Prompt: "Pretend you're writing your autobiography. Give us your first line, a first chapter, or even just an image. What's the story of you?"
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The thought of writing a biography gives me anxiety. Synthesizing a life into a bundle of words would be a daunting task. Even documenting my own life would be immensely challenging, and I wouldn't trust myself to do it properly.
I can't imagine why anyone would want to read my autobiography in the first place. I'm not criticizing the prompt. It provides worthwhile introspection. I just don't believe I've accumulated enough valuable life experiences to showcase as worthwhile literature. Were I to write one, however, it most likely would not be linear and it would have specific focus; perhaps songwriting or working with children or an evolution of ideas I've had.
At present moment, my opening line would be: "I have a lot for which to be thankful."
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This post is a part of Think Kit by SmallBox
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Friday, December 13, 2013
Pt. XIII - Laughter
After yesterday's post, I appreciate the incentive to reflect on the brighter moments of 2013. Fortunately, there are a lot of them. My work in elementary education and pool of genuinely funny friends gives me good reason to spend a healthy portion of each day smiling and laughing. I have so much to be thankful for, but perhaps I'm most thankful for that.
That being said, I don't really have too many funny narratives to pull from the year. The most humorous bits are embedded in specific contexts or characters and wouldn't translate well into a blog post. Some of them are also a tad too inappropriate to be made public. Sorry. I don't want this blog to compromise the dignity or marketability of any of my friends.
So in place of a funny story, here are the funny pictures I wanted to share in my first blog post but didn't.
This post is part of Think Kit by Small Box
Today's post was: "When did you laugh out loud [this year]?"
That being said, I don't really have too many funny narratives to pull from the year. The most humorous bits are embedded in specific contexts or characters and wouldn't translate well into a blog post. Some of them are also a tad too inappropriate to be made public. Sorry. I don't want this blog to compromise the dignity or marketability of any of my friends.
So in place of a funny story, here are the funny pictures I wanted to share in my first blog post but didn't.
This post is part of Think Kit by Small Box
Today's post was: "When did you laugh out loud [this year]?"
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Pt. XII - Memorium
A good friend of mine passed away on Tuesday. He had only just turned twenty five. Instead of blogging, I spent that evening eating Chipotle and watching Disney movies. Though seemingly insincere, it felt like
an appropriate way to remember him. Those who knew him would all
probably agree. Chris was known for his love of Chipotle, and if my memory serves me correctly, I experienced my first Chipotle burrito at his insistence.
The Disney movies were a tribute to the Disney sing-alongs he and his roommates used to throw during parties at our college fraternity. I'm not sure how they got started -- a means to juxtapose the predictable pop hits that always sounded at parties or simply a love of Disney -- but they were really popular. The sing-along became a staple of our parties and certainly stand out in my mind as a cluster of positive college experiences.
Yesterday, I tried to write a blog post about him but simply couldn't. So today, I'm going to eschew the prompt and try again.
My most vivid memory of Chris comes from a car ride we took together from Greencastle, IN (home of DePauw University, our alma mater) to Bloomington, IN. Chris had sustained a concussion from a cycling race and needed to be driven to Bloomington for a follow up doctors appointment. I'd be lying if I said the drive wasn't painful. Chris, in normal health, was an upbeat, talkative guy. The concussion, however, removed some sort of filter on his speech, and he would not (or perhaps, could not) stop talking. We, or more appropriately, he, talked the whole hour there, the whole fifteen minutes we spent getting Chipotle burritos, the ten minutes we spent in the waiting room, and the whole hour back.
I got the Chris Alonzi conversation buffet special that day. There were the usual topics; Boy Scouts, whiskey, anecdotes of famous American figures, camp life, girls, cycling. But the most memorable one was his argument of why Batman was a superior superhero to Superman.
"So, you see, Superman's greatest superpower is his strength. And that's great. He does a lot of good with that. But Batman's greatest superpower is his character. And that's why, in my opinion, he's the superior superhero."
Of all the things I've heard come out of Chris's mouth, from the beautifully optimistic to supremely ridiculous, that utterance, that essentially expendable idea is the one that shines brightest when my synapses fire. Perhaps, it's my subconscious self giving him the memory he deserves. For Chris's greatest superpower was undoubtedly his character.
The last time I saw Chris in person was in June 2012, a few weeks after his diagnosis, a few weeks before he started chemo therapy. Matt Brauer and I went to visit him at Rush Hospital, hoping to cheer him up a bit and show our support, but Chris didn't even seem fazed by the Leukemia. He was thankful it had been caught early and spoke pragmatically about the treatment. His only real concerned seemed to be that he might embarrass himself in front of one of the nurses if he had a weird poop or something. I think he did more to cheer Matt and I up than we did to him.
