in different ways. Many just don't allow themselves to ever care. Many push themselves to do so. A man named Marcus in my Math class spent his time writing down memorable quotes and committing them to memory as a motivator. He aims to be a public speaker.

I write.

With love,
Nikola Strange
---------------------(o n o)--------------
NOTES:
* “prepa” is short for “preparatoria”, or preparatory school. It’s Mexico’s equivalent to high school.

^ Does “fuck you, I’m an adult!” sound familiar? We’ve changed the meaning of becoming an adult from a stiff person in a normal job doing normal things we can’t relate to, to simply an older version of you. A version that still watches Saturday Morning Cartoons when they have a day off, but now pays bills and does laundry.
(!) Example: I'm freakishly paranoid and get super queasy with pain, so I don't want to work in the medical field despite the job security.

` Private Colleges aren’t the only ridiculously expensive luxury toy at the moment. California leads as the most expensive state for tuitions in 2011 (la times), and a chart from KQUED shows the staggering rise in tuition for both UC and CSU schools.

SB-5: The Wicked Old Bill at Last is Dead!

Before over 180,000 people, the Texas Senate has decided to force cruel and unusual rules on an individual member of their body—a woman—and then turn around and break their own rules last minute for their own benefit.

Sen. Wendy Davis during her filibuster

 Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Tarrant County, left) stood before her peers and the world to boldy filibuster SB-5, a bill which would require the closing of most of the state’s abortion clinics and ban abortions past 20 weeks gestation, under extremely strict and unfair senate rules. How unfair?

Davis was not allowed to drift off-topic, pause in her speech, drink, eat, sit down, or even lean on her bench for support. This was to go on for 13 hours. If the bill was not voted on my midnight, the bill would be killed and the Senator’s pain would be worth it.

Numerous Senators called out unreasonable pauses to try and cut down Davis’s filibuster. She virtually had no one on her side; the rules of the Senate were so strict, Senator Davis received two strikes on her record: One for being assisted by a fellow senate member in adjusting her back-brace, and another for speaking about Planned Parenthood’s budget cuts, said to be off-topic.

Davis standing before the world

To compare this to other filibusters, we have literally had men read out of phonebooths and the constitution or just whatever came to mind to bore the living daylights out of their peers until the bills were finally dropped. We’ve has people lean on podiums all the time, and even pee using buckets in the middle of the United States Senate.

This moment has been immortalized by the internet: with the great help of Texas Tribune, the entire Senate session was streamed out live to billions around the world, tuning in and out the entirety of the night.

The words of Senator Putte have been plastered onto something as good as Bronze as this image circulates social media sites. The images of Wendy freeze her struggle in time, as many across the globe demand this not only become a moment in feminism, but a moment in the US History books effective immediately!

Putte's famous quote started the "citizen filibuster"

"Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. President." Has become a new catchphrase.

Detailed videos of the Senate Theater making a ruckus to disrupt voting and expressing their opinions. Photographs and videos sent out through tweets showed the condition of Davis throughout the night; on top of documenting in detail the lack of humanity in this issue, has also documented the blunders of the Senate, including its’ own Jonas attitude towards its’ rules:

Two minutes after midnight, the Senate voted on the bill.

After forcing Senator Davis to jump through hoops for 13 hours, the Senate decided to vote on the bill. In front of over 18,000 live-streamers, a completely filled theater and an untold number of social network users, the Senate decided to vote on the bill.

People being escorted out by the crowd

The Theater lost it, a woman shouting “bullshit!” at the top of her lungs. Another shouted “Enjoy watching the poverty rate increase as well. Remember your constituents.” Still one more claimed “We are your constituents! Listen to us!” A plethora of angry YouTube comments exploded the page, forcing the website to lag for 10 minutes at a time on updates. The last 10 minutes of the live-stream were muted due to the screaming crowd. And as people were escorted by the police out of the theater in multiple occasions, people were arrested for passive resistance, including an elderly woman.

The end result of the votes are still unclear.

An elderly woman being arrested

With the halls of the Senate building flooded with hundreds of people, Senator Watson came forward to speak to the crowd on Davis’s behalf, saying “What we saw today was the power of the people scaring those who know they’re doing wrong!”

