Thursday, August 25, 2011

My next step in life: a soldier

Try to read to the bottom of this one; I tie it all together.

So you are expecting another ridiculous tale like the soon-to-be legend of the famous penis grabbing man-whore from the red light district, arent you? well, you are just selfish. Havent you ever seen wedding crashers? Not the whole movie is crashing - just parts. My last day in amsterdam was like the part when Owen Wilson found the girl he loved and went bike riding with her and playing games and such (good allusion jay). So thats exactly what I did. Except for the fact that you can simply replace a young beautiful girl Im in love with whos my age whom I am bike riding and laughing and joking with - with my mom.

I probably just lost a lot of viewers between the end of that paragraph and the beginning of this one. Well, those sandbaggin sons of bitches dont know what they are missing. Because I found out some amazing information today. Chief among them is the incredibly pertinent and utterly relevant information for all of us in life (who like to drink alcohol). I have officially found historic evidence that "icing" someone existed all the way back to the 16th century! Isnt that amazing??? Well I think so. While on our first event of the day, visiting the Rijsmuken museum in Amsterdam, I was really on my toes. First of all, I really started to appreciate art lately. Particularly the famous painters throughout history. Im a big believer that if you want to get a well rounded view in life, you have to seek out the best of what is in every field. As for art - ever since last year at the Louvre, I started to appreciate great art. So our time at the Rijsmuken was no different. Back to "icing," (if you dont know what that is, go home) I was reading up on Prince William of Orange (a famous enemy of King Lious XIV, if you remember him from your history books), it has one of his many paintings portraying various scenes from the Prince's war with France, and this one particular painting of a of celebratory nature. In fact, so celebratory, that Prince of Orange iced one of his fellow comrades. I am convinced that in that day, they did not have the resources to produce bottles for individual beers, so they filled said brew a satchel -a modern marvel in their day (see photo below).Above all, Josh kelly will appreciate this most (william of england, combined with icing, combined with satchels).

Some dude getting "Iced"in the 1600's. See above for explanation, those of who you skipped down to the pictures. 


Ok, on to other events. We then decided to ride bikes in a beautiful park. Nothing exceptional happened there. You know, just the typical stroll. But heres a picture so that you continue reading. (I assume you are all like children and I have to post pictures every so often to keep you interested. Actually wait... maybe thats usually just me. Either way, I think you will enjoy the pictures.)

the park we rode through

my beautiful mother(above) and I (below)

For all the pics in Amsterdam - see my facebook



Read this: We then went to the house of Anne Frank - where her family hid our during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. For two years she hid out up  in the attic, writing her diary the whole time of her life aspirations, her struggles. Her family's location was leaked by an unknown source, and since that time the world has been inspired by her life; mostly by the ironic fact that she never even got to live life. Eventually, she died at the Berger-Belsen concentration camp two weeks before it was liberated. This gave me a renewed sense of what I have. Ill get back to this later in this entry.

The next day, Dawn and I went to the most beautiful place I have been yet in The Netherlands. I thought it would be pretty lame, my mom said we were going to "see some windmills." I had no idea what this meant, and it was pouring rain, but unbeknownst to my mental well-being, it turned out to be probably the coolest part of our trip (It brought up my disparaged mental state, post male-fondling incident). Also, that was the first time Ive ever used disparaged in a sentance. Now I am really starting to feel good about myself.

So we went to this cute little town, and the pictures will speak for themselves of how awesome and relaxing this place was.

myself, atop the windmills

in the Town O' Windmills, aka Zaanse Schans

again - more of the pics of our whole trip on Facebook


In the train station before leaving, my mom said "Do you want to get some Burger King before we go home?" Clearly, we only would have eaten this if we were in a rush. I said no, but it still reminded me of the fact that I could imagine mrittika asking me this if we were vacationing, regardless of  being in a rush or no rush. Then, I started to think of those BK commercials where the BK king is running in with touchdowns. Know what im saying? Probably not, but if so, I enjoyed those commercials. I dont know the significance of mentioning that is, but it was one of those small anecdotes I had to tell you, because it made me laugh. Additionally,  it was not enough to cause me to get BK. But it almost made me get BK. But it didnt. So, we left.

What is all comes down to:

A PROFOUND DEVELOPMENT happened as we were driving home. I asked mom: "hey mom, why am I going home in a few weeks?" Her answer was "I dont know." As a result, I have decided to stay in Europe. That is, assuming a find a job. I do miss home, and I hate not speaking a lick of this damn German language that is even uglier than the women in this country (thats hard to believe), but I will have to tough it out and be a man. Ah, back to more of my startling development; this concerns more of my future. As a few of you know, my mom works for the US Army as a civilian nurse. I have to start thinking about how to pay back my loans, and she offered up the idea of going into the military. Certain branches offer not only a good paycheck, but loan repayment too. I asked her if there were any recruiters on base I could talk to, and she said certainly. If I think about it, I could serve my country, pay back my loans, save a lot of money, have excellent credentials on my resume, and get invaluable international experience. So, theres another option to consider, to add to the plethora of other ideas that I have no idea what the hell to do with.

When we got home 5 hours later...
Whenever I dont know what to do in life - I just pray. I dont know all the answers, but all I do know is that praying is the best thing I can do. I dont even know if it will give me all the answers, but I do know its better than trying to do things myself. I simply dont know where to go in life, but I do know that going on my knees is a hell of a lot better than fetching what I think will make my happy. So I pray.

I prayed to be refined.
I kind of imagine him tinkering with what makes me tick inside. Like, I am being built to go up against anything. Its true. In no other way can I be ready for whatever battles are in front of me. Its not the battles of war, nor is it the art of war that I need to be built for, but it is, in a way, that you are always on the front lines of your own war. Youre kind of like a soldier. Im reading a book right now called Armor, its about a man and his inner battle as bes getting ready for war. If you arent being built up and refined, and have someone at your back guiding you, and backup all around you, then you wont succeed.(I bet you never knew about Tom Ford the Metaphor Man). I want to be a soldier. And Im not talking about a soldier in real life - who knows about that. Im talking about the kind of soldier that you believe yourself to be, that you are refined enough to be ready for whatever life has for you. I dont know what lies ahead, or where Ill be - but I do know Ill be ready, and I do know I will get the most out of life - and appreciate it every second;  always have. its what makes me, me. I do that because I have many of the joys in life that some have never experienced, or never will get the chance to.

"I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, and know that I am free."
Anne Frank, December 24, 1943.






2 comments:

  1. wow, nice.. impressive.. photos and all

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  2. i feel like you write with an idea in mind but the words really only flow out as the thoughts come to your head, making for a really honest and genuine post. I felt like I could learn a lot from what you said too. the anne frank quote got me quite choked up and was an excellent touch to end on.

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