After a while, it hits you: what it’s all about.

You could spend years in school in order to earn (or receive, in some cases) a piece of paper that may or may not suffice while you strive toward a position in society as a decent, upstanding citizen.

In order to survive, you get a job that you might possibly begin to dread going to and at the end of the day, you’ll come home to your family, if you’re lucky. If not, you come home to an empty thought of what could have been…what should have been and in the end you wonder if it was all worth it.

Right now, I’m at a pivotal point in my life. Yet, I have no idea of what’s ahead of me. I guess that’s part of the adventure. I just hope I’m headed in the right direction…

I’ll soon be graduating from college (finally!) and I’m excited about closing this chapter of my life and moving on to the next, and the uncertainty of it all no longer looms in the back of my mind.

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Peace and blessings,
J. Dakar

The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.
- Madeleine L’Engle

I’ve been a blessed young man. Well, I’ve been blessed my whole life, but these past couple of years have really made me realize how fortunate I am to have two loving, supportive parents, as well as a group of special people in my life always rooting for me.

As my 24th birthday draws near on Friday, March 28, I can’t help but think about my good friend, Andrew, who died in 2002, a few weeks shy of his high school graduation. His birthday is a couple of weeks after mine, and I’m deeply saddened that he’ll never have the chance to experience life after the age of eighteen.

I think Andrew’s death motivated me even more because it showed me how truly precious life is and how we all must cherish it and live every day to the fullest. I’m often reminded of this on a regular basis when friends ask, “How are you doing?” or “How’s it going?”. My immediate response is typically, “I’m doing great…just living and loving life.” Life is a blessing and once you realize that, you begin to love it even more.
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Contaminated water kills a child every 15 seconds, says World Vision. In addition, over 60 percent of Africans lack access to a proper toilet, according to a report released just days before World Water Day by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation.

But there is something you and I can do.

FreePoverty.com allows everyone to contribute in donating water to people from all over the world who live in extreme poverty. By letting users locate places on the map, their accuracy will determine how many cups of water will be donated on their behalf.

You can also donate a proper amount to World Vision which will help bring life-giving water to children around the world today. Any amount you send will be doubled to bring fresh water to communities where children are suffering from deadly waterborne diseases such as typhoid, cholera, and dysentery. The organization earned a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, which means they are both fiscally responsible and true to their mission.

Photo credit: UNICEF/HQ96-1166/Giacomo Pirozzi

Can you spot six errors within this image?

I’ll give you a hint: one error is repeated twice.

Although I’ve been blogging since 2001, I still enjoy reading tips on the subject and who better to consult than John Chow? In February, he made nearly $30,000 by telling people how much he makes online. I stumbled upon his tips for beginners and couldn’t believe what I saw.

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I think I’ve done enough nonsense.
I’m considering giving up all the whimsical
fun stuff and getting back to business.
Not really, though. But seriously,
I need to learn to control myself.
- “Temperance”, Guillermo Andrae Fisher

Welcome to Write State of Mind. This marks Rebirth #fifty ‘leven, but this is my site and I can reset, revamp and redo anything I want.
“…yet from those flames no light, but rather darkness visible…”
- John Milton
The look is quite similar to the last, but features a different font scheme and is inspired by a line from John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost.

It’s also an homage to the now defunct N-Retrospekt, a former personal blog and website of mine. Speaking of which, I have a new one of those, but this is not it.
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