long black limousine...

On a recent trip down memory lane, I revisited my old slow dancing days. The driver of this journey was a good friend of mine, Kevin, who is Asian and amazing. He scribbled on and on in his blog about the different songs, the revised technique as he gained bigger and better levels of cool, and how this has taken him to a sense of self he wouldn't have otherwise gained. The philosophy of slow-dancing by Kevin H-to-the-When.

Do you ever find yourself a little lost in someone else's words?
Well, after reading, it was like I woke up in a bar in a completely different city very, very confused. I'm not saying Kevin's words are like a drug (although, he and a few others would argue that they most certainly are), but the memory was a clear enough picture for me to be transported back in time.

Out here in Boston, I find myself often thinking about the amount of miles crossed from Colorado to college. Miles of land, miles of experience -- miles of laughter, grief, confusion, understanding, love and loss. And somewhere on that journey, there was a little bit of slow dancing with Kevin himself. And with all of that said, don't think that I am just a sentimental fool locked in this closet of a dorm room, mosey-ing through old photographs and listening to Patty Griffin.

Oh, someone pass me a Kleenex.
I can assure you, there isn't too much of that.

All of that is said, though, so that I can say this: that all of those awkward middle school dances, high school proms, and everything in between have brought us to this point in our lives. Whether that be Berkely, Colorado State, Missouri or Boston,
my greatest fear is that, in effort to exchange the
teenage,
pimply,
smelly,
awkward self
for a newer, shinier college-attending adult YOU,

we will lose the character that has been built inside us by the friends we have lost and gained, the times we went ice-blocking at one in the morning, where we broke curfew and our parents grounded us, when we had our first kiss, our first love, and our very first slow dance.

An interesting picture: maybe no one ever told the pirates of old that, in fact, the treasure they seeked so earnestly laid within them all along. They walked and paced, they faced death and danger, all while following a map with a big black X on it so they could unlock a chest filled with gold and jewels. The turn the key, they open the chest -- and within their own chest, their heart shines and radiates with a glow that no one could ever take away -- so that even if there is no gold or jewels, they still have within them a sense of self that is more valuable than any amount of riches they could acquire.



To wrap this up, after graduation, I embarked on a journey with a map in hand. Most of us did. But it doesn't matter where we wander, and what we come to in the end. If we can remember that all we seek lies within us, and if we can hold onto that, well... we'll gain more than any of us could ever imagine.