J Wade's blog: "Day by Day"

Thirty five years in this world, and I still have a lot to learn about life. There are situations that I run into on a daily basis that I don't remember ever going through. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's just interesting to me. I remember being a little kid, and my dad would say, "you think you have it all figured out, don't you?" Honestly, yeah. For a long time into my teens, I thought I had all of the answers. But I think that's just how kids think. Until real responsibility comes knocking, we think we're the kings and queens of our reality.

Nevertheless, we learn to love and lose that which we love. We run into various cultures and other ethnicities that we may have never come into contact with before. I've learned that there are so many amazing people in this world, and their ideas, no matter how small, have changed our lives for better or for worse. However, that's what has made us the kind of people we are and will be.

I don't know many other languages other than English, but I want to. I want to travel and meet the individuals that others don't want to talk to. I want to try food in every country, no matter how different or "gross" it might be. Why? Because it may be a delicasy in their homeland. To them, it may be the best thing based on what they grow or create. I want to learn how to respect those that are different from me because of where they live. I also want to learn more about real love. I'm not talking about being with someone special and having a life together. I want to meet an individual in a foreign country and learn what they do for a living. I want to know how they survive with their families and how they provide for them. Maybe, I can learn what it is to be truly humble.

I understand that there are a lot of situations out there that would prevent me from being in safe positions because of degregation or war-torn places, but I want to visit the ones nobody seems to care about. Maybe I'm crazy, but that's okay to me. I guess I'm just tired of equality being a bad word. I don't want others to be afraid or feel like they have to fight so hard to feel accepted. It'll never really go away, I'm aware of that. But one step at a time, I want to learn how to really love.