CURRENT MISSION

To fill my life with experience, my head with knowledge, my heart with soul, so that someday I can feel like I actually have something valuable to express to the world.

ABOUT ME

I'm a dreamer. I satiate my restlessness by trying to infuse variety into an otherwise very normal life. I was that kid in high school who didn't really fit in comfortably with any one crowd, but had friends all over the place; I'm more or less the same way now. Academic life is incredibly satisfying for me, yet my work ethic remains abysmal. I'm an aesthete to the marrow with an unstoppable motormouth. I love exploring; back in New Jersey, I became somewhat of an addict of dilapidated buildings, sneaking into abandoned properties and imagining the narratives hidden inside the walls. Now that I've lived in Europe for half a year, I want to expand that preoccupation to the rest of the world. In other words, I want to travel, but I just don't really know where yet. Oh, and I'm a bit of a hedonist too, but I would say that comes with the territory.

PHILOSOPHY

I hate nothing more than moral imposition. I'm a patriot, I guess, so I hate to see my countrymen pushing their beliefs upon each other and the rest of the world. I keep an agnostic worldview; ergo, I take my time on Earth very seriously, since I think it's all I have. I play the devil's advocate for almost everything because I think there is something to be gained from even the most detestable belief systems, even if it is merely the strengthening of one's own beliefs through discursive engagement. I don't think anybody has the right to be arrogant. Some people like to argue that talent justifies a heightened sense of self, but this is horseshit: I met Wynton Marsalis once after a concert, and he was one of the most humble, gracious people I've ever met. If the best trumpet player alive still feels the need to be friendly and self-deprecating to a nobody like me, then pompousness really serves no purpose whatsoever. None of us is a deity. We're all together on this overblown floating dust mite.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm too itinerant now to offer much as a host, but that will surely change once I am settled into my 5+ year commitment in Chicago this coming fall!

Interests

Tall trees, beautiful people, heavy metal, collective art, friendly cats, sunny days, riding bikes, dance parties, contrarianism, spaghetti Westerns, hip-hop, spicy food, urban exploration, dark beer, fresh produce, horror flicks, Californian beaches.

• cats
• arts
• concerts
• dancing
• dining
• beer
• partying
• traveling
• music
• trumpet
• skydiving
• atheism
• languages
• beaches
• urban exploration

Music, Movies, and Books

Do The Right Thing by Spike Lee and Nashville by Robert Altman are my two favorite movies. My listening habits change from day-to-day; I've listened to Raphael Saadiq's latest about fifty times now, but I'm currently revisiting some of my favorite melodic black metal albums, and my old favorites the Dandy Warhols, too. I don't read as much as I should but I'm voracious when I do; recently I've been catching up on Nabokov and O'Connor.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I went skydiving the summer after I graduated high school. I haven't experienced anything that matches that experience. I'm an atheist, and yet the spiritual aspect of jumping out of an airplane is uncanny and undeniable. The simultaneous feeling of being the largest thing in the world and the smallest gave me a whole new perspective on the universe as a whole.

Teach, Learn, Share

The best thing I have to share, I think, is my taste in music. I find it incredibly rewarding to share the music I listen to with others, and hopefully discover some new stuff in return. This is probably pretty minor, but it's all I have. I would like to learn some basic mechanics and some culinary skills. I've dabbled in both but I'm still pretty useless. Also, I'm a grammar junkie, so I could help people with their English; in return, I want to learn to speak other languages! I took seven years of French and a year of Dutch, but I'm hopeless in both.

Countries I’ve Visited

France, Hungary

Countries I’ve Lived In

Netherlands, United States

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