The three of us had what seemed like a reasonable amount of conversation, and then he offered to take us on a tour of his floor. Dressed in a loosely buttoned flannel shirt, athletic shorts, and a face mask, he led us, IV dolly in hand, down the halls, into various empty rooms, and, of course, to a large window where one could view the United Center. At one point during the tour, I took out my phone to capture what I felt was the surreal-ness of the situation.
Surely, this wasn't cancer, I told myself. This was just Chris. Chris is strong, Chris is kind, and Chris likes to dress sort of sloppy when he's hanging out with his bros. I couldn't sense the change such was Chris's incorruptible sense of character. And that's how I'll always remember him.
Rest in peace, Alonzi.
The Disney movies were a tribute to the Disney sing-alongs he and his roommates used to throw during parties at our college fraternity. I'm not sure how they got started -- a means to juxtapose the predictable pop hits that always sounded at parties or simply a love of Disney -- but they were really popular. The sing-along became a staple of our parties and certainly stand out in my mind as a cluster of positive college experiences.
Yesterday, I tried to write a blog post about him but simply couldn't. So today, I'm going to eschew the prompt and try again.
My most vivid memory of Chris comes from a car ride we took together from Greencastle, IN (home of DePauw University, our alma mater) to Bloomington, IN. Chris had sustained a concussion from a cycling race and needed to be driven to Bloomington for a follow up doctors appointment. I'd be lying if I said the drive wasn't painful. Chris, in normal health, was an upbeat, talkative guy. The concussion, however, removed some sort of filter on his speech, and he would not (or perhaps, could not) stop talking. We, or more appropriately, he, talked the whole hour there, the whole fifteen minutes we spent getting Chipotle burritos, the ten minutes we spent in the waiting room, and the whole hour back.
I got the Chris Alonzi conversation buffet special that day. There were the usual topics; Boy Scouts, whiskey, anecdotes of famous American figures, camp life, girls, cycling. But the most memorable one was his argument of why Batman was a superior superhero to Superman.
"So, you see, Superman's greatest superpower is his strength. And that's great. He does a lot of good with that. But Batman's greatest superpower is his character. And that's why, in my opinion, he's the superior superhero."
Of all the things I've heard come out of Chris's mouth, from the beautifully optimistic to supremely ridiculous, that utterance, that essentially expendable idea is the one that shines brightest when my synapses fire. Perhaps, it's my subconscious self giving him the memory he deserves. For Chris's greatest superpower was undoubtedly his character.
The last time I saw Chris in person was in June 2012, a few weeks after his diagnosis, a few weeks before he started chemo therapy. Matt Brauer and I went to visit him at Rush Hospital, hoping to cheer him up a bit and show our support, but Chris didn't even seem fazed by the Leukemia. He was thankful it had been caught early and spoke pragmatically about the treatment. His only real concerned seemed to be that he might embarrass himself in front of one of the nurses if he had a weird poop or something. I think he did more to cheer Matt and I up than we did to him.
The three of us had what seemed like a reasonable amount of conversation, and then he offered to take us on a tour of his floor. Dressed in a loosely buttoned flannel shirt, athletic shorts, and a face mask, he led us, IV dolly in hand, down the halls, into various empty rooms, and, of course, to a large window where one could view the United Center. At one point during the tour, I took out my phone to capture what I felt was the surreal-ness of the situation.
Surely, this wasn't cancer, I told myself. This was just Chris. Chris is strong, Chris is kind, and Chris likes to dress sort of sloppy when he's hanging out with his bros. I couldn't sense the change such was Chris's incorruptible sense of character. And that's how I'll always remember him.
Rest in peace, Alonzi.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Pt. IX - Surprise!
To say I was completely surprised by something this year would contradict my "Decisions, Decisions" entry in a way. Surprise occurs when something happens that one does not expect, so by that definition, I was either always surprised because I was always encountered with something I did not expect or I was never surprised because there simply was no expectation. Not that I'm free of contradictions or that I never expected anything, but you get my point...
Today (or yesterday, sigh...) was a busy day, so I don't have time for a story. But I do have time to admit that I was surprised by America this year. Between February and April, I traveled from coast to coast in the manner of the pioneers (meaning east to west, not in a buggy; no one died of cholera), and that allowed me to observe the sheer size of this country as well as how diverse its terrain is. I would say I was surprised by both. Maps don't really seem to do our country justice when it comes to physical geography. It is vast, and it is varied. I consider myself lucky to have witnessed such greatness firsthand.
