“It was no deterrent. No one who is young is ever going to be old.” - John Steinbeck

As I sit with my eyes locked on the masterful storytelling of East of Eden and the triumphant shrills of Edith Piath in my ears, I am transported. I discover a place that seems so familiar yet so foreign. I start to explore the space of the eternal, the depths of my own consciousness. As I traverse the scene, I come upon a benevolent trainwreck. A whirlwind of thoughts and half-thoughts; dreams, ideas, and fading truths. I cannot even begin to distinguish where reality starts or ends. A place of equal light and darkness that collide into an unsettling amount of grey. The nearly peaceful coexistence between faith and doubt that transfuse into something I identify as passion. I feel comfortable in discomfort, this is a place I never want to leave.

There are no routines, no obligations and definitely no curfews. I am free. I can stroll down the streets of 1920s, golden age New York smoking my lungs to oblivion among literary pioneers. I can be an audience of one in front of every philharmonic to ever bless the stage. I can express every emotion humanly capable without shedding a single tear. I can be in community with all beings, alive and deceased. Infinity is not a concept, it simply is. There is absolutely nothing that can tell me otherwise. The road is straight and clear, but I am the one that determines whether I stay on it. This is what it means to be alive.

As long as we are brave, we as created beings, have the capacity to do anything and everything that we put our mind to. And that mind my friends, is infinite. It knows no bounds. It doesn’t wait for the host to act, it doesn’t shut off and as much as you try, it will not stop. It stretches far beyond the heavens and penetrates farther than the devil’s dominion. It is something that no physical hindrance can take away. There is a reason that cliches manifest themselves; they contain specks of undeniable truth. I can say this with the utmost conviction and confidence, you can follow your dreams. 

Yes, there will be inconsistencies. There will be unfortunate circumstances. There will be instances where events are out of your control, but it is up to you to decide their outcomes. There will be times of great despair and moments of pure elation, but it is up to you to rank their impact on your journey. With pen and pad provided, it up to us to write the beautiful narrative. We are not meant to lurk over another’s shoulder to discover an irrelevant plot twist. We are meant to live in the perpetual rising action with death the only possible climax and glory the resolution.

We are young. If you go to this place, nothing will tell you any different. That floating mass encased by your skull is a bottomless time capsule. You walk with no destination. You are not forced to do anything, but encouraged to do everything.