I have a tendency to romanticize everything in my head (oh, idealism!). This has a tendency to make me cynical (as nothing in real life ever lives up to the perception of perfection).

One of the downsides of social networking like Facebook is it really makes it easy for you to answer: "I wonder what ____ is up to these days." When I was in high school, I really thought my group of friends and I would conquer the world. We were smart, we were hungry, and we came from privileged backgrounds (yes, middle class is privileged!).

When I look these people up on Facebook now, I get disappointed at the ...mediocrity of their lives. These were guys whom I considered intellectual equals ... and some of them are doing the most pointless things. Some are playing the rat race and some are still searching for what they want to do. Intellectual curiority ... dashed. Wasted. What a shame.

There's a certain romanticism about falling "off the grid" ... I wonder if it's cause it hides how truly mundane real life is.

For me? I'm still searching for that spark in my life. Something to separate me from mediocrity ... something to say, "Here is my blessed life, and here is what I made of it all."