Happy 30 to Me! :)

I bury my youth today. I've earned every right to bury it. And although I say goodbye to my youth as I place a red rose on its tomb, it is not dead, no, it lives on, for its fire stays with me. My 20s may have started off rocky, but they ended with a bang: graduating from college at 22, living and working in Dubai for seven months when I was 23, losing my religion, and, hence, being emancipated, shortly after coming back, getting a four-year Honours BA in less than three years' time, finishing on the Sessional Academic Achievement List, learning the art of seduction (something I'm ALWAYS working on improving, as I love women with all my heart and soul), meeting a lot of great people, making tons of new friends, removing certain toxic individuals from my life, going to Cuba on my own two days after my 29th birthday, finishing my book back in November, going to Hawaii for 10 days this passed May (as I was asked to speak at the Tenth East-West Philosophers' Conference, held every 4 to 6 years - a trip that, for the most part, was covered by my university, as I was representing it), working as a TA from September to April ( a fabulous experience), finishing my master's degree in Eastern and continental philosophy (with an A average) in the very lovely St. Catharines (where it's been a joy and privilege to live in, where the air is Niagara-fresh and the girls go absolutely wild come Friday and Saturday night), etc., etc.

Hawaii is, indeed, paradise, and is a place that I had been wanting to go to for as long as I can remember. The night life is amazing. The clubs stay open till 4. People are so incredibly friendly, too, because, well, what reason do they have to be grouchy? It was the perfect final trip of my 20s, and my presentation, which was a comparative essay on Merleau-Ponty and Nagarjuna, went very well. I got good questions, and answered them all thoroughly and enthusiastically. I still can't stand reading Merleau-Ponty, though [even though he's certainly a genius, and I don't disagree with his standpoint], but not nearly as much as I detest reading Husserl [who's my worst philosophical nightmare]. Nietzsche is still my fouvourite, and he's the reason I am where I am in my life right now. My MA's Major Research Project was/is entitled, "Friedrich Nietzsche and the Contingencies of Christianity." Quite quaint, I think. :)