The brush of your steps.

I wrote this while awaiting a ferry to go to my friends' wedding in Poros, Greece. It was an enlightening moment fueled with a bit of travel exhaustion -- but at this point I'm happy to say that's become the norm. Maybe it was never about the traveling. I mean, don’t get me wrong, this is my drug of choice, but maybe the initial thought of traveling, of visiting new places and cultures, of immersing yourself into the curiosities of centuries of great and poor decisions that create what we call cities, maybe that was just a facade. I begin to realize this as I type away in some bench at a bus stop in Athens, Greece. My flight into Athens landed at 4:00am, which was essentially the worst time one can arrive at any city, although i’ll give New York and Barcelona props on being one of the few places i’d leave the airport knowing the city was inexplicably still alive. Anyways, back to my point: as I sit in this bench, I observe people from everywhere, some rushed a...

Their screaming to come out of me, I open the page and we go from white to black with nobody to stop me I'm just spitting, maybe lyrically, hysterically They don't even hold hands but word per word its what I could land But fuck it, what does it matter It's a twisted spin on when I use to utter gold But I guess we go back to basics when the truth unfolds All we see is the need, the greed, and honesty holding strong. So here we are flowing down the purity Cruising like we've already forgotten, We have it in us but why look deep inside when we're standing in a house of cards So pick a card any card Here's where the magic from a shooting star Motivated me to move past the opposing war I rose in silence painting it black to get it out of me But at the end of the day lets realize one thing We fought to stand on the shoulders of our ancestors, We climbed the walls and looking down realized, The first man we stood on was our former self. So le...

It comes down to this. I judge myself harder than anybody could ever judge me. I firmly remind myself that I am my biggest enemy, my biggest hurdle, and my biggest obstacle to success. I control the perceptions of others so that no matter what anybody says or does it all comes down to me and once I realized this, that I was in control, I realized that I needed to run my ship to its finest capabilities if I was to be the best I could ever be. I must note that at the end of every day I acknowledge a few truths that have remained true to me. The main one of those is that death is imminent. We will die, and the clock is always ticking. We can waste time, or we can fill it with the steps to our dreams. The rest of those truths highlight the things which are important in this world. Based on what I continue to learn and read, there is happiness, there is wisdom, there is love, and there is sorrow. These are a few of the many emotions and virtues which define us. Out of all of these, I h...

As I was growing up I learned many things, but one thing very well. I learned that everyone has a set of unique beliefs and that many of us hold those beliefs firmly over the course of our lives. We all believe in some idea, a monotheistic, polytheistic, or atheistic religion, a set of moral rules that you have developed over the years, a core set of family values, we all have some type of rules we live by. We all have this unique foundation. I found the selection of this foundation, be it a religion or otherwise, to be something that I would spend the rest of my life deciding. It made no sense to pick a belief without thoroughly understanding who I was first and that task alone would be a hefty schedule to do within a single lifetime. I realized that many people claim the choice of this foundation is the key to finding oneself so I would definitely not neglect opening myself up to the understanding of these ideas, but identifying myself as part of an entity before fully u...

I wish I knew. ... It's the cyclic passion of a dream, Sucked dry by society's deranged attitude, The essence of a title, Miss Conception. It made no sense but it was the perfect reality, It was the lesson I sought after As a beginner and a master, Bumping up the skymiles, I couldn't go any faster. But cut the dream short, The curtains are closing, the act is over, This isn't some ecstatic fantasy, This is the crude world, its all sprinkled bitter. Don't believe what they're saying The painters had it right for a moment, But that's all it was, It was a frame, that's all we could cherish. In this lyrical endeavor I've cut away the sprinkles, I've left it raw, I've left it bitter. For there is one purpose to this litter, I want you to turn trash into cash. Take in this mash, let it age, Serve it as beer and party my dear, For dealing with stress is a mess And god forbid you taste a crazy IBU. God forbid I step ...

When you wake up in the morning and go to the gym, it takes effort. It takes some kind of superhuman effort to get yourself to move out of bed if you are just getting into the habit, and then get dressed and go to the gym. It may not be for a decent amount of time until you see the benefits of going to the gym, it is an activity that takes a tremendous amount of effort. The reward is powerful, you feel healthier and generally more active, you begin to leverage your capabilities and that allows you to simply become a better person. Now think about the substances you take and the effect they have on you. For example, lets take coffee. It takes very little effort for me to drink coffee aside from ordering it, pressing a button on the work machine, or at the very most making my own shot of espresso. The effort is negligible but the effect is palpable. Your morning becomes immediately better, you feel more aware of your surroundings, the caffeine mimics the effects of adenosine so that i...

There are a number of times when I am drawn to the the art of writing in order to document consistent trends in the way I think. For the past few months I have begun to contemplate the effects that those you surround yourself with and those you avoid has on your personal development. Equally if not more importantly I would like to also address the effect of sharing thoughts  with those who are kind enough to listen has on you. I am incredibly driven by progress. Accomplishing goals and meeting seemingly impossible expectations shares a similar spot in my heart to the adrenaline rush people get when they go skydiving. Lets break these ideas down. Surround yourself with greatness. It is no hidden fact of life that surrounding yourself with the people you want to become will have a tremendous effect on your personality and your ability to become more like the people you are around. There are quite a few phrases that represent this very idea. I wholeheartedly agree with the tho...