Maya

I've avoided writing for the past couple weeks, as these have seemed to be the most trying and didn't necessarily want to be completely negative. Things have been a bit hectic with ramping up with school, and especially the UN project. These past two weeks had been solely focused on a presentation that we were to give on Thursday the 22nd in New York, to our benefactor and others from the UN. During all of this our senior team project had given some specific guide lines that we had to address in order for our game to make it pass "Green Light" and continue with production, and that presentation was the Friday after New York. As trying as this time has been, we gather strength from continuing to walk forward and not falling down. I'm happy to say that I had a really relaxed weekend, although not being glued to my work always concerns me but I'm sure I can make it up during this next week.

The presentation to the UN on Thursday was a pretty big success I think, as nervous as I had been it went fairly smoothly. Getting into these intellectual conversations is something that I seem to live for, somehow I've become a talker... Not exactly sure when that happened but yea New York was pretty awesome. As happy a day Thursday was, though, I also recieved word that my childhood dog had died... Something pretty hard to hear between meetings, and trying to stay on track. He was very old, and if anything this was probably the best way he could have gone but I still wish I had been home. This had been my dog since I was really little, and I named him Rex, a little cliche I know... but I was really into dinosaurs and he was my T. Rex. I wasn't always as social as I am now, and during that time he was my best friend... and I'll miss him. Before I begin to sound any more like a bad country music song I'll just change the subject haha.

So upon returning from New York I ended up having a pretty late night preparing for our Green Light deliverable, which I have still yet to hear about. We were told that we wouldn't hear until the beginning of this week, but I think it went over pretty well. I'm not sure I could be happier with how the group seems to be shaping up, I think if we get the green light we'll have something pretty great to show in April.

I've had a lot of different strong emotions in the past week or so, and I'll admit that I've been a little all over the place. Through it all, though, it has been educational in a sense. I'm learning more about those around me, some things more shocking then others but needless to say pretty revealing, and I'm always learning more about myself. I know I'm being incredibly vague, but I'd rather think I'm being tactful =)

One thing I did want to share though, this may sound sort of random, but I find it odd that the word "Maya" keeps popping up pretty prominently in my life. Growing up I was deeply interested in mayan mythology and lore, coming to Champlain I've ironically become deeply invested in a software called Maya, and now through a world religions class I've stumbled upon Maya once more... This is an excerpt taken from a book called "The Illustrated World's Religions" by Huston Smith, and it's talking about Hinduism but yea,

"The Hindus have something like this in mind when they characterize the world as maya. The world appears the way we see it, but that is not the way it really is. Maya comes from the same root as magic. In saying the world is maya, non-dual Hinduism is saying that there is something tricky about it. The trick lies in the way the world's materiality and multiplicity pass themselves off as being independently real.... Maya is also seductive in the attractiveness with which it decorates the world, trapping us for a long time within it and postponing our wish to journey on." (page 53)

What do I do in maya other than "decorate" a world, in which may appear attractive and engrossing but in all reality does not exist; and it's existence hinges on others taking a pause on their journey... I can read a lot of different things out of this, but what I'll share is that I think it's all about perceptions. While somehow I've become invested in the business of false perceptions, and I'm finding that everything is in how we perceive the world around us. Perhaps we need to keep a critical eye to it too, just like any bit of reading we need to evaluate our own "realities." It's about how we choose to perceive things and how we choose to react to things that fall in our journey's path, and while things get tougher and really hard at times... You've got to have faith that you'll keep walking, that you'll topple the next rise, and that it may seem as though you've picked the steepest slope... You've picked it for a reason and you should climb it and claim it as your own.

Walk your own path, even if you have to trudge though a little shit every now and again.