I'm sure the details of my travels will come out in other posts this month, so I will leave this post as is. If it's any consolation, I spent all my available time today writing; editing both my parents' Christmas card and my girlfriend's grad school application essay. It's been a long day.
This post is part of Think Kit by Small Box
Today's post was: "What completely surprised you this year?"
Today (or yesterday, sigh...) was a busy day, so I don't have time for a story. But I do have time to admit that I was surprised by America this year. Between February and April, I traveled from coast to coast in the manner of the pioneers (meaning east to west, not in a buggy; no one died of cholera), and that allowed me to observe the sheer size of this country as well as how diverse its terrain is. I would say I was surprised by both. Maps don't really seem to do our country justice when it comes to physical geography. It is vast, and it is varied. I consider myself lucky to have witnessed such greatness firsthand.
I'm sure the details of my travels will come out in other posts this month, so I will leave this post as is. If it's any consolation, I spent all my available time today writing; editing both my parents' Christmas card and my girlfriend's grad school application essay. It's been a long day.
This post is part of Think Kit by Small Box
Today's post was: "What completely surprised you this year?"
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Part VIII - Creation
Most of my creative thought follows an outlet into my music. I spend hours of the day obsessing over rhythms, bass lines, lyrical choices, song structures, album concepts, etc. I've done a fair amount of creating this year, but nothing that I could really share or would even want to share. That's a part of my life that currently exists between synapses and that I'm doing my best to keep out of this blog. I want to explore other parts of my character.
What I'm going to share, instead, is something rather simple, rather mundane; a meme I created a few weeks ago. I didn't put much thought into it. I didn't put much time into it. I'm not even proud of it as far as artistic integrity is concerned. Nevertheless, I consider it an achievement, one I'm willing to talk about here. For me, this meme exemplifies a method of creation I have difficulty executing on a regular basis.
Normally, my creative process looks something like this:
Idea -> Write Down Idea -> Mull Over Idea for a Few Days/Weeks -> Draft Idea -> Redraft Idea -> Revert Back to Original Draft -> Redraft Idea -> Refine Draft -> Refine Draft -> Mull Over Draft -> Refine Draft -> Finished Product???
It's a frustrating process, though one that ultimately works. What seems to hold me back are my lack of will to act immediately and my inability to make final decisions quickly.
That method for my meme, however, looked something like this:
Idea -> Immediate Execution -> Finished Product
I had an idea to make a meme. I had some time to make it. I took advantage of the time I had. I finished the meme. It's not the sort of work I wish to pump out on a regular basis, but the process is one I hope to emulate with my future creative endeavors.
So, without further ado...
This post is part of Think Kit by Small Box
Today's post was: "Share your creation"
What I'm going to share, instead, is something rather simple, rather mundane; a meme I created a few weeks ago. I didn't put much thought into it. I didn't put much time into it. I'm not even proud of it as far as artistic integrity is concerned. Nevertheless, I consider it an achievement, one I'm willing to talk about here. For me, this meme exemplifies a method of creation I have difficulty executing on a regular basis.
Normally, my creative process looks something like this:
Idea -> Write Down Idea -> Mull Over Idea for a Few Days/Weeks -> Draft Idea -> Redraft Idea -> Revert Back to Original Draft -> Redraft Idea -> Refine Draft -> Refine Draft -> Mull Over Draft -> Refine Draft -> Finished Product???
It's a frustrating process, though one that ultimately works. What seems to hold me back are my lack of will to act immediately and my inability to make final decisions quickly.
That method for my meme, however, looked something like this:
Idea -> Immediate Execution -> Finished Product
I had an idea to make a meme. I had some time to make it. I took advantage of the time I had. I finished the meme. It's not the sort of work I wish to pump out on a regular basis, but the process is one I hope to emulate with my future creative endeavors.
So, without further ado...