Some senators claimed that they were unsure of whether they were voting for the bill or to end the filibuster.

More police escorts happened, with roughly 400 people, with 500-600 people on the outside, and a peak of over 35,000 views waiting for the Senators to exit the cabnet with the results after the Lt. Governor of Texas came out to address the crowd, saying “If you haven’t left yet, don’t leave now!”

The sheer number of people protesting in person!

The worldwide support for the straggler protestors became so large they began to order food for people to stay and continue the fight. The DPS refused food to be delivered, claiming no more people were allowed inside,  at one point passing them right along with water believed to have been sent to them by a live-stream viewer of the stragglers.

Throughout this entire endeavor, millions online have contributed to the moment, putting up digital statues and holding widespread files of the words of Senate members, along with their grave blunders!

This picture was screencapped by an angry viewer, before the site changed the date.

Need more proof to ease your photoshop fears? A picture of both official copies being held side-by-side is available in the notes section.

Outraged, the world over began in mass to produce gag images, share opinions, and summarize the night in tweets, posts, and reblogs. And everything spread like wildfire. A man named Christopher Dido was made famous as he ustreamed* the entire night for thousands, even waiting for Wendy to appear.

Later on, a text message from Wendy Davis was read out, claiming “First of all, I love you guys.” Then followed “The Senate body has agreed that the bill SB-5 is dead. The official voting began at 12:03.” The crowd erupted into cheers, calling out Wendy’s name as the entire planet enjoyed a victory for human rights!

The representative’s closing words were simple: “This fight isn’t over, but we have started something here they cannot stop,” as the crowd erupted one more time, cheering “The people united will never be defeated!”

Hours passed, before a representative from Planned Parenthood announced Senator Davis would indeed come down! The people were also greeted by Senator Putt,calling the theater a "citizen filibuster" she has "never seen before". With a great amount of pride, the crowd cheered as she claimed that despite the disregard for the rules the Senate had, "your [the crowd's] power is greater".

Finally, the woman of the hour came out. She was greeted by the roaring of the crowds and the lights of cameras. After thanking the people of her caucus. And very anti-climatically, the feed on Dido's channel died. :\

As cliche as the phrase "Tonight we've seen history in the making is", I'll be using it, because tonight truly was historical. Amist a wave of terrible rulings, including the repealing of the Voting Rights Act and the placing of Trans people into concentration camps in Greece, the rest of the planet has backed the great state of Texas in putting her foot down. Today, Texas said 'No! Not here!" Among the Senate's blatant disregard for its own rules, the people of the Theater, the people of the United States, and the people of Planet earth put their foots down and screamed no, at the very tops of their lungs, until the fear of the collective was put into the hearts of those who thought themselves better!

Today, we have said "Enough."

Hopefully this excitement can last.

With lots of love (and yawns)
Nikola Strange

------------------------------------(> u <)\m/------------

Notes:

Told you. If you can't click on it, tell me in a comment and
I'll change the size.

*Ustream's a website for live streaming.

NOT A SINGLE PHOTO USED IS MINE! Some are tweets, some are news photos. Everything I have, I got from Tumblr.

Respect for female humans. :)

I got catcalled today.

Understanding the Sequester (and why I love the Vlogbrothers)

 So after a myriad of terribly unclear news coverage, some (unsurprisingly extensive and time-consuming) studies on United States Government and Politics in AP US Gov't, and some . . . .spirited debate with individuals ranging from teachers to fellow students, I've found no greater video clearly explaining the origins of the Sequester, its' importance, and its' long-term effects as well as this one.

I would go so far as to say John and Hank Green are sort of like diluted Richard Feymans (was that rude? That felt rude): they make the same complex topics you've been brow-beaten with your entire life easy to understand, without dumbing down the subject matter. . . .And they still seem to have a lot of fun with it. Hell, it almost feels like their explanations for things just roll off their tongues, mostly on their main channel since you don't see all the cool animations or studios (even though it's absurd to assume they have some sort of genie or magic eight ball implanting knowledge in their minds. . . well, internet, but it's not insta--you get the idea, no ones!).

