Neunzehn jahre.

Birthdays are always such interesting events. I update my Journal here every birthday, regardless of how little I otherwise update it.

I find myself each year spending my birthday thinking about how different I was a year ago, how different my life was, where I am now, where I'm going, where I want to go. I'm certainly far from where I imagined myself last year.

But things are beautiful: I'm not exactly sure where I'm going or going to end up, as usual, but I feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to be doing, hard as it may be at times.

In the last year, I've been out of the country for the first time, been accepted and came to a wonderful college, graduated high school, met wonderful new people, some from far far away, started learning several new languages, made art, danced, learned a new instrument and picked up an old one, developed a keen sense of coffee quality (!), read some, wrote some, realized what it is to live away from everyone you love the most, and so much more....

Things in this world go a million miles an hour--it's like someone tossed paint into a wind tunnel; all the colors are dancing and mixing and becoming new things; the only sad part is that there's too much to see and do in the time I've been given.



I hope this finds everyone well, doing good works and finding that good place in the sun.

All my love,
joe