Geneva
Lake Geneva was host to the most breathtaking sights of my life. I don’t know if I’ll ever have so much magic flooding my body at once. I am simply overwhelmed with emotion upon my further connection to humankind in its varying guises and dances. The food (the scraps I ate of what my friends didn’t finish) was absolutely phenomenal. I didn’t get the chance to try authentic Swiss fondue, but I’ll be damned if I’m not back for that alone, and maybe some good old fashioned skiing.
I love this country with my whole heart. I didn’t think I was going to be leaving Italy but thankfully my other university classmates made it impossible for me to refuse coming along. I will jump on the opportunity to live here if I can.
This trip truly opened my mind more than Italy ever did. Geneva was expensive, but the sights blew me away time and time again. I can see myself raising a family here, something I can’t say about any other place I’ve been yet. The hunger I have to achieve and the fire in my heart are growing stronger than I can keep track of them.
The United Nations building stood prouder than any of the alps, striking me with a deep feeling of wonder as I considered all of the amazing achievements our race has reached on this premise. Uniting is always the best option. I reflect on the division in my home county with disgust and as much as I disagree with our current administration’s decisions I wish for peace. I wish for unity regardless of belief. Switzerland is like a fantasy for me, cooperation, love, and pure craftsmanship. Most people don’t go to college here and end up devoting their lives to skilled trades like watch/knife/chocolate making, so no wonder they’re mostly very happy. I wish America could find direction like that. Could find a purpose or a stereotype that makes us look decent like the Swiss and their fondue, or their addicting chocolates. Sadly we’re known for obesity and greasy ass burgers.
Regardless I am driven. As a citizen of my country I have pride, as disgusting as our culture may be at times, as hypocritical as our president may be perceived at home and abroad, we are so incredibly privileged to have what we have in our freedoms. With every sight that takes my breath away I remember how incredibly lucky I am to still be breathing, and I find further encouragement not to take a single second for granted. This life is our only chance to truly impact Mother Earth and bring positivity, peace, light, and color into a cycle of gray that our forefathers induced.
I only hope my song screams peace. Screams love. Screams happiness. Because for all the times I wanted to die I know it doesn’t have to be that way ever for anyone. For all the times I pushed people away I know that we can unite and achieve amazing things as a collective. Switzerland only proved that I was correct in this belief.
The Geneva botanical gardens were like a movie. I’ve never seen and been inspired by such unadulterated beauty in Mother Nature, but also never so disgusted at man’s perversion of her desires. As we walked by locals smoking cigarettes on the garden benches, I reminisced on how I used to have no regard for our mother’s beautiful face. Of her hair, her flowing green veins that wrap us all in the pervasive might of pure connection to our shared existence.
I find I am more motivated than ever to make my presence known, to make the earth shake and let everyone understand just how I wish to shape my sphere of influence. As my roommate told me, the world really is what you make of it. More so every day I believe in something so much bigger than us, as I was so skeptical to for many years. whether or not I perceive it as God is my choice, but I am so much more confident in this ethereal work after today. All the things that could go right went right: my classmate’s girlfriend who does research in Cern is a friend of one of my housemates for next year, when we met up with her in Geneva she bought me dinner because I was hungry and couldn’t afford it. Also, because Geneva is one of the top 3 most expensive cities in the world, I realized how incredible it is that I was randomly placed in a room with the one other person on the trip who struggled to afford these $40+ dinners, and grew up with significant financial difficulty. Our journeys seem too closely intertwined for this to be coincidental.
At the bus stop on the way back from Geneva, my roommate and I had a conversation regarding life, humility, growth, and order in the universe and I was even further perplexed when a 28 year old grad student from Dartmouth walked up, noticing my roommate's Umich shirt, and asked us about school. We talked about the same things as we were before, but also of how ambition evolves with age; I found invaluable wisdom in learning of his journey and further power in being truly unique with my passions. How fascinating it is to me that each and every one of us are so irrevocably fixed in our progress along these stepping stones of life, one achievement to the next. His words were supportive and encouraging in a way I’ve never thought of, and when I mentioned my classmate’s girlfriend due to her generous and meaningful contribution to my journey, she walked up that same second to join our conversation. Overwhelming to say the least...
These coincidences, as much as the engineer in me wishes to call them so, can not be just that. For we are not just the electrical impulses flashing across the brain, or animals, or consciousnesses. Whether through the collective willpower of humanity, what some define as karma (I.E. the positive reinforcement of righteous actions through rewards from those who reaped benefit from the selfless intent behind them), or purely inexplicable workings of our universe, I have been touched by the powers that be. The powers that still escape and will forever escape my comprehension.
But that’s okay, because I can only be so far along on my journey. I don't need to understand everything this very second, as I often wanted to for years. Where before I panicked at the unknown, now I am glad I don't know everything. Because I shouldn't. Because I can only love so hard, think so hard, and live so fully in this very moment, as this trip has so exotically reinforced. I was bummed to break my budget in Geneva and dip pretty far into my personal savings, but my life wouldn’t be the same if I hadn’t come. I think I’m right where I’m meant to be. Where I need to be. Life is mysterious, full of awe and marvels, and my love for cataloging it’s flowing nature will persist through the years.
I only hope to take the inspiration of the giants upon whose shoulders I stand and create a sliver of something that has previously not existed, using a soul that is entirely borrowed, begged for, and stolen by this flesh and blood vehicle I ride until the end of my days. Even as I understand these complexities, I wish for no more than to simplify, simplify. I plan only for today if I can, because if I can make one existence better for my actions I am satisfied with the sum of my toils in this lifetime.
Regardless of when my time comes, I’ll be back, though not in this body. This mind might one day be gone but this existence will always return stronger and most pure in refinement of the undying love for our connection to these wondrous surroundings.
All people love, all suffer, all wish for peace, but few are in a place of life where we can constantly act on these emotions and express them as easily as I do. Even the most evil were once loved, once wished to love, wished to be happy. Whether skewed situationally or in self inflicted destruction, these malicious souls are simply our own in disguise, iterated in such a way that their pain has consumed all the love, hopes, and dreams they once had through often disgusting and deprecatory habits. I see parts of these tendencies in myself and have often despised how difficult they are to escape, yet now with the wind of destiny at my back I feel strong enough to fight them consistently for the duration of my life to become the best person I can be.
For those who read these words and find encouragement, I hope my love for existence on the smallest scale to the embodiment of the universe as we know it fills your heart with warmth and soul, and for those who never knew me I hope this window into my slice of reality has allowed the life giving sunlight of creative inspiration into your everyday life. Thank you for your time, your support, your love, and the part you play in my journey or that of any other being on this incredible planet, as tortured as it may seem. You are stronger than you know, wiser than you know, and more important to the planet’s future than you could imagine.
For those who read these words and find encouragement, I hope my love for existence on the smallest scale to the embodiment of the universe as we know it fills your heart with warmth and soul, and for those who never knew me I hope this window into my slice of reality has allowed the life giving sunlight of creative inspiration into your everyday life. Thank you for your time, your support, your love, and the part you play in my journey or that of any other being on this incredible planet, as tortured as it may seem. You are stronger than you know, wiser than you know, and more important to the planet’s future than you could imagine.
Love always,
Life itself
(For its embodiment is irrelevant to this message)
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