Back to the point: I feel this video is too important to miss out on for any American citizen and citizen of the world, because economies are global and this Sequester thing is seriously killing the brain cells of millions trying to wrap their heads around it: Similar things have been passed before including the Graham-Rudman-Hollings act (or however it is it's called/spelled) and PayGo, so why didn't those work? The answer's given to you in any US Government class, and in this video: loopholes, like refusing to cut things that actually add up to our national debt. Why would Congress to this? Simple: they like their jobs. And voters like their benefits. Yet despite how simple the answers are, no one can really comprehend them since we're always bombarded with heavy images and loaded diction even in seemingly objective environments (just ask any of my AP Gov't teacher's students. We're hashtaging quotes under "rocketship to 20".)

More importantly, I feel since there are virtually no holistic, objective viewpoints on these types of topics, there's a lack of digessiveness. The topic itself needs to be viewed from a more detached and statistic heavy (and slightly image-saturated) environment for the sake of having it be more digestible to the American public as opposed to being blown up to the size and force of a nuclear bomb falling from the sky in slow, ACME-esque style. We need to see the Sequester and other issues as they are: stupid plans with stupid results future generations will be facepalming at from the comfort of their school desks (like every other major catastrophe in our short but *for lack of better words* impressive history as a nation . . . . . or the history of humanity, which is short in comparison to the rest of the universe).

I am sincerely hoping you all are taking notes or watching and re-watching this video over and over again. Share it with your family. Share it with your friends, or on your own blog or with a teacher: this knowledge--this clarity--has to spread, and unfortunately because the main goal of the media is to make a profit, we have to spread it the old-fashioned way: pestering your acquaintances until they watch and/or give a damn.

This is ridiculously important and will affect everyone's lives to an extent, so arm yourselves with knowledge! As the Doctor said, "Books (or in this case infovideos) are the best weapons in the world!"

With Love,

Nikola Strange

Reeducate the Cynical

I need to reeducate myself:

As of late, I’ve fallen into a dangerous and dastardly cynicism, and I’m not enjoying it. It’s coming at a high price—the ability to compromise, comprehend, and co-create (it took me a total of 30 seconds to come up with three C’s).

A number of factors have come up to suddenly bring this wave onto me:
My Government class comes to mind.

AP U.S. Government was a real eye-opener for me from the beginning. I won’t pretend I was a special breed, thus amplifying the above statement: I am your average nerd in an AP Gov’t class—interested in politics before joining, plans to be politically active, didn't really understand wtf the news was trying to say.

I’m proud to say I understood the President during his live Internet Chat on youtube (and greatly enjoyed his Roosevelt reference, even if I don’t hold too high of an opinion on FDR).

Normally, this would be viewed at as a brilliant thing! “Look, these children understand our politics!”

Education is the greatest equalizer of man, and that makes me lethal.

I want to say that one day and genuinely mean it.

We gotta start aimin' for THIS, dudes.

Yet the downside is, like reality, not simple: I grew a set of core beliefs. Most people wouldn’t see this as a bad thing, I don’t think, but I feel the need to elaborate. When we grow this core belief, we tend to reject anything and everything opposing those beliefs, even if they make sense or could benefit the whole of the nation/community. We see this all the time: our Congressional leaders pulling the breaks on the nation’s business, the far-out margins spouting their beliefs on their metaphorical soapboxes. You may see it as backwards, yet they (hopefully, depending on your viewpoint) see the rest of the world as wrong. And that isn’t healthy. For anyone. We need more pragmatists in the world, I think. People willing to look at the situation at hand and act for the good of the nation instead of those looking out the lends of their beliefs first and then applying themselves to the situation at hand—we need policy for ideals, and not ideals for policy (gotta love sound bites).

At the same time an admired man once said “If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything!” So how much of this is actually harmful? How much is too much? Will we ever know? What struggles are worth fighting for?! When are we pushing it too far!? When do our leaders, and ourselves, overextend their cores or their beliefs (parties) and endanger the nation and the world?

If you find the answer to these questions easy to come by, I envy you. I wish I had that shiny box-world, where all the solutions were wrapped up with a nice bow. Simple patters, straight lines, and easy access to follow. Unfortunately, I live in an odd place.