This post is part of Think Kit by Small Box
Today's post was: "Share your creation"
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Pt. VII - Inspiration
Yesterday was the Men's World Cup 2014 draw. The thirty-two teams that made it into the tournament were divided into eight groups of four and must finish in the top half of their group in order to make it into the single elimination round of sixteen that eventually leads to the final. Needless to say, a lot rests on the draw. Here's what happened yesterday (if you're having trouble seeing the photo go here):
As a massive soccer fan, loyal to two teams who probably won't go home happy (USA and The Netherlands), I've decided to use today's prompt to dream. Here is what I want my World Cup bracket to look like (with 100% accuracy!) from the round of sixteen through the final:
In case you can't read my colorful, hand-written bracket, I have the USA beating Brazil in Brazil and taking the puzzlingly small World Cup trophy home with some pretty fantastic match ups happening along the way. Similarly pleasing results would include the USA beating England in the final and The Netherlands beating Germany in the final. I know my Dutch grandparents in particular would feel a small bit of reparation should The Netherlands take down Germany on the world's biggest stage.
I'll end this post by encouraging you to watch World Cup next summer. Pundits claim it's the strongest grouping of teams in years and many of the world's top players will be competing. Additionally, the USA team, despite being placed in the most difficult group, is arguably the best USA team of all time. Though they aren't favorites to win it, anything could happen come June...
This post is part of Think Kit by Small Box
Today's post was: "What do you want your ____ to look like?"
As a massive soccer fan, loyal to two teams who probably won't go home happy (USA and The Netherlands), I've decided to use today's prompt to dream. Here is what I want my World Cup bracket to look like (with 100% accuracy!) from the round of sixteen through the final:
In case you can't read my colorful, hand-written bracket, I have the USA beating Brazil in Brazil and taking the puzzlingly small World Cup trophy home with some pretty fantastic match ups happening along the way. Similarly pleasing results would include the USA beating England in the final and The Netherlands beating Germany in the final. I know my Dutch grandparents in particular would feel a small bit of reparation should The Netherlands take down Germany on the world's biggest stage.
I'll end this post by encouraging you to watch World Cup next summer. Pundits claim it's the strongest grouping of teams in years and many of the world's top players will be competing. Additionally, the USA team, despite being placed in the most difficult group, is arguably the best USA team of all time. Though they aren't favorites to win it, anything could happen come June...
This post is part of Think Kit by Small Box
Today's post was: "What do you want your ____ to look like?"
Friday, December 6, 2013
Pt. VI - Community Service
To be honest, community service isn't something I really think about or seek out. I've done a fair amount of it over the years, but to say any of it was done for the purpose of acting philanthropic would be a lie. The experiences more or less presented themselves, and I chose to participate because I assumed they would be enjoyable. I like working with students, so I volunteered as a tutor. I like soccer, so I volunteered to coach a youth soccer team. I like writing, so I volunteered at Chicago's 826 center. Perhaps my view seems a bit self-interested, but unless you're forced in to giving back by sheer moral principle, then community service is going to be self-serving on some level. Service should feel organic in my opinion. I like the idea that doing right feels natural.
That being said, there's no reason I can't think about what community service experiences I'd like to have in 2014. Here are a few that come to mind:
-Bringing music to those who cannot go out and listen. A friend of mine used to go and play at the local retirement home when we were in college. I see this act of service as being mutually beneficial. I enjoying performing with my guitar, and I could definitely use the practice.
-Community workshops. I haven't looked into this yet, but if there is some sort of program that offers free workshops to the community, I would enjoy doing one about writing or playing guitar. I've done similar things in the past and enjoyed the interaction as well as the personal challenge of effectively passing on my skills or understanding to a group of people.
-Coaching. I have experience coaching youth soccer teams, and this being a World Cup year, I know it will bring out the competitor in me. Or maybe that's a bad thing...
-Any new experience. I'm almost always up for trying something new and meeting new people. Perhaps this is the year to explore a different type of service.
This post is part of Think Kit by Small Box
Today's post was: "A little community service..."
That being said, there's no reason I can't think about what community service experiences I'd like to have in 2014. Here are a few that come to mind:
-Bringing music to those who cannot go out and listen. A friend of mine used to go and play at the local retirement home when we were in college. I see this act of service as being mutually beneficial. I enjoying performing with my guitar, and I could definitely use the practice.
-Community workshops. I haven't looked into this yet, but if there is some sort of program that offers free workshops to the community, I would enjoy doing one about writing or playing guitar. I've done similar things in the past and enjoyed the interaction as well as the personal challenge of effectively passing on my skills or understanding to a group of people.
-Coaching. I have experience coaching youth soccer teams, and this being a World Cup year, I know it will bring out the competitor in me. Or maybe that's a bad thing...
-Any new experience. I'm almost always up for trying something new and meeting new people. Perhaps this is the year to explore a different type of service.
This post is part of Think Kit by Small Box
Today's post was: "A little community service..."
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