From as far back as I can remember, I always loved Curious George. My favorite story in the big anthology book kept on my bedside shelf was "Curious George Goes to the Hospital." Every night, I would ask my mom to read me that story. I loved the beginning of the story, and how I always knew what was coming, but remained just as compelled by the climax and conclusion as I was after hearing it for the first time. This same sort of thrill continued through my childhood. I watched movies, TV shows, and listened to music, but none of them provided the same type of warmth and excitement that a book did. Even one that I had read fifteen times over.

Once in my early teens, however, my favorite hobby came to a halt. Through some of middle school and the majority of high school, I barely read. It wasn't necessarily a loss of interest, it was more of a failure to realize and unearth something special. At the time, I didn't think much about my future. When I started to (the end of junior year), reading, writing, and literature all quickly came into the light, and I was ultimately left with no more questions. This is what I will do with my life. It's what has always been there, and what will always be. I don't subscribe to the idea of pursuing something solely for its monetary value; I will always heartily chase after what I truly love, and be satisfied with whatever sort of life it provides.

My advice (if I am even qualified to be handing out advice) is to live. Make sure you live. Life flows out like a stream when you live a life that you truly desire. Hear what the heavens reveal, listen to the pastures as they rustle in the wind, and feel what your heart has to say. Find that thing that you love. Find out everything about it. And then live it.

"...I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." -Henry David Thoreau