Today I woke up, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and ate three eggs wrapped in a tortilla topped with feta cheese while screaming Bar Italia lyrics as loud as I could in my house. After I had devoured the best breakfast of my life and woken up my sister, we watched some regular show and discussed whether the UV was good enough for tanning later. Then — it took some serious convincing — I got her to drive me to a meeting I had with a former professor to discuss any possible research opportunities he might’ve had for me this fall. On our way to the spot (some fancy coffee shop), my sister and I sang along to some mind-clearing music. It took a while for us to agree on a song that helped curate the right atmosphere we yearned for, but after some time we settled on “I’m Upset” by Drake.

As we were listening to the chosen song, I was bumping my head and trying to psych myself up before seeing my professor. We stopped at a light while I was still bumping to the song, and out of the corner of my eye I could see that the old guy next to me was imitating me and bumping his head too. I didn’t want to make eye contact with him or have him know that I noticed him, so I looked the other way and pretended like I didn’t see him. However, my sister made eye contact with him and started hyping him up, so I felt the need to turn to him. He asked me to put my window down so I did, and then he started to say he listens to music like that too. He started sticking his tongue out and humping the air acting like someone was twerking on him. My sister and I obviously both got creeped out, so we closed the window and drove off as soon as the light turned green. We died laughing about it until we got to the spot. Then my sister dropped me off and I finally met up with my professor.

I hadn’t seen my professor in a couple months, so it was really cool to catch up with him. He’s one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met who holds a lot of knowledge and thought-provoking questions about the world’s history through people. We discussed the on going events happening in Palestine right now through different societal lenses — anything that was brought up outside of this topic was always somehow tied back to it. It was an engaged conversation that I expected to have. It made me thankful to have met him during my first year of college because he’s someone that I’ve come to look up to for his open mind and welcoming personality.

After securing an independent work study with him for this upcoming fall semester, my professor and I parted ways. I waited for my mom inside the coffee shop and texted my family group chat excitedly about the encounter, in which the only thing my dad replied to was my text mentioning how I brought up his viral tweet that got around nine thousand likes. Whatever. One jasmine green tea lemonade later, my mom arrived and we drove back home.

As we were driving back, I noticed that she was sort of on edge. She was being almost brazen and was annoyed with my presence. It confused me because my mom’s usually cheerfully unbothered by life and takes everything with a grain of salt — this is one of my best traits that I caught from her. I didn’t feed into the anger and just brushed it off with a smile. When we were about five minute away from home, she brought up how my youngest brother didn’t get into either of the two middle schools my parent’s helped him apply to. I tried to console her but I’m not sure if it eased her.

When we arrived home, I ran to my room and charged up for a bit while my mom hurried into the kitchen to cook something up for my hungry siblings coming back from school. Around twenty minutes later, I heard my parents and siblings all rustling around the kitchen. I jumped out of my bed and greeted them with “Sup”‘s all around. My mom made me one taco which I ate while talking to my dad about the mayor and his uselessness to society. My siblings were in the background making Regular Show references and catching strays from one another. When everyone was done eating, I went to the gym with my sister and worked my upper body; I’m starting to get bored of weightlifting and it’s throwing off my consistency…. Sophia, please regain your focus.

Two hours later, I came back home and got ready to meet up with a friend. I don’t see him often, but he’s a passionate individual who has love for a lot of things and a lot of people. I biked to the nearby lake to meet him, and then we walked to The Spot. We talked photography, school, family, and walked through the trees around the lake. There were so many cracked eggshells around us which I hadn’t noticed at all until he mentioned it. When we finally got to the spot, we noticed a man sitting alone there who seemed to be thinking serious thoughts. So, we moved elsewhere.

The second chosen spot was someplace tucked to the side of the trail with three tree trunks to sit on. GlassNGreen was brought out along with a film camera and roll of film he was gifting me. He taught me all the mechanics of the camera which I would’ve understood a lot better if there weren’t a hundred mosquitoes biting me all around. I nodded my head and asked questions to make sure I was understanding everything correctly. Then, I rolled up the film and played with the mechanics myself.

Praying that the pondering man had moved from The Spot, we went back to it and were delighted to see that the residing Bench was free to perch on. I took my new film camera and took my first photo with it of the beautiful sight in front of us. Then — I’m not exactly sure how it was brought up — but my friend started geeking out about the pyramids in Egypt. He told me about all of the theories/conspiracies he’s read about and held the answers to all of my questions. I tried to connect his theories to Islam — both of us were raised Muslim — and sort of challenged him. The most interesting thing I learned was about a Chinese man who’s been locked away by superiors for his supernatural abilities that allow him to see through things and mend broken objects. I was locked in on the conversation for, what felt, like two hours—our voices ping-ponging theories that’d sound insane to anyone else. We then walked back to his car and said our goodbyes.

Instead of biking home, I decided to go bike around the lake. I was going as fast as I could and felt like I gained some sort of super strength or something because of how easily I was going up hills that usually almost kill me. I, again, sang along to some Bar Italia that was blasting in my ears and then switched over to listen to Dat Politics. I was enjoying myself until I biked past a house that had around six police cars parked outside it. There were some cops talking to an older woman who seemed distressed. Because I just finished watching twin peaks, I started to convince myself that there was a murderer loose around my area. I made it my duty to bike back home as fast as possible.

Around ten songs later, I got home and parked my bike in the garage. I grabbed the last ice cream sandwich, an ICE sparkling water, and a Snapple from the kitchen before heading upstairs to my room. After getting ready for bed, I texted my friends and opened up my computer to write up this blog post.

I feel like my posts are usually somewhat depressing. However, today I had no depressing thoughts and I think it’s important to recognize that. My day was full with people and conversations that fed me a necessary dose of bliss and rapture I’ve been longing for. I enjoy connection-building and quality time with anyone who has serious thoughts and interests that they’ve dedicated hella time to. Stupid and critical debates are some of the best fuelers for people in this world. I hope to have thousands of debates with a future significant other that bond us closer together and brings out our laughter to the world.

People are awesome and it’s important to me that I meet as many genuine people as I possible can in this world. I believe that I’m blessed to have so many authentic and interesting people in my life. I’m also thankful for myself and for my ability to comfortably talk to anyone and everyone without little socially anxious thoughts that used to hunt me day in and day out. My life is completely meaningless without the comforting connections I have with every person that I’ve decided to keep in my life. One of my biggest concerns is that I don’t show this appreciation well enough to them. If I could, I would transfer all of the loving thoughts I have about them and affection I have for their life to them.

Or, I could start hugging them more. Not sure.

Yeah, I gotta get better at hugging.