I just discovered the beauty of Voice Notes. I've known that you can dictate oral notes to yourself, but never really had a desire to do so until recently when I've been writing things in my head while driving. Not wanting to pull over, I decided instead to download a Voice Notes App for my phone. And Viola! Here is my ramble (I wish you could hear the car noises and turn signal in the background):

There are moments in life that may not be the most poignant, but end up sticking in your memory. For instance, I can remember recording tapes from CD's when I was getting ready for a long road trip. I remember making eclairs from scratch the day before that trip and packing some in the car. Looking back, it seems like those were the moments when my life was just beginning. It wasn't necessary a significant moment, in fact the trip was much more noteworthy. But those memories of preparation in the days leading up to that trip now feels like I was getting ready for my life to begin. That's what it reminds me of - the start of what my life has become.

Sometimes you look at your life and think, "How did I get here? How did all these moments lead to where I am now?" This isn't what I thought it was going to look like. In some ways, it can be more than you expected, but also so much different. And it's not necessarily that you are stuck or trapped. Those are just the cards you're dealt. That's the definition of life! So, how can you complain? Maybe it's just harder for me because I tend to put so much expectation on my vision of the future and how I expect or want things to look. But don't we all have dreams that we thought were going to come true?

No, I guess the definition of life is how you roll with the punches, how you react to the cards in your hand and how you play them out. Maybe some people are better at poker faces, at 'playing the game'. Some know how to fool people a little bit better. That's what life is - reaction. How you react when things didn't turn out the way you thought, how you react to the good and the bad. Those reactions mold you into who you become. Emotion is natural. To be nonreactive is not humanistic. The goal is give the appropriate reaction for each incident.