The past two and half months have gone by quickly. I’m in NYC now: tonight I’m in Brooklyn, in a third floor apartment near the Bushwick L stop, on a soft carpet in a small room with four other writers, sitting, writing. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
January and February were months of change, even though I was back in Maryland then. I spent two weeks at the beginning of the new year watching over my (family) friends(’ kids). They’re in middle and high school, so they’re pretty self-sufficient, but their parents were out of town for two weeks; I would stay over on weeknights, make sure they woke up and left for school on time, and then linger at the house for a little before driving ten minutes home—to my childhood home, where I grew up.
After that, I was back home for a good two months. I got to eat dinner with my family most nights. I would wake up some mornings to work out with my brother before he left for school, and stay up some nights with him while he did his homework. He’s in a very busy season of life right now; I’m glad I could be there for some of it. He inspires me—he’s one of the strongest guys I know.
There were a number of things that I wanted to do in the period of time that I was home. I only accomplished some of them. Some friends and I were going through Axler’s linear algebra book but we kind of collectively fell off; hopefully we get it going again soon. I wanted to practice singing more—as in, build dedicated practice into my daily routine—but failed to stick to this as well.
It can be hard to stick with things when life is volatile. This is something I’ve been realizing more: the digital nomad life is not for me. I want to be in a place, get to know a place, live in a place. Stay in a place. At this point in my life, bouncing around is fun; I welcome volatility, welcome change—this is the time to explore and experience things, after all—but I’m also looking forward to the stability that comes with college.
In February, I started doing ML engineering work part-time, at the lab I was at last year. I really love my team and the work is interesting, so it was nice to get back into it.
In February, I also set the majority of my plans through May, which was a relief. This is another thing I’ve come to realize being on a self-organized gap year that involves many short-term experiences: you always have to be planning. In fall, you plan for winter; in winter, you plan for spring; and so on. I don’t like to plan. I like to live in the present instead of dealing with logistics. So I’m glad to have things set now.
My aunt and uncle who hosted me while I was in Hawaii were also in Maryland for part of the time I was there. It was fun being with them on the other side of the country.
There were other things:
I finally visited my friends at UMD and met some of the new friends they made in college, and it made me so happy to see (in person, physically) that they had landed well
Kevin and Katie were in DC for a moment; we visited an old friend of mine at Georgetown and hung out on the roofs and snuck into empty buildings
I recorded a fingerstyle guitar duet with a friend, which should hopefully be posted within the next couple of months (the files are on my PC in Maryland)
And, of course, there were many more things, but I won’t list them all. This is the ever-present decision that comes with this sort of status update: how much should I omit and how much should I convey? I can never convey everything. To borrow a Virginia Woolf quote from Anson’s latest, “life piles up so fast that you have no time to write out the equally fast rising mound of reflections.”
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