"I grow old... I grow old...

I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled."

It's almost frightening how quickly time leaves our days behind. I was pushed into this world exactly twenty-three years ago today in Orange County, California. By some mix of interesting events, I currently find myself in Boston, Massachusetts, almost three thousand miles from home.

My close friends would claim I made the dramatic move for the sake of love. My family would reckon I moved for academic purposes. I say I did it for both reasons. But I only say this to myself and to those in my life who really know me. In other words, my family knows nothing about the role love has played in my life up until this point, both the lack of it and my delving into it.

If I had the ability to give the world a bit of my twenty-three year old wisdom, it would be that we complicate our lives much more than they really are. If people were less afraid of being honest with each other, if they were more accepting and respectful of others, it would be possible to create a society that no longer barred people from living easy and fulfilling lives.

We need to learn that life isn't really complicated - society only makes it so. As members of that very society, we all have the power to change those complications. Maybe in such a society would I be able to glue the two fragments of my life together. I can already hear my mother saying, "That's right. He moved to Boston for the sake of love and for academic purposes."

What a refreshing change that would be.