Trading Knowledge; Trading Cards
As a child I used to collect Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh cards, trying to obtain the strongest monsters to add to my collection. Now as a young adult still addicted to collecting things I have turned my attentions to collecting experiences and connections, the problem that I have is that these things aren’t tangible materials to just be sought for in a store but mental items that require time, persistence, and an open mind.
For collecting experiences it is crucial for me to wake up with an open mind and allow that to lead me to wherever I may go. Specifically, within my time in Brazil I have done slackline training at Jardim Botanico with the other fellows and some random Brazilian guys. I got lost trying to go home after school and found a great friend who helped me find my way home. Within the same situation I got lost trying to go the Niemeyer museum and was found by a gentle older Brazilian woman who showed me the way and took me to get blessed by her Church after.
In collecting connections I have to go into depth into the reality of an individual's impact on my life and happiness. The emphasis on the impact aspect of my collection of connections is necessary because I’ll be giving moments of life to them, we’ll be creating memories and having new ventures. Connections are life to me, because it’s a crazy concept to be remembered by someone and to remember someone, knowing their past and their soul within the present. Connections have the ability to alter your life in so many ways from taking you to your highs, your lows, and your plateaued numb states. I’ve connected with most of my cohort and have enjoyed the experiences we’ve had and the little moments that created inside jokes like the little Filipino folklore monster and our meaning of a panificadora (bakery).
I love getting into titillating conversations with people exchanging knowledge just like cards and seeing the conversation veer onto more off topic obscure things that we both know. The collection of experiences and connections are not baseball cards that will grow old and forgotten within my basement but mental items that become millions in currency for my memory bank.
Emotions: free falling in a sea vast newness
