“There is no earthly bliss not watered by tears.”

Filipino proverb

I remember a distinct moment from grade school: I looked around the classroom and wonder if anybody else was actually listening to the teacher. My wandering imagination has always fascinated me. I would dream constantly; paying little attention to the boring or mundane. My imagination is like a trusted friend I can always rely on to entertain me. I would learn this was to be my blessed curse; a never ending imagination of possible wonders.

I read somewhere that writing is no more than a guided dream…

This dream starts in grade twelve English with the poem Ulysses by Lord Alfred Tennyson. It was the first time that literature would inspire me to take action. I was mesmerized by this poem and it would soon become a part of my soul. The great urge to travel the world pursuing distant horizons and unknown wonders filled my heart. I made a decision that day to travel Europe for the summer; and it was simply the most enlightening decision I have ever made.

“…I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
As tho’ to breathe were life!…” Ulysses by Lord Alfred Tennyson

I found part of my true self that summer in Europe. I grew more in character then the previous 18 years of my life. The world was a grand vast place and I needed to contribute my verse. Everything was so fresh and alive; I was seeing the world in a new light. It was sensory-overload and for the first time, my imagination stilled. I didn’t realize it at the time, but somewhere between The Grand Place in Brussels and the snow covered peaks of Switzerland, I took my first step towards a few fleeting moments of enlightenment.

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