La vita é breve - salta prima che finisce

Eureka, Calif. - Sometimes I think that youth really is wasted on the young. There are so many things that I wish I could still do. Things that I didn't appreciate when I was young. The simple pleasure of doing idiotic activities without a care in the world.

Actually, I still do those things. And I shouldn't. It's definitely something I need to work on, but I'd like to think that I can transition from professional and responsible to adolescent with complete ease. I probably shouldn't find it so easy to go from older-sister friend who allows a bunch of high schoolers do silly fun things to responsible soccer coach. In fact what soccer coach would allow their players to jump from one bed to the other. Any reasonable older coach would immediately say, "That's not a good idea. You might get hurt." But I remember when I was that age, sitting in a hotel room between games. We would be bored out of our minds and come up with stupid things to do to entertain ourselves. We would do so until some responsible adult came along and told us to stop.

I think back on it now and I wonder why they told us to stop. Had they forgotten what it was to be young? I hear crazy stories about my mother and her siblings. They did outrageous things that I wouldn't even attempt because I'm not that gutsy - or maybe I am now, but I wasn't when I was 16.

My mother's family owns a small house on the beach in El Salvador where they would go on vacation every summer. She would tell me these crazy stories about my uncle. Tio Tito was such a cool guy. He always wanted everyone to have fun and he went to great lengths to try new things. They used to take their boat out on the bay and go fishing and water skiing. One day, Tio Tito had the brilliant idea to create a homemade device that would allow the rider to float just above the water, skimming really, as they water skied. His contraption consisted of a beach chair attached to skis and with a large umbrella attached on the back.

In theory his device would have been a break through in water sports - my uncle would have been the founder of a new extreme sport, umbrella skiing. Unfortunately when he strapped himself in and waved at the boat to get going he simple sank; the boat didn't have the engine to pull that kind of weight, especially with the wind resistance caused by the wind.

But those are the types of things you attempt when you're young. These crazy ideas that make life a little more exciting and memorable. So really - it's not that irresponsible of me to allow my players to enjoy themselves and create these fun memories that will make them laugh later on in life. Because when they're older they'll wish they had done those stupid things. I'm not telling them to attach a skateboard to the back of a truck to create some crazy sport called truck skafering. No, I'm telling them, "Hey. Sure go ahead. Be young. Be careful, but be young." Is there anything really wrong with that? (That's a rhetorical question). The grown-up responsible reasonable me has gone through a list of reasons why it's a bad idea and how it could have all gone completely wrong. Accidents have happened in safer conditions.

But - if I wasn't there, wouldn't they have been doing it already? And the fact that I was there and told them to be careful isn't that what an adult is supposed to do? By taking some risks (not extremely dangerous ones, mind) can you understand what risk is? Or perhaps I'm just trying to justify my own need to be around those who are young and carefree - not that I'm not young and carefree, but there is a difference between dependent-young and carefree and independent-young and carefree. The latter comes with responsibilities, financial mainly. The former not so much. The only worries they have, while not trivial, deal with relationships, friends, the latest trends, and getting their parents to drive them places. The independent-young deal with the same things, but on top of that struggle with financial responsibilities, such as paying for rent, utilities, phone bills, insurance, care insurance, car payments, student loans with a paycheck that leaves little for anything else. And all this is on top of doing well in school to obtain a better more well paying job.

How often to do we jump on the beds and have a pillow fight? How often to we laugh hysterically when surprising a friend with a free birthday cake at a restaurant when it's not remotely close to their birthdate? Those moments are priceless. They come and go in an instant and before you know you're too old to enjoy them or too old to remember how wonderful they were.

So I say, jump a little. Be a little wacky and strange; especially if it will put a smile on someones face, and specifically if it's your own. Life goes by too fast. I'm still young at 23, but it feels as though it's all gone by in a moment. Because when it comes down to it, life is fleeting and all you can do is make the most of it.

So what are you doing? Jump a little!

Pazzo ma contenta

What a busy weekend! But what fun weekend. Had the chance to head up to Tahoe and visit my friend Cristiana, which as I mentioned before was pretty awesome. It was nice to go rafting and just hang out - just the relaxing couple days I needed. That's not to say that I've been extremely busy, I just haven't had the chance to truly relax since I've returned from Italy.

It was a bit of a slap in the face to have to drive back for work. But I can't complain, I have the sweetest job ever. I get paid to play soccer, it doesn't get much better than that. It was nice playing, but I'm starting to realize that I really need to keep myself in check. There are times when my patience runs thin with the girls - and I really think I need to plan out a talk with them about there lack of focus during practice.

Today was pretty hectic. Helped my mom clean out her classroom for the first half of the day. Moving all the books and boxes from classroom to classroom made me realize that my arms were still tired from rafting yesterday.

Arrived home and started on the project that is organizing my room. I realized after many failed attempts at organizing my books that I needed more shelf-space. Lugged some bookshelves from one of the storage closets and proceeded to play musical-furniture in my room. It's probably a good thing that the satellite cables restrict the movement of my TV, otherwise I would have spent a good 5 hours moving my bed, sound system, desk, tv, and three bookshelves around. Sigh, I really wish I could though - it'd be a sweet set up. Heh.

