Message in a hypothetical bottle

So, here's the thing. A common dilemma seems to be plaguing a majority of the people of my generation. I call it the "Insignificance trauma". After much research and study, I list my observations.
It feels like being in the middle of some twisted camera trick Alfred Hitchcock might have used in Vertigo. The world seems to sprout like a mushroom and rise up all around you. The world gets bigger and you get smaller. The cockiness that comes out of having complete faith in your own abilities is gone. You're not so sure that there is a place for you in the big wide world after all.
To put it more bluntly, you've lost your mojo (not just sexually, you perverts).
Suddenly, you seem to be disintegrating into a shadow of your former self. You can't write as well as you used to. You can't sing or dance or play basketball as well as you could once. You seem to have lost that irresistible charm that you once had over the opposite sex. Your symptoms can be any, all and more of these. But whatever different things you're going through, at the end of the day, it's the same damn feeling.
You're getting smaller and the world is getting bigger.
When this condition worsens, the feeling becomes more severe. You feel like you're disappearing, a little bit everyday. And of course, nobody seems to be noticing except you. Sometimes, you nearly yell out to the un-noticing void.
Can't you not see me vanishing in front of your very eyes, you blind idiots? @#&$*%
Nothing changes on the outside, you continue going to college or work or wherever. All the turbulence brewing underneath does not even stir the surface. Parents don't see it. Teachers don't see it. Sometimes, friends don't either. You just walk around all day with this sensation of emptiness, that's all.
I don't know why we're all going through this but it can't be the first time that a whole bunch of young people have doubted their lives, right? Other folks must have been through this before us and they clearly survived, didn't they?
What can I say? If this is happening to you, then please know that it's happening to all of us.
This too shall pass.

Going...going...gone!

So, hasn't there been a time in everybody's life when they've wanted to run away from home? Just grab a backpack, get on the next train, plane, car whatever and jet set the hell away?
It seems so beautiful, so brilliant! The very genius of the idea takes your breath away. Don't we all have that one place that seems to call to us? The mountains, the sea, the big city...and we seem so ready to answer the call. This is it!!

And then...we think.

Money.
Parents.
Society.
Education.
Job
Family.
Fear.
Reality.
Crash.
Burn.
Poof!

The moment's gone. Back to working on that assignment or completing that project or cooking that dinner. Back to the things we 'have' to do because apprently they are the safest, time-tested roads to happiness. The mountains are far far away now, standing tall in silent mockery of our choices in life. It's all over now...
*black*

Hmm...didn't we all secretly want to become painters or poets or skateboarders? Where's that old paintbrush? What an absolutely fantastic idea! This is it!....

Sigh
True to the human condition, here we go again... :D

Got some change?

It was that time of the month again. I felt the need to turn everything upside down, throw things away and start everything all over again. So I tore my room apart looking for old junk I didn't want anymore. I went and bought myself a whole bunch of new clothes *somersaults* I took some decisions about issues that had been gathering dust in my imaginary inbox for a long time.
I momentarily considered doing a G.I. Jane and shaving all my hair off but thankfully, even in my most impulsive moments, a ray of reason sometimes shines through. Little mercies...

So how could my blog be left out, right? At first, I planned to transfer all the posts from my old blog onto this one. Now, tranferring 2 years worth of content is no mean feat but I started out on the process anyway. College has made me such an expert at the art of copy pasting that I wouldn't be surprised if one night, I woke up screaming : "Control C!!! Control V!!!"
But after about an hour of consistent post tranferring, I paused to make some use of my grey cells. If the whole point of this blog is to start afresh, why in the world was I copy-pasting my past all over it?
So, another impulsive decision was made and I spent the next 15 minutes deleting everything left, right and center.
Let's do a little 'looking back on things' here: I've been blogging since 2006. Or was it 2005? My first blog was called 'The Boulevard'. It was a highly personal, anonymous (yes yes the irony does not escape me. Highly personal and anonymous..I get it) In 2006, the above was revamped, edited and reintroduced as 'The Furnace'. That blog continued to bear the brunt of my written words till earlier this month (September, 2008). And today, we see the innauguration of what should technically be called 'The Furnace Part II' but in my opinion, that's a horrible name to christen a blog with. So, here it is finally -the end product.
Now that the customary speeches have been made and the required history touched upon, down to business...
The new Furnace is officially ready for public viewing.

*cuts ribbon*
*hold up a sign labelled "Applause"*

Image from www.scissors.us

Thank you! Thank you very much!


NOTE: The old blog is still intact. So, for all my old posts, please visit http://www.diamond-fire.blogspot.com/