Who am I?

                I’m not your average 21-year-old. I don’t like alcohol—it makes my heart race and makes me really hot; I don’t like feeling out of control. I don’t enjoy partying and I love to read. Children’s books and coloring makes me happy. I enjoy taking photographs and listening to music. I’ve written poems since the first time I was confronted with something I didn’t understand.

                I don’t know you, but I’d like to. I’d like to hear your story, to offer you some advice, to smile with you and cry with you. Maybe that naïve, to believe that people can connect so intimately through a computer screen, but I’ve always had my head up in the clouds.

                I’ve done a lot of thinking these past years, I guess we all do around this age—or at least that’s what my psych professors say. This is the time that we determine who we are and what the rest of our life is going to be. The thing is, I don’t know who I am. I don’t know where I’m going. Sometimes, I don’t even know how I’ll make it to tomorrow.

                John Lennon said “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

                I want to find something that is going to make me happy, and I’m working on that. I’ve got a great girl that makes me happy, and I can only hope that I’ll find a great job that makes me happy. But even more than happiness, I want to change the world.

                I look around and see all of these people around me, and it amazes me that we’re each these beautifully unique creatures. Then I think about all of the hate and the violence, I think about all of these amazing people who don’t think they’re good enough and my heart aches. When I grow up, I want to be happy. But I also want to share that happiness with others. I want to make someone smile every morning, I want to make them feel special, I want to remind them of their worth. That’s my plan to change the world…through sharing my happiness and demonstrating kindness to all of these people. Who knows, maybe it’ll spark a movement.