Organized the majority of my books though, with a good deal of shelf space left for more books - can you say book shopping? I just needed to organize my art supplies now, which will be interesting; I'm having trouble finding space for my easel. Once that's done all that will be left is to reorganize my entertainment area and sell off all my gaming equipment that I don't use (DDR sounds fun right now - huh).

Took a break around 7 to ride my bike to the store. Picked up a few things I needed before doing some computer updating. I've Italian-fied my entire laptop. It's actually pretty cool. I'm definitely brushing up on my computer vocabulary. And then being the nerd I am I started changing all my preferences - so now I have a nice pink desktop with a groovy matching pink Trillian skin. Then I started thinking about Italy and lo and behold I'm browsing Google Earth and marking points all over Viareggio and the rest of Tuscany.

Tomorrow should prove just as busy as today. Another day filled with doing grunt work for my mother followed by gelato and then work.

Sometimes I forget how lucky I am. Hah.

Tempi Buoni

I've just been made aware of a crime that I have been committing over the past several years. Namely my absolute neglect to visit Tahoe on a regular basis. There's no excuse at all. It's a short 2 hour drive from my house - an extremely scenic drive regardless if you take 80 or 50. It's a shame really. I'm surprised that my family doesn't make more day trips up here. It's absolutely gorgeous, it's a short trip, and there's plenty to do in the area. As a camping family, there really is no excuse.

So far I've been having a fabulous time visiting with Cristiana and her family and friends. It really makes me wish I would visit El Salvador more often. Whenever I'm down there every household is packed full of people and there's so much stuff going on. There's so much stuff going on here - and I think it's absolutely fabulous.

I must admit that I'm glad that my family got a chance to hang out last night. It was great to see my brother. And it amazes me that we went out on the town (past 10pm no less). Tapa The World proved to be a great choice to go eat and have drinks. I wouldn't have minded checking out the hooka bar next door, but unfortunately that wasn't really an option.

It was, however, nice to talk to my brother and catch up with him. I wish we talked more, and it's a shame we don't see each other more often. It's only an hour and half drive between us. Hopefully this semester we'll get a chance to hang out more. I wouldn't mind hitting up the clubs and listening to some House music in the bay area. Diego was telling me that the House scene is pretty good.

But I really should be honest with myself. With the course load I'm taking this semester I highly doubt I'll have much a social life. I just registered for two more classes today, bringing me to 21 units. I'm pretty sure I'll be dropping the FACS 150 class - unless my Italian teach pulls through, in which case I'll drop IT 103 and just audit the class for the semester. So with 19 units, keeping up with APhiO stuff (at least to keep my active), and coaching - I really don't think I'll have much time for anything.

Now I just need to get this Labor Day party planned out and everything.

Ritornare alla realtà

It's incredible what can happen in a month. In so many ways, I feel like a completely different person; I can only hope that I've changed for the better. The month I spent in Italy was by far one of the best experiences I've had in my life. I met some incredible people and I realized a lot of things about myself. And as I said before, I met some incredible people. It's pretty wild really. I had to go to Europe to meet someone that literally lives two minutes from me. I'm going to be seeing one of my new friends in a few days down in Tahoe. And hopefully in a year, I'll be in South Africa visiting a few others. It's really cool.

When I was in Siena in 2001 I didn't keep in touch like I have now. I know that technology makes it far simpler for us to keep in contact than before. But it makes me sad. I look at all the pictures I took from that trip and the t-shirt I had everyone sign, and I really regret not keeping in touch with those people because they were just as incredible and that trip also changed me and shaped me into the person I am today. I only hope that from now on I don't ever lose contact with the people I meet and connect with, you can really learn a lot from people - not only about them, but also about yourself.

I was able to focus on my flaws and hopefully try to improve myself for the better. It was a month of reflection really - that's not to say I didn't do my fair share of partying. The truth is, I did party a lot. I think I made up for all the times I wasn't able to go out this past year. It's funny being back now really. My days are far more mellow than they were when I was in Viareggio. But it's probably for the best that I'm taking it easy. Looking at my schedules for work, class, and APhiO, it looks like my life will be extremely hectic.

I'm planning on taking 18 units this semester, which is one less than what I took the past two semesters. And none of the classes I'm taking are exactly 'easy.' To be honest I think I don't have one easy class. Four classes are art history, which means I'll be making my fingers bleed this semester with all the papers I'll have type. And one class is a historical research class that will focus on writing a thesis. Possibly my easiest class will be my advance Italian conversation course.

Actually now that I think about it. There's a very good chance that I might be taking 19 units. I forgot that I'll probably be doing a Italian tutoring like I did last semester - hopefully there will be more tutoring than before, or at least more Italian spoken. I really don't want to lose the language. I should be far more proficient than I am considering I've been studying the language since I was 14. That's nine years.

One thing I did realize was that I have a bunch of amazing friends, who are all very different yet extremely cool. So I'm hoping despite the inevitable stress I'll be feeling starting in September, they'll be able to keep me sane. Between the APhiO gang and their craziness, the art history cult, the movie night gang, and my Davis friends - I'm sure I'll have some semblance of a social life.