Bodies in Orbit

This is a passage from an expository essay I wrote a while back for an English class. Just felt like sharing.

"We picture ourselves as the stars, the tragic heroes, the bizarre and awkward central characters of our own great American coming-of-age movie. We become the suns, the all-important focal points, of our own twisted solar systems. But the planets that orbit around us—which pull in so incredibly close to us at times, then almost helplessly drift farther and farther away—these are the bodies that, when nearby, set our atmospheres ablaze and alter our compositions, making permanent impressions on our surfaces. This is the burning, searing, enduring mark of love."

California, here I come...

In the past few days I've had a couple of adventures in real world dodging. Let me elaborate:

The other weekend I drove down to Villanova with a buddy of mine that went abroad for the spring semester. Funny how months can go by, yet it felt like just yesterday that we were causing mayhem together. Some of my other '09 friends were also in the area, which made for an eventful night. However, I also concluded that graduating from college also means graduating from jello shots, as well as shotgunning beers. In the post-grad world, they're just not quite as appealing (then again, were they ever appealing in the first place?).

Then came a day I had been awaiting with excitement and dreading with fear at the same time: the job interview (my first one since I've been home). Despite the sweaty, jittery panicfest I experienced on the Q train on the way there, I think I made a pretty good impression. So if I get the job, does this make me lose credibility as a real world dodger? In this economy, I don't think so. I've got bills to pay, people.

And now I'm about to leave on a jet plane to go see a J-Crane. Translation: my girlfriend's been in Los Angeles for almost 4 weeks now interning in the entertainment industry, and I'm about to visit her tomorrow. We had to say goodbye to each other the morning after graduation day, which was awful (as if we weren't already emotional wrecks as it was). I'm extremely excited to see her and to step foot on the West Coast for the first time in my life. I promised myself two things: 1) I'm bringing back a souvenir for my parents, and 2) I'm swimming in the Pacific Ocean, no matter how ice cold I hear that the water is. I'm swimming, and you can't stop me.

So here's to what should be an excellent vacation, and another adventure in real world dodging. Until next time, cyberspace.

Inaugural Post

Welcome to DODGING THE REAL WORLD.

This blog is, first and foremost, an outlet for my thoughts. Now that I'm a college graduate (eep) and no longer have my weekly newspaper column to fall back on (I'll miss you, Vis-a-Vis), it looks like I'm going to have to do things a bit differently. True, I won't have an audience of several thousand Villanova students this time around, but I think I'm ready for something a bit more intimate.

Funny, though, that it's been a good four years since I've blogged (my painfully awkward teenage years were chronicled in exhausting detail on a Xanga page-- let's leave it at that). Perhaps, then, this will take some getting used to. Or maybe not. We'll see.

For the moment, as I continue to search for a job and fumble cluelessly towards the next stage of my life, I'm taking this with me. There's a long road ahead, and hopefully the perks and quirks of being a 20something young adult (read: drunken merriment) won't stop. College may be over, but it doesn't mean I still can't have fun.

So here we go: I'm dodging the so-called "real world"-- one day at a time.