Today I shadowed a lady at the International Student Center at a university. I met two girls from Kuwait. In the lobby while we waited, an Asian guy walks in. He stands around for a while, watching the sports broadcast on television. It was a soccer match between the PRK and AUS.
Then one of the girls looks over at him and asks, "PRK? What's that stand for?"
And everyone in the lobby sort of shrugs. I want to tell her it stands for the People's Republic of Korea, but then it would seem like I'd been eavesdropping. So I don't say anything.
The girl's sister says, "You're Korean, aren't you? Which do you support?"
It took me a moment to realize she meant, North or South Korea? And the guy replied, "South."
The girl said, "Of course."
And suddenly on the television, the camera pans out over the crowd. A big sign is displayed by one of the fans that reads, "Kim Jong-il thinks I'm at work". No one in the lobby says anything. I guess there wasn't any need.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Through the Trees
Most of my days for a couple years now have been pretty similar. I try to run daily and incorporate at least the smallest music into my life. I’ve lived in the same house for as long as I can remember. Right now, I’m in limbo between my junior year and my senior year. We’re getting a new band director and I’m drum major. The people I know, they’ve been with my for years.
Second semester junior year, so just a little bit ago, I did Fusion Indoor Percussion. I experienced a little taste of something outside of my home town.
I fell in love with music again.
It’s weird because I’m always writing about running or music it seems. That is what I’m made of though. Those are the things that have brought me to today and I like to say this a lot even though it is kind of silly: “Music has saved me in a lot of ways.” Running has given me something to strive for but let me tell you something, the first time I ever stood on that drum major podium, I cried. I’m more open about this now. I can hear my voice telling anyone who can listen and then I laugh, like it was a hilarious moment. It wasn’t but I look at that memory fondly. What I always forget to add is that one of the reasons I cried was because of the kindness that strangers showed me. I didn’t conduct in front of my marching band the first time - I got to conduct in front of a camp of other drum majors. All they said were words of encouragement.
I think that if you were to separate my life into categories and instead of chronological order, simply through them in a pot of frequencies, I would have spent most of my life with the schools I attended. There is a point where music and running over laps. Once a month each semester, twice a school year. Life gets hectic and I feel like I live in my car or at least, on the pavement of my high school. Not under blistering sun or anything but to face sunsets and sun rises. To sit with my music coming from headphones or my thoughts to fill voids.
And you know, I’ve changed.
Something is happening to me and I don’t know what.
No scratch that, I certainly know what is happening to me. Life is.
I just got back from a run. My feet are sore in weird spots and sweat is drying at the nape of my neck. The run wasn’t the fastest or farthest I have ever gone but it was a good one nonetheless. I thought about things. I haven’t really thought deeply like that in a while - it was refreshing as if all the dust blew away in the wind and now all that is left is a shiny lacquer finish.
Tomorrow morning, I leave for the United States Military Academy Summer Leaders Seminar. It is a week long experience for those competitive in a nomination and appointment to the academy to not only take the physical but to get a taste of what life as a cadet is.
I’m scared.
As in, I’ve never been more scared in my life for the safety of my future. It seems like tomorrow is the end of something and the birth of a completely new experience that I’m not ready for.
I think I’ll be okay and eventually I’ll be far past it but it just seems like everything is going to change.
I hate to steal Sara’s thunder but last night, I read The Five People You Meet in Heaven. It was incredible and it got me thinking. As I was running, trying to find a direction in my life, does it really matter? As long as I’ve got friends, I don’t think it does. I think it’s important for an individual to be happy and to look around as what they’ve already got.
No matter where I go in life, I think if we get to choose our heaven, mine would be the place behind my high school. After the neighborhood and past the cactus is a place made up of brush that turns green during the monsoons and yellow for the rest of the year. The trial is carved out of ATV tracks long before I ever discovered it. It is peaceful. It is also the closest I’ve ever come to that elusive ‘perfect run’.
Through the Trees - David Tolk
PS Sorry for taking so long to blog. I’ll have to double post this summer. I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say anyway.
Second semester junior year, so just a little bit ago, I did Fusion Indoor Percussion. I experienced a little taste of something outside of my home town.
I fell in love with music again.
It’s weird because I’m always writing about running or music it seems. That is what I’m made of though. Those are the things that have brought me to today and I like to say this a lot even though it is kind of silly: “Music has saved me in a lot of ways.” Running has given me something to strive for but let me tell you something, the first time I ever stood on that drum major podium, I cried. I’m more open about this now. I can hear my voice telling anyone who can listen and then I laugh, like it was a hilarious moment. It wasn’t but I look at that memory fondly. What I always forget to add is that one of the reasons I cried was because of the kindness that strangers showed me. I didn’t conduct in front of my marching band the first time - I got to conduct in front of a camp of other drum majors. All they said were words of encouragement.
I think that if you were to separate my life into categories and instead of chronological order, simply through them in a pot of frequencies, I would have spent most of my life with the schools I attended. There is a point where music and running over laps. Once a month each semester, twice a school year. Life gets hectic and I feel like I live in my car or at least, on the pavement of my high school. Not under blistering sun or anything but to face sunsets and sun rises. To sit with my music coming from headphones or my thoughts to fill voids.
And you know, I’ve changed.
Something is happening to me and I don’t know what.
No scratch that, I certainly know what is happening to me. Life is.
I just got back from a run. My feet are sore in weird spots and sweat is drying at the nape of my neck. The run wasn’t the fastest or farthest I have ever gone but it was a good one nonetheless. I thought about things. I haven’t really thought deeply like that in a while - it was refreshing as if all the dust blew away in the wind and now all that is left is a shiny lacquer finish.
Tomorrow morning, I leave for the United States Military Academy Summer Leaders Seminar. It is a week long experience for those competitive in a nomination and appointment to the academy to not only take the physical but to get a taste of what life as a cadet is.
I’m scared.
As in, I’ve never been more scared in my life for the safety of my future. It seems like tomorrow is the end of something and the birth of a completely new experience that I’m not ready for.
I think I’ll be okay and eventually I’ll be far past it but it just seems like everything is going to change.
I hate to steal Sara’s thunder but last night, I read The Five People You Meet in Heaven. It was incredible and it got me thinking. As I was running, trying to find a direction in my life, does it really matter? As long as I’ve got friends, I don’t think it does. I think it’s important for an individual to be happy and to look around as what they’ve already got.
No matter where I go in life, I think if we get to choose our heaven, mine would be the place behind my high school. After the neighborhood and past the cactus is a place made up of brush that turns green during the monsoons and yellow for the rest of the year. The trial is carved out of ATV tracks long before I ever discovered it. It is peaceful. It is also the closest I’ve ever come to that elusive ‘perfect run’.
Through the Trees - David Tolk
PS Sorry for taking so long to blog. I’ll have to double post this summer. I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say anyway.
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