I am a drifter, and as lonely as that can be, it is also remarkably freeing. I will never define myself in terms of anyone else. I will never feel the pressure of peers or the burden of parental expectation. I can view everyone as pieces of a whole, and focus on the whole, not the pieces. I have learned to observe, far better than most people observe. I am not blinded by the past or motivated by the future. I focus on the present because that is where I am destined to live.

Your life is inescapable. Unless you decide to escape it.

Every two people cause and intersection. Every person alters the world.

For I have never wanted a lover, but I have always wanted to love, and to be loved.

Because it is senior year I have begun to see things as potential absences. The things I love will become the things I'll miss.

The world is quieter now. It is never quiet, but it can get quieter. What strange creatures we are, to find silence peaceful, when permanent silence is the thing we most dread. Nighttime is not that. Nighttime still rustles, still creaks and whispers and trembles in its throat. It is not darkness we fear, but our own helplessness within it. How merciful to have been granted the other senses.

Music is everywhere. It’s in the air between us, waiting to be sung.