Recollection of life at 20.

Since I am turning 20 years old I think this second decade marks a milestone where I should reflect on my life thus far.

From my earliest memories I can never forget that which gave me the most pleasure, and that was going up to my family in the countryside of New York. My grandparents were always modest people, on both my mom and dad's side - I'll always remember going to my great grandma's farm where she told me stories of life as she remembered it, gave us her special cookies and told us of mystical monsters in the wintery forest which prevented my cousins and I from venturing too far into the backlands of her farm. Life back then was a mystical one, full of wonder and ease it was perhaps for the most part the only time in my life where I was able to breathe a relative lightness about myself and experience a freedom I've not since had the pleasure of partaking in.

The young friendships I had back then were many and full of many stories, even back then people recognized me as a mentor someone they could turn to to talk about their problems and receive credible advice, I always analyzed what made people act they way they acted, why they behaved the way the behaved - and perhaps from this my inclined sensitivity arose at a later age. Nothing in the world was off limits to me, I always wondered always pondered its serene boundaries - what possible thing could lurk behind the corners and make things operate the way they do.

As I grew and matured I carried my life philosophies with me, I've always been one to subscribe to theory that perseverance is the most valued trait, and as I hit middle school I found friends I would carry on with throughout then and even throughout high school. I competed in athletic events in which I can still recall a most horrid track event where I had to run a long distance 1600 meter dash in my 8th grade year, as I can recall I almost vomited on the last turn it was so bad. I did finish however, and as that reflects at least I believe - a microcosm in my life that no matter the distance, the pain, or the fatigue somehow my body always manages to find that necessary burst of energy - that last sprain to carry me over the finish line.

*cue in heavy metal music* I carried this spirit of mine into my high school career, I joined the football team where we had practices 3 weeks before school even started, and - as I embarked at the tender age of 14 with 200 or so other high school football players, freshman, sophomores, juniors, and even the varsity seniors I set about an adventure and undertaking which has so thoroughly tested my physical and mental tolerance. From the three a day practices where sweat and blood reaked the fields to the high pressure moments in games where a yard or two marked the difference between victory or certain defeat - I met these challenges and rose to the occasion. I met some bad influences then and people of unorthodox and orthodox philosophies, I learned to idealize and characterize people in terms of their actions and habituations. It was at these tender years that through so much suffering from both internal and external sources borne a being which I am today, stiffened and hardened to the point where little physical sensitivity but pure mental sensitivity exists. I acquired a heightened sense of things, how things work and I plunged in various means and ways into pits and tips of my life. I came through though.

Most recently, I've come upon academic success where I've gotten entry into my dream university and am an aspiring scientist burdened with mere academic work and awful procrastination, as I hit this mark of 20 years of age I can plainly recall all that I've been through and have yet to see and whilst I can not know the future, I do know that time will see me through to wherever I wish my feet to take me.