For as long as I can remember, I have been abused with the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” It is a common query, sure, but it is also one that fails to suffice my qualifications for a question that can thoroughly entice my interests. Inquiry that gives definition to my identity is awfully dull and futile to me – my individuality is destined to perpetually transform into something beyond description. Therefore, never once have I been able to provide a definitive answer. I just do not know yet what is it that I want for an older Alan De Leon.
I am an 18 year old emotional boy with dreams of forever being a kid; if not with age, then surely at heart and spirit. Surely, one as young as I is not mature enough to know what is best for my future. Besides that, a kid has a special gift that many adults tend to lose as time erodes their imagination: curiosity. I credit my intense desire to know as being the vehicle that drives my passion for learning. To me, learning is religious: I have devoted my life to revering and respecting ideas, opinions and words like priests devote to revere, respect, and fear the idea of God.
Thus, my pilgrimage towards intellectual enlightenment has led me here, to my first blog post.
I will be spending the next year of my life in Brazil, immersed in a world which is unlike the only one I have ever known, here in the United States. I am purposely going to make this entry brief, as much more interesting topics will soon saturate my mind in comparison to what I already know. The only expectation I have is to be challenged: I hope that my impression of the world will be revolutionized and that my future obstacles shove me on my back as I experience the greatness of life itself, in a land far way, forced to stand back up on my own.
