I'd go the whole wide world...

When I was a young boy, my momma she said to me:
There's only one girl in the world for you
And she probably lives in Tahiti
Or maybe in the Bahamas
where the Caribbean sea is blue
Weepin' away in the tropical night
because nobody's told her 'bout you...

Recently my I was around my friends when they had one other friend read through a simple childrens book, hoping that she would see the message that was embedded within. I know that she was having trouble at the time with making a few decisions in life, call it a hunch. Anyway, the book was passed on to me when she finished, I was curious as to what this message was. The book was The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein. I managed to find the text online, which I have brought here for you.

It was missing a piece.
And it was not happy.
So it set off in search of its missing piece.
And as it rolled it sang this song-
"Oh I'm lookin' for my missin' piece
I'm lookin' for my missin' piece
Hi-dee-ho, here I go,
Lookin' for my missin' piece."

Sometimes it baked in the sun
but then the cool rain would come down.
And sometimes it was frozen by the snow
but then the sun would come and warm it again.
And because it was missing a piece it could not roll very fast so it would stop to talk to a worm
or smell a flower
and sometimes it would pass a beetle
and sometimes the beetle would pass it
and this was the best time of all.
And on it went, over oceans
"On I'm lookin' for my missin' piece
Over land and over seas
So grease my knees and fleece my bees
I'm lookin' for my missin' piece."
through swamps and jungles
up mountains
and down mountains

Until one day, lo and behold!
"I've found my missin' piece," it sang,
"I've found my missin' piece
So grease my knees and fleece my bees
I've found my..."
"Wait a minute," said the piece.
"Before you go greasing your knees
and fleecing your bees..."
I am not your missing piece.
I am nobody's piece.
I am my own piece.
And even if I was somebody's missing piece
I don't think I'd be yours!"
"Oh," it said sadly,
"I'm sorry to have bothered you."
And rolled on.
It found another piece
but this one was too small.
And this one was too big
this one too sharp
and this one too square.
One time it seemed to have found the perfect piece
but it didn't hold it tightly enough
and lost it.
Another time it held too tightly
and broke.
So on and on it rolled,
having adventures
falling into holes
and bumping into stone walls.

And one day it came upon another piece that seemed to be just right.
"Hi," it said.
"Hi," said the piece.
"Are you anybody else's missing piece?"
"Not that I know of."
"Well, maybe you want to be your own piece?"
"I can be someone's and still be mine."
"Well, maybe you don't want to be mine."
"Maybe I do."
"Maybe we won't fit...."
"Well..."
"Hummm?"
"Ummmm!"
It fit!
It fit perfectly!
At last! At last!
And away it rolled
and because it was now complete,
it rolled faster and faster.
Faster than it had ever rolled before!
So fast that it could not stop to talk to a worm
or smell a flower
too fast for a butterfly to land.
But it could sing its happy song,
at last it could sing "I've found my missing piece."
And it began to sing-
"I've frown my nizzin' geez
Uf vroun my mitzin' brees
So krease ny meas
An bleez ny drees
Uf frown..."
Oh my, now that it was complete it could not sing at all.
"Aha," it thought.
"So that's how it is!"
So it stopped rolling...
and it set the piece down gently,
and slowly rolled away
and as it rolled it softly sang-
"Oh I'm lookin' for my missin' piece
I'm lookin' for my missin' piece
Hi-dee-ho, here I go,
Lookin' for my missin' piece."
(Shel Siverstein 1981)

It is kinda lengthy, and I am not positive if that is the full story, but nevertheless I believe that everyone should read that one at least once in their life. They should read it and reflect on it. When I read it, I took it one of the two ways that I have heard. What I saw was Mr. Silverstein telling us that you won't be complete. It may be what you want most, and what would make you happiest of all, but you will never be complete. At the time of reading this, I instantly became depressed. Will I ever be happy? Am I not supposed to be loved or find love? This was not the message that I wanted to hear from a childrens book.

My friend, who was the one that was supposed to read this said she got a similar message as me. Maybe we were both looking for the same sort of thing, and this book crushed our dreams. Oh the irony looking back... However, our friends proceeded to explain it to us as they had read it. The message they got out of it was that you are perfect how you are. You may search and search for what you so desire, but that will never make you more complete. Now I may not be a smart man, but I would say that this may have been the message we were supposed to get out of the story. But I would also say that it may be more than coincidence that two people got a completely different message out of it.

I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world
just to find her
I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world
to find out where they hide her

I guess it must be my mindset as of late that made me read one thing instead of another. Its been a busy past two weeks. In my pursuit of happiness, I was turned down for the time being. My heart drops just writing that. But I have grown up this week. I took many a new steps. I did something that I have avoided all year, I made a résumé. All year I have wanted to apply for jobs, but refrained because I didn't want to go through the trouble of making the résumé. But now I have made one, and it is saved. Though hopefullly I will get the job that I needed the résumé for. Pray for me.