Arhgfbkvbfsifskbfcshfbkjdsbcdshzj
confusion!!

Currently, I’d have to try and find the balance. . . .and that struggle will remain with me forever as a struggle to keep improving myself. Or keep myself at a functional level. Yeah, I think the latter’s the most accurate. My thoughts are in a constant state between too little and too much. Those moments I feel perfection is more just a chemical reaction existing in an isolated environment, which puts me on the same boat as just about everybody else on the planet.

Sure, some argue that a healthy dose of cynicism’s good for the soul, which may be true, but I don’t want to be too closed off from the rest of the options of the world as to live in a bias. I guess I want to forever live in the state of a tabula raza.

A young, impressionable, clean youth, pure and unspoiled by the biases of the world; is that a good thing to aspire to? I don’t know.

You cannot stay completely clear of opinion if you want to dive into a subject. It’s not possible. Even the most silenced of wallflowers has an opinion to express inside. Yet I don’t want to be clouded from acceptance of others! I don’t want to limit any progress that could be made through that limitation! I also don’t want to give up.

Stephen Colbert was once quoted as saying “Cynics always say no. But saying ‘yes’ begins things.”

We once spent an entire week in AP lang trying to decipher within ourselves (or debate) which was best.

“Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt or disappoint us.”

To change the validity of this statement, one would have to change the definition of cynicism, and maybe make a reference to an important figure to back it up. Einstein is good.

The financial state of the nation spiraling Collage students into debt and killing me kindly with the promise of a better future I’ll probably not get, because the nation’s in a state of disarray and I won’t be able to work at DreamWorks or Pixar or Disney and I’ll be stuck with a useless degree . . . . .

Oh look, problems!

“They only tell you want you want to hear” My Gov’t teacher says “You’re all wonderful and it’s never your fault. Those mean Republicans/Democrats don’t care about America or Grandma! We’ll take care of it!” While he mimes kicking the metaphor of an imaginary can. “By the way, we’re 16 trillion in the hole! On a rocket ship to 20!”

“You’re giving us nightmares, you know.” I had to blurt out like an idiot.

He looked shocked. “I never meant to. I simply wanted to expose you to realities of our system.”

And here I am yelling at newspaper article titles.

Stephen Colbert, Ironically enough one of the most influential figures in my life and a person responsible for my core belief . . . .for lack of a better word, problem, once had these words to say on cynicism: “Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics.”

I don’t want to not believe in anything! I want to be entranced by the beauty of the world. I want magic to occur! I want solutions. I want an ending to this chapter even if it has to be dragged out of the world while it kicks and screams because the grown ass people know when it’s time to stop being selfish! Yet something keeps me from shouting and leaves me largely empty and drowned, like the weight of this world I have in my head snuffs out the fires.

 “Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it.”

Well it looks like I’m far from my goal.

 “Because cynics don’t learn anything.”

I’m trying. That’s the point of this blog. Dearest no one, I use you for therapy.

“Cynics always say no. But saying “yes” begins things. Saying “yes” is how things grow. Saying “yes” leads to knowledge. “Yes” is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say “yes'.”

“’yes’ is for young people.”

I want to stay young.

Forever young again.

But I’m only 17.

“So for as long as you have the strength to, say ‘yes’.”

Right now, I’m going through a weird mix between “Nothing’s that great” (quoted from Julia Nunes) to “I’m not a hero!!” (A little thing my friends do: ‘Dude, I’d totally ROCK as an Avenger!!’ ‘No wai, man!’. . . .), to “The name on everybody’s lips is gonna be (mine).” to me laughing at how silly I sound. And repeat.

Can’t I get over this and be some silly kid again all of the time?

yosshyoshyoshyoshyoshhhh

Adulthood’s five months away? I gotta get used to this shit? . . . . Okay (I guess. Military can consider you to be a dependent to 26. . . . . But I don’t want to be dependent and I hate not trying. Damnit).

Erphh. . . . How about I stop thinking so much and get back to something easy, like my book report or finding the cure for cancer?

The nation’s problems will come the day I am good and ready to enter into office, and that’s another 18 or so years from now!!

