We’re back! After what seemed like an eternity, I’m back on the daily grind. It’s crazy to think that a whole month of 2019 has gone by already. January for me was like a month long break. I didn’t really do much, but all in preparation to do the most during the upcoming year. Here’s a little overview of what January for me was like. 

The first couple days of the new year were nothing special. I spent new year’s playing League, if I remember correctly. The fact that I can’t remember speaks as to how uneventful the beginning of the new year was for me. It was pretty laid back up until I had to go back to school. Believe it or not, I was looking forward to school, the routine of school and work really brought peace to me. Humans rely on patterns and routine to survive. It’s crazy how that works. Take away someone ’s ability to tell time and see the day, they go crazy. Going back to my normal routine was my way of returning to sanity, not that I was going crazy, but it felt good to be back. 

Back at school, I knew I wanted to do things different than last semester. I set out some goals for myself that I stated in my last post. Essentially, I want to do better and learn more. The classes I’m taking right now are still general, but I am finally taking one that is directly related to my major. I was bit skeptical at first, but it’s nothing that I can’t handle. The rest of my classes are pretty laid back. I am taking a required world view class and that class seems the most interesting to me right now, primarily because I’m finally learning about something that I haven’t really heard about before in an educational point of view. Plus, the person I next to in that class is pretty great. That’s the class I look forward to the most. 

Moving away from talking about school, I got to visit the Phoenix Art Museum towards the end of the month on a day off that I had. It was beautiful to say the least. My favorite part out of all the different pieces they had on exhibition was a video piece called “The Visitors” by Ragnar Kjartansson which was part of a special collection titled Scandinavian Pain. The video piece was a cathartic, emotional experience. Just being there in a room surrounded by nine different screens each displaying a different musician’s part of a song, made my eyes water with a bittersweet sensation. In that moment, where I stood there accepting each and every different voice and instrument, I could feel their grief and fervor all at once. The intensity of the whole performance was almost tangible. Each voice, each instrument, was distinctly heard with each telling its own story. I wish I could express more into words about how significant it was, but it simply has to be experienced.  I’m most definitely visiting it again, solely for this exhibit. It’s there until April, if you haven’t seen it before, do go and experience this dreamlike splendor of music and life.

I also had the birthdays of two of my siblings during January so that was fun. Each one had their own little party which was enjoyable since I got to see family that I hadn’t seen in almost a decade. This was especially nice because I got to eat birthday cake for two weeks in a row which is probably one of my top favorite foods. 

The first month of the year was kind of a slow start for me, but it gave me time to focus up and plan out what I wanted to achieve this year. I got to see two of my siblings reach one more birthday which is a blessing of course. It might not have been the most exciting month, but it was a good start to 2019. 

Thank you guys for reading and your continued support. If you have something that you’d like me to talk about or if you have suggestions, please reach out to me. Love you! 

-Jonathan 🙂