I've always had a very strange tendency to categorize past periods of times in my life by color. I think I have explained this in a post here before but it requires too much effort to go filter through the old content to find out. In short, I have almost a feeling or sense of color affiliated with each year or time period of my life. The memories have this tint or shade to them, without actually having it. I don't know. It's very odd. I don't think it's a normal habit.
Anyways, the "vibes" for each time period operate in a fashion similar to the siren of a fire truck. The most strong feelings are from memories that are very recent or were a very long time ago. The least impactful vibes are from memories in between, and eventually at a middle point they just aren't really there - to an extent. They still have an obvious color and such but I don't feel the emotional trigger in the same way I normally do. This leads me to believe that my person at the present time is most heavily influenced by recent events and earlier years of life. Perhaps this has all been stated by someone who is trained in understanding these concepts of life, but I'll just pretend like I'm the first to think that. This also brings up the sad fact that at some point, the present will be insignificant - as it does not qualify as an early year of my life and one day won't be recent.
Time is a strange thing to think about. They say that everything has all happened at once and time is just the method our brain uses to comprehend everything. It is but another dimension. This means that in a sense your 2 year old grandma is existing as the same time as your 75 year old daughter. The sheer concept of that - of all those people converging into one exact point - gives me goosebumps. It really provides a new perspective on how little we are, and how simple things are for us.
I had much more to write but the hour is getting late and I have to be up relatively early tomorrow. I will add more to this at a later date. Thanks for reading.
-Umar
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Monday, July 20, 2015
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Colorado to California
(Previous part of my journey)
I spent a few weeks in Colorado hanging out with friends and lifeguarding, it was great to see everyone again and to be home. After about three weeks of being in Colorado I was going to be driving to California for my sister's high school graduation. My mom and my sister's friend, and ex-boyfriend Caleb were going to be taking this trek with me.
We left the morning of June 5th and stopped to pick up some Dutch Bros coffee on the way, I always get the cinnamon tea with soymilk and honey. The first part of the drive was pretty cool, nothing new to me - it was the rockies in Colorado, I'd grown up seeing these mountains so it wasn't too spectacular. Something about that area will always give me a sense of nostalgia though. We eventually crossed the border into Utah and things started to become a bit different from what I was used to. Giant rock formations were coming up from the flat land, heavy concentrations of iron were there and leaving it's recognizable reddish color all over the formations. One place in Utah in particular was absolutely amazing, we did stop at a lookout to get some pictures of it - Black Dragon Canyon. The rest of the time in Utah was pretty boring compared to Black Dragon Canyon, just empty desert.
After Utah, we reached southern Nevada. We stopped in Vegas for dinner and walked around the strip for a couple hours, it really struck me just how many people exist. I mean I know there are 7 billion people on earth, and all that normal stuff; but saying how many people there are and actually being in a place populated enough to believe it are very different things. It's almost upsetting how much less "different" you are from anyone else out there, there are so many people that sticking out takes an awful lot of work. Anyways Vegas was pretty cool, it was also very warm despite us being there in the later hours of the day. We ended up not getting any food in the actual city because everywhere was so busy, so we drove about an hour past it and stopped somewhere else for some subway. Pretty much right after the town we stopped at for food and gas was the border into southern California.
California was cool.... I think. It was really late in the night when it happened and I was the only one awake for it since I was driving. I drove right by a nuclear power plant, I couldn't believe how big the facilities for it were. I also remember the radio stations pretty much not existing until Bakersfield. Once we got into Bakersfield my mom took over the driving and I got to catch some sleep, a few hours later I was woken up on a dirt road leading up to a farm. The farm we would be staying at for the next week. Most families get a hotel for these kinds of trips - not mine. My mom rented out an entire farm for the week, there was a rooster walking around to greet us when we arrived. This farm had goats, chickens, turkeys, fish, cows... pretty much anything you could think of for a farm and it was there. We were able to eat eggs that the chickens laid every morning, right after we were woken up by the roosters.