I'd get the last quoted sentence as a tattoo if it wouldn't sound terrible out of context.

With Love,
Nikola Strange.

(("WHY DON'T YOU PAY FOR THE STOCK PHOTOS?!"
I'm too broke to pay for free photos, okay!! DD:))

Empathy Dependency

After a load of (positive) peer pressure from my favorite dick of a best friend last year for not having watched the movies, I had finally given in and decided to read the Lord of the Rings novel—and I meant read. It’s my moral belief to always read a book before watching a movie! The school librarian, earning a spot in the awesome people of the world list, instantly dropped everything to help introduce me to Middle Earth: He flat-out rejected me the Fellowship until I had read the prequel book what started it all—the Hobbit. This book, along with its sequel, instantly became a favorite of mine!

In fact, I went out to purchase a copy of the Lord of the Rings book* as soon as I had money in my hands! I got a copy of the Hobbit on my Kindle and set out to learn all I could on the rich history of Middle Earth, gobbling up information over the Undying lands, the Istar, the different races of Elvenkind, and the men of Gondor, and Middle Earth herself.

You can imagine my sweet elation at finding out Bilbo and the Dwarves would be brought to the big screen by director, Peter Jackson.

Instantly, I began gorging myself on all the articles I could find, sharing them on Facebook, spamming my friends with the movie, and absorbing every released image. I ate away at the differences between the book and movie, along with its similarities.

One moment among these stood out to me the most, however. As per usual, I was very much late to the news of two fandoms of mine crossing, and began hyperventilating and squealing uncontrollably at my discovery of Bilbo Baggins being portrayed by Martin Freeman, better known to the Sherlocked at Dr. John Watson.

I was jumping for joy and scaring the neighbors when everything in my world came to a screeching halt: Tumblr was down.

By the Valar I was devastated! That beautiful site was my outlet! There are no LoTR fans in my family, and I only had two friends whom really liked the books and movies! I needed these strangers there for me, to understand and share in all my feels! I needed those hilarious images crossing the fandoms to feel complete—to relieve my happiness. Then it hit me:

We’re all really damn spoiled.

As a society we’ve all gotten so spoiled by this miracle technology, we expect people to care about things we care about, even if they’re complete strangers—we assume as fact this will happen. Caring! I was so amazed that this word could be reduced to something so trivial yet blown up to something so vast by the internet: the feeling and exhibition of concern and compassion for others looked for in people behind the clacking of a keyboard.

I remember when my elder sisters felt special and privileged when one had to give up the phone for the other to use the internet (why the hell were they on the internet anyway? What did people do on here then?!). Hell, I still remember sucking up the courage to sit through and weather the storm of the dial up modem and the happiness that ensued after the (seemingly) warm voice saying “Welcome!”

I began to wonder if, as a generation, we were too indulged by this sense of self-worth. Do we really love ourselves too much as to expect empathy? Or was this a coping of sort of mechanism to make ourselves feel closer to others? Have we really become so anti-social strangers are more welcomed than people we know? And how much do we really know about either side? The argument could be made that we’re more open to strangers, but when did the classic “stranger danger” safety tip become null and void for the sake of our self-expressions? And how much of that is really us?

I remember being genuinely scared of sights like Facebook and Twitter since people could follow you on them. I found it disturbing a site would name the connection of two separate pages “following”. The term “stalking” on the internet has become something of a joke; a quick laugh, to downplay you’re admiring of another individual. This is what we’ve come to. We expose ourselves to the world in a matter that would probably make Narcissus blush, yet we can’t help but do so.

And in a sense, who could blame us? The internet was initially created as a way to share information to massive number of people at once. With a slight tweak of the definition of information, you have the very basis of our social media structure.

But what of our attachment to this?

I don't think I would ever leave. I don’t think ever could.

I can slowly but surely feel myself losing my sanity, but I'd never leave this place. It's a society within a society, thus explaining the success of the anime Sword Art Online. In this world, we are who we wish we were, not who we really are . . . . . which is also concerning. I don't think I'm much different here and, well, here, but I enjoy the company of strangers, be they lovely lies or beautiful people. I don’t know what that says about me.

With Love,
Nikola Strange.