— Emily Hanes

It seems like a natural process, but there is something very specific about university life that inspires a lot of thought about the future. Whether it’s because you’re finally living alone, because you suddenly have a lot more free time, or because you’re forced to start thinking about what you want to do once the brace for routine that education provides has been removed, you find yourself spending a lot of time wondering what your choices are.

Growing up, it appears, is the gradual removal of the boundaries of choice. Of course, there are times and situations where those boundaries are re-imposed but, right now, it seems as though there’s no reasonable option that is unachievable. It now becomes clear that you are no longer tied to any place, to any particular career, to any group of people. Disregarding the credit crunch and the fact that there are very few new jobs at the moment, it is easier than ever to take off and start somewhere new. In an age where primary contact with friends, for many of us, is conducted through the internet, location no longer plays such a huge part in our choice of where we want to live.

Personally, having grown up in a foreign country, the prospect of living somewhere completely new is not so daunting. It seems like a relatively new idea to me, but not so much when I consider the fact that my mum left her home country, alone, at the age of 16. As it stands, I am 3.5 hours away from my older sister, and about the same from my parents and younger sister, taking into account travel to and from the airport. This distance makes it both practically and financially impossible to visit very often, and I anticipate I’ll only be doing this during the big holidays (Christmas, Easter, during the summer). With this in mind, it makes no difference whether I’m 200 miles or 2000 miles away.

It’s obvious that dreams of living in a place where everyone seems to be living the life you want to don’t have to remain dreams. As long as you let go of sentimentality, of the idea that you can become too emotionally attached to places and to things, there is no reason to stay still until you find something worth staying for.

Of course, dedication is a necessary attribute in so many aspects of life, but making a definite choice when it comes to things like where you live or work does not have to happen. If you think about, say, art and academics, choosing between them is no longer a prerequisite for maintaining a comfortable and enjoyable existence. Artists and academics alike are constantly blurring the boundaries of the two disciplines. You’ve got comedians running for senator, politicians playing in bands, and then you have the constant mixing of artistic specialities- musicians working with cartoonists, film-makers working with graphic designers, etc., etc. However, although this seems to be occurring everywhere I look, I find it difficult to think of anyone I know who conducts their life in this manner- who works a boring job and leaves it, who finds the government of their home country atrocious and so moves away.

When I look at some of the people I know, both old and young, working jobs they don’t enjoy, or living at home when they wish they were living elsewhere, I often find it very difficult to see what’s holding them back. After all, there is no reason to settle for a life that is anything less than constantly exciting.

-Leah Pritchard

Amazingly stunningly great playlist.

Thank ya genius.

MESSAGE

Since we had changed
rogered spun worked
wept and pissed together
I wake up in the morning
with a dream in my eyes
but you are gone in NY
remembering me Good
I love you I love you
& your brothers are crazy
I accept their drunk cases
It’s too long that I have been alone
it’s too long that I’ve sat up in bed
without anyone to touch on the knee, man
or woman I don’t care what anymore, I
want love I was born for I want you with me now
Ocean liners boiling over the Atlantic
Delicate steelwork of unfinished skyscrapers
Back end of the dirigible roaring over Lakehurst
Six women dancing together on a red stage naked
The leaves are green on all the trees in Paris now
I will be home in two months and look you in the eyes

-allen ginsberg

— reformatted Allen Ginsberg, from the poem “Message” (via danieliz) (via insidethebox)

insidethebox:

(via livesophia)

haha

— Abraham Lincoln (via martinis-in-a)

Hahaha.