My journals aren't usually that informative about me or my life. Here's the lowdown on me as of late:

-------------------------
. currently in my final year of high school

. I'm planning on studying linguistics and German next year at Uni

. 2008 was a fucking good year for me on all fronts

. I'm going to Europe in June and will be in the following cities: Brussels, Bruges, Luxembourg City, Trier, Worms, Rothenburg, Stuttgart, Freiburg, Triberg, Konstanz, und Lucern. If you live in/near/have knowledge of any of these cities, I'd love advice on what to do and see other than typisch touristy things. Merci/Danke!



PS: you can ask me questions about myself (if you care) since this was pretty short...

[link] Watch this.







So, the year goes.

100 years in the future, children will learn about the first black president, global recession, terrorist attacks, Greek riots, devastating earthquakes...

but they won't learn about the pictures I hung in my room,
or the friends I met,
or the words I learned,
or the food we cooked,
the films we saw,
the art we made,
the things we celebrated,
the plans we made.

They won't learn about all the things I tried,
the people I miss,
the thoughts I've collected like postcards.

They'll be too busy doing all of that themselves... but I'll never forget--I have the photographs to prove it.




2008
_{(not necessarily made in 2008)}
































---

Thank you all for your constant support.

Keep your eyes peeled: it begins right here on January 3rd, 2009.

summering;
Joe

Farewell, legal adolescence! Oh that we should part so soon!

Last night I was outside taking pictures as the calendar changed behind me. The fog and clouds pulled back just enough to show off the glimmer of Scorpio and Orion and friends in the sky.

I find it beautifully comforting that photographs of the night sky reveal so much that we cannot see...

But it was cold last night, frigid upon my fingers. In my mind though, I'm all Greek isles and forest summers and spring fields and island paces.

I hope that you've got a little sunshine, a little palmy beach, a little blue blue, warm warm water in your minds as the cold sets in.

18 years of breathing, dreaming and love, and no end in sight...

Perfect.




sunny, always;
joe

Hi there. It's been a while, I known, and I'm sorry. I miss you all, really.

Tonight, I had decided some time ago, I would write something(s). I'm not sure why, really, whether for others, or for myself, or for my future self. Commemoration? To remind myself who I was? Probably, but also to help myself locate my role in everything around me.


So, for everything,
thank you, all of you.



And, congratulations to Barack Obama,
America's next President.

----------------------------------

What we found, Together
_{please watch. it's short.}




Softly, as Mr. Gump, America jogs onward.




My home state is covered with plants of great height; like oceans, you can see the top, but not the floor. Today those plants clapped loudly while a national wind bounced through our recent Indian Summer.



I watched intently as leaves shook and plead with their parents to let them stay,
and,
the parents waved goodbye, kissed their leaves, and let them fall to the world below-gracefully, not roughly as the leaves themselves feared.



The wind blew the only candle out. At first, the people were afraid. They threw their heads back in preparation for a devastating wail of defeat.

Yet, when their chins arrived in the air, they swallowed their screams. For, in the blackness of their darkest night,

they rediscovered the stars.


gazing;
Joe

Finding myself was like being a single star in the night.
I couldn't be that: one star. I, we, are thousands of stars, each one of us.

You, all of you, are my sky.





Everything is changing..










My love, always;
Joe