The campus looked wildly different. The old student union
had been demolished and the new one was raised a hundred yards back and off the
center of campus, opening up the campus mall in a sea of fresh cement and plant
life. The muddy little creek that used to run by the parking lot now flowed
through the mall.
Inside the student center everything looked fresh as well. It
even smelled fresh. As He made my way along the hallways, he discovered that
everything was still called the same thing, but nothing looked the same. “The
Cabin,” a dark and dusty windowless lounge reminiscent of an old dive bar was
now pushed out to the exterior.
He made his way over to the library to at least physically
orient himself to something that was the same. Same bricks, same layout, even most
of the same paintings were still on the wall. Yet here there were small nuanced
changes, like exercise rooms in the center of the library floors sporting an
elliptical, a treadmill and a bicycle. “Mind & Body Fitness” it said on the
door.
Many of the buildings indeed were the same from his days
there at the turn of the century. Yet he found that none of the old feelings
were. None of those feelings of timidity or bashfulness. He realized he was no
longer afraid to succeed. Afraid to simply approach life and say, “Hey.”
He used to dread the thought of approaching someone, afraid
of pushing out over new ground and opening a conversation. Afraid to open his
own weaknesses and shortcomings to the cutting edge. Afraid to let that block
of wood be touched by the sharp blade that would loosen the masterpiece within.
Those days where he sat hunched, defending himself against the knives that
wanted to cut away the corners and chip away the dross—the very things that
held him captive inside its walls.
Even as he was afraid of success, he was afraid of failure.
Afraid of what it would do to him if he tried and came up short. So instead he
never got started.
He was suddenly overcome with the desire to go back. To wipe
out the dreams that haunted him—the ones where he showed up to class to
discover he had missed half the semester and was now receiving a failing grade.
The ones where five years had simply slipped away and vanished.
He would open those nightmares to reality. Ground them in the
truth. Drown them in movement. Create in time a physical reality that would
stick, even in his dreams.
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Kyrgyzstan? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Kyrgyzstan in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez