"Vehicle Equipped With Security Camera System. All Occupants Will Be Photographed."

     And so, the Fro returns for another entry...

     Hi again. I know the time between posts is long but things will pick up a bit more soon (especially when summer comes around again). Anyways, as per usual, there's plenty to cover...

     There are so many fascinating parts of life, I find. The many things I find myself dividing my time between constantly struggle to reclaim focus in my mind and the months roll along quicker and quicker as I grow older; reminiscing with my Mom, Dad, and Dylan, I find myself remembering so much about who I was and how I've grown and I'm amazed... who is this new person whose grown out of his previously anti-social shell and where will he go next? After going through some of the hardest trials in my life, I can see the path ahead of me and it looks a lot better than I could've ever imagined. That being said, I'm in such conflict at the moment trying to figure out where I want to go in the future and what I want to do. Now, in my last semester of high school, I decided to take a course called Video Production Tech and it's proving to be an exciting and inspiring course; I never thought I would be as interested in film and film-making as I am now. What worries me is whether or not I'll be able to pursue it in the future...

     I mean, I suppose it's not the thing that worries me most at the moment... in fact, I can't say I'm full of much worry at all. However, this whole idea of deciding what I want to do for the rest of my life now is, to say the least, incredibly daunting. A few months ago, I brought my concerns to my Aunt Novia and Uncle Jonathan, who have both gone to university (and my Uncle Jonathan is currently a professor at McDaniel) and my Uncle Jonathan gave me some great advice: he said that I should follow the path that want to follow - pursue the career that I want to pursue in life because, if I ever look back on my choices (and that's a given), I don't want to say "what if I had actually done it...?" And I do believe that that rings true. I don't want to have to tell my kids that I got stuck in a career or job that doesn"t interest me and that they should do what makes them happy or else get caught up in the same fate as their father. I digress...

   March Break was awesome. Plain and simple. I went to Spain, for heaven' sake, and I honestly can't even begin to describe the experience I had.

Before We Left:

From Left: Dylan (my brother), my Dad, Meeeeeeee, Charlotte! 

From Left: My Mom, Dylan, MeEeE, and Charlotte!!!

Actually In Spain:

Looking out over Parc Guell, near the end of our tour.

Epicness.

Me and the bust I made of Batman. Mwahaha... but it broke on the plane ride home.

To La Sagrada Familia we go!!!

Looking out over Barcelona...

Charlotte taking in the breath-taking view of the sea in Barcelona.

Me being a dummy about a garden on the side of a building in Madrid!

The architecture, the people, the Sun, the castles... I don't even know where to begin. And our tour guide, Pilar, gave us so much insight on the history of Spain; she even took us to this little town, Saragoza, on our way to Madrid, where we got to see this beautiful cathedral that had a bomb dropped on it during (insert name of Spanish War of some kind here) that didn't explode! Anyways, the bomb is on display in the church and it was a very spiritually enriching experience. In fact, I would go as far to say that the whole experience was spiritually enriching and invigorating; we saw so many cathedrals and religious activities, including a service up at the top of Mont Serrat, where a monastery was built in the 6th century by a band of monks (many of whom died on the journey up the mountain) and still stands today. I'd have to say though, between the two major cities we went to, I enjoyed Barcelona the most because it was so full of culture and art (which, I'm sure, was also inspired by the fact that it's a port town and can enjoy the luxury of being right next to the sea); it reminded me of a place a writer or artist would go to escape the Western world, hunker down, and perfect their art. There is no end to the inspiration that someone from Canada can feel when they're in a place like Spain (or, really, any other Eastern country). The Eastern side of the world is rich with history! I can't wait to return in the future.

     So, yeah, that was my March Break.

In later news, my job is going pretty well; I really enjoy working with the people I work with and they seem to enjoy working with me too so all is well.

     I've been cabbing a lot lately (not entirely sure why, in some cases... probably just laziness) and it's definitely made a dent in my finances but not so much that I'm too too worried about it. There are circumstances sometimes that are out of my control where I've had to cab because of time constraints and whatnot... Anyways, I've met some really interesting drivers, each enforcing the central idea that I should go to school, get a good education (finding a good girl went along with that one in some cases) and, ultimately, do what is profitable and makes me happy in life. It's funny though, I think most of the profoundest experiences I've had in my life have come from interactions with people who are driving me somewhere; all of my cab drivers have certainly had deep and meaningful things to say and, around the end of Fall, I got a ride to work from some very polite Jehovah's Witnesses... To say my life has been a plethora of strangely harmonious and thought-provoking experiences would be a fair statement, I think. Simply examining my life, in general, I find too many coincidences, 'close-shaves,' and, by far, amazing opportunities to not think that some sort of higher power is looking out for me; I've never been sure how to convey my realization that my life has been coincidence after coincidence (and I don't think it's simply a trick of the mind - one day last week, I was talking to my friend Miles about the Super Mario Bros. Movie and how Bob Hoskins would be rolling in his grave thinking about it now... what I didn't realize was that Bob Hoskins wasn't dead yet! But he died that day.). I'm just saying... life is weird.

   Charlotte and I are doing well. It's a stressful time in our lives as our final year of high school draws to a close, the ambiguous summer stands foreboding and closer than ever before, and we gear-up to head off to Thunder Bay for Lakehead. Charlotte and I conflict on many things lately because our priorities are very different... but that's all I'll say about that. Ultimately, I love her (the way that I love her) more than anyone in the world and I would do anything for her; at the same time, I maintain a sense of independence and opportunity-grasping that has always existed in me.

   A lot has happened since I last revisited this post about a month or two ago and updated the draft a little bit. For now, I'll simply post this as is because I have a whole post dedicated to BMT that I'm excited to write and hope to have out by the end of the month. Now's the time to celebrate as things draw to a close...

This is the Fro, signing off.