Another step I took was an odd one. Odd in the sense that I never considered doing this before. I went insurance shopping. I have always been covered, I think, by my parents insurance. But when I told them I was getting myself a motorcycle, I was told I would have to cover myself with my own insurance. It is a weird feeling. I feel grown up, far too grown up.

It has been a busy two weeks, full of letdowns and growing ups. But I guess that is life.

Why am I hanging around in the rain out here
Tryin' to think of a girl
Why are my eyes fillin' up with these lonely tears
When there's girls all over the world?
Or is she lying on a tropical beach somewhere
Underneat the tropical sun
Hiding away in the heat wave there
Hopin' that I won't be long?

Virginia Tech...It happens once again...

Today, April 16, 2007, the nation is once again subject to horrific events. Sometime this morning (roughly 7:15 east coast time) on the campus of Virginia Tech thrity-two people are dead, thirty-one vitims and one shooter. Many more people are wounded between the two locations of the shooting. This is the largest school shooting in fifty years. Those are the details I have heard from news reporters and the cell phone videos I saw upon the news. These images are accompanied with the title of a "horrific event" and "the worst school shooting in US history".
This story really hits home for me. I am a college student. This shooting happened in a college. See the link? But seriously. It makes one wonder who this shooter was, what kind of person he/she was. Do I live with that kind of person? Is my roommate planning a mass killing of his own? What I fear more is that people would expect me to be this kind of person. On a regular basis I get a stream of remarks implying that my friends think that I am an asshole/jerk/dick/etc. Do they now fear me, after I have seen the "bravery" of another individual? Do my friends know so little about me that they would think that, or do I know so little about my friends that I am wary of them?
But now it seems to have subsided, at least that is for today. I pray to my God that nothing happens tommorow or the next day as a result of today. But now, the events are finished and it is time for really horrific events to start.

Please, do not get me wrong. I do not think that there is any thing good about what happened this morning. Please understand that I truly believe this was a horrible event, but I believe that what will follow is more horrible. I speak of what makes me question why I am a pre-journalism major. I speak of what I think about when I look in the mirror each day, when I look into myself to see if I am what becomes of a journalism major.
My qualm is with the media. I have always had a problem with how it works around tragic events. In specific, I have a problem with the longevity of coverage on a single event. Yes, I know the events were tragic. Yes, I know that many people suffered unjustly. Yes, I know the public has a right to know what happened. But I do not believe that the public needs to be reminded 24/7 for the two to three weeks following a major event. I do believe that if something new developes then yes we should be informed. But during that informing, we do not need an entire recap of what happened because chances are that we heard the story origionally when or around the time that it happened. Tell us the new facts and be done with it.
I remember September 11th. I remember hearing while I was in the locker room changing for gym class in 7th grade. I remember the teacher putting on the news during Language Arts/Social Studies so we could hear the details. Those are the details I remember. The ones I heard when they were new. There is no need to replay them. I also remember hearing on the news that night that some of the elderly and a few others who were not quite in their right mind that day thought that the attacks happened more than once. The reporter went on to say that it was because of the repeated showing of the clip of the plane hitting the towers. So obviously the press knew they were doing something wrong, they openly admitted that what they were doing resulted in something bad.

Sadly I can say with confidence that ever since and ever after this kind of thing has and will happen over and over. This is what worries me about me being a pre-journalism major. Will I end up being forced to cover something long beyond its necessity? Only time will tell.

There is nothing to do in my town.

I have two topics I want to talk about. One is a reflection/story type, the other is a rant. My rant isn't too long, so I think I will just tack it on at the end.

There is nothing to do in my town. How many of you have ever said this? I would find myself lucky if I were to find a person who has never been bored with their town. I have said it from time to time, even though I thoroughly enjoyed growing up where I did. I was content to stay at home and watch some TV instead of going out and spending money.
However, this past week, during my spring break I ventured two hours away to visit a lady-friend from school for the day. After we ate a meal, the question of 'what do you want to do' came into play. Had I been in my home turf I would have offered an idea of sorts, but since it was her turf I turned it back to her. I believe her immediate response was something along the lines of 'I don't know, there is nothing to do here.' But that's the thing, there is so much to do and you've just done it all.
I see this large town and think, 'Oh the places I can go.' It was a new city into which I had never ventured before. Novelty was still there. She could have said that there was this amazing crack in the road, through wich runs a trickle of water and my response would have been 'Lets see it.' But alas, that was not so. I did enjoy seeing the sights and eating in new places and meeting new people, but I believe that she was bored with it.
So I guess all I am really trying to say is that if you have a friend to show around town, show them everything. They won't be disappointed.

Now for the rant. I don't know if people realize this, but when they tell me that they warned someone about me...it hurts. I don't have a clue what there is to warn about or even if they are serious, but people can be asses like that.