But I digress - the graduation was fun too. My brother and grandmother had flown in from Colorado two days after we reached the farm so we went to pick them up. I also was able to see the girl I was dating at the time, she worked at a camp in the mountains nearby, so that was also pretty nice. The day of the actual graduation I was surprised because they called the students and had them going two at a time. My graduation took much longer because it was only done by having one student walk across the stage at a time. The week went by quickly, it was awesome to see my family there and to share it with my family from Colorado as well. I'm very proud of my sister for powering through to succeed in graduating and I hope she is able to find her path and reach more goals. My brother, grandmother, mother, and Caleb all left back for Colorado while I stayed in California. I was going to be staying for an extra day because I would be flying from California to Washington DC within the coming hours - but that's for another post.
-Umar
I spent a few weeks in Colorado hanging out with friends and lifeguarding, it was great to see everyone again and to be home. After about three weeks of being in Colorado I was going to be driving to California for my sister's high school graduation. My mom and my sister's friend, and ex-boyfriend Caleb were going to be taking this trek with me.
We left the morning of June 5th and stopped to pick up some Dutch Bros coffee on the way, I always get the cinnamon tea with soymilk and honey. The first part of the drive was pretty cool, nothing new to me - it was the rockies in Colorado, I'd grown up seeing these mountains so it wasn't too spectacular. Something about that area will always give me a sense of nostalgia though. We eventually crossed the border into Utah and things started to become a bit different from what I was used to. Giant rock formations were coming up from the flat land, heavy concentrations of iron were there and leaving it's recognizable reddish color all over the formations. One place in Utah in particular was absolutely amazing, we did stop at a lookout to get some pictures of it - Black Dragon Canyon. The rest of the time in Utah was pretty boring compared to Black Dragon Canyon, just empty desert.
Black Dragon Canyon
Night time in Vegas
California was cool.... I think. It was really late in the night when it happened and I was the only one awake for it since I was driving. I drove right by a nuclear power plant, I couldn't believe how big the facilities for it were. I also remember the radio stations pretty much not existing until Bakersfield. Once we got into Bakersfield my mom took over the driving and I got to catch some sleep, a few hours later I was woken up on a dirt road leading up to a farm. The farm we would be staying at for the next week. Most families get a hotel for these kinds of trips - not mine. My mom rented out an entire farm for the week, there was a rooster walking around to greet us when we arrived. This farm had goats, chickens, turkeys, fish, cows... pretty much anything you could think of for a farm and it was there. We were able to eat eggs that the chickens laid every morning, right after we were woken up by the roosters.
I was able to feed the goats whenever I wanted.
But I digress - the graduation was fun too. My brother and grandmother had flown in from Colorado two days after we reached the farm so we went to pick them up. I also was able to see the girl I was dating at the time, she worked at a camp in the mountains nearby, so that was also pretty nice. The day of the actual graduation I was surprised because they called the students and had them going two at a time. My graduation took much longer because it was only done by having one student walk across the stage at a time. The week went by quickly, it was awesome to see my family there and to share it with my family from Colorado as well. I'm very proud of my sister for powering through to succeed in graduating and I hope she is able to find her path and reach more goals. My brother, grandmother, mother, and Caleb all left back for Colorado while I stayed in California. I was going to be staying for an extra day because I would be flying from California to Washington DC within the coming hours - but that's for another post.
Shaver Lake in California feat. Mom
-Umar
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Update
Hey all! So I have just added year 18 to my life story here: http://usedtobesadeeiq.blogspot.com/2014/01/reader-request-my-complete-life-story.html
I know I'm overdue for writing about the next part of my journey this summer, I will try to do that very soon. I've been very busy with stuff that you can hear all about if you read my updated life story!
-Umar
I know I'm overdue for writing about the next part of my journey this summer, I will try to do that very soon. I've been very busy with stuff that you can hear all about if you read my updated life story!
-Umar
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)