approaching_c

I'll be 25 in a few months and I'm embarrassed to admit it scares me. I've worked a saw table in a meatpacking plant and studied sleep disorders. I graduated in math & physics later than anticipated. Now I've decided to pursue a career in nuclear engineering. My culinary and literary interests have been influenced by the culture surrounding New Orleans. Among other things, this means I enjoy spicy food and count The Moviegoer and A Confederacy of Dunces as two of my favorite books. I love to fish and I've recently become a boat owner. Sadly I have yet to get out of the country; my desire to travel motivates me to be financially successful. Retiring to a comfortable and dependable sailboat to visit places of interest at my leisure is about as appealing an existence I can imagine. If I ever get there, hopefully I’ll have enough experience (and time left) to compose a narrative about what life has taught me. I would like to leave some evidence of my existence other than a tombstone, and writing a book seems like a realistic way to do it. Even if it only collects dust in a cluttered box in my great granddaughter’s hall closet, it’s proof that at some point in time I lived and breathed and considered the world around me.

This seems like an easy way to display some useful or interesting piece of information to an audience. It satisfies that little voice in the back of my head that says "I have to show this to someone," and even helps to subdue the louder one that often screams "everyone needs to see this." On the other hand, it is also a good way to see what makes other people listen to those voices.