To tell the truth, I've been pretty happy the past year or two. I have been blessed with the gift of amazement. Sometimes I'll be walking, and it will feel like I'm in slow motion. I'll look down to the grit on the ground, or the chipped paint on the wall, graffiti on a desk, lights reflected off of glass... the most mundane objects, and it feels like I am seeing right into some crucial element of this world. It may sound like I'm full of shit, but I'm regularly amazed by this world. Further, I'm very thankful that I can afford to be amazed. I know that my persent situation could easily have turned out drastically different.

Thinking about the future is very frustrating. There are many things that I wish to accomplish which could easily take longer than I will probably live. I am frustrated, not by the speed at which time passes, but the amount of things that I can do in the time that I am given.

Don't be afraid to get what you want out of life. Fear is your enemy, and you should get mad whenever it stands in-between you and happiness or adventure. Please, please, please do not waste your youth. Take chances while you are still young and have little to lose.

Right now there isn't much in your shopping cart, so you can run down the aisles and take quick turns. Every year that goes by means more is in your shopping cart. It becomes harder to push and turn it, and you become increasingly scared that if you turn too quickly it will fall over and you'll have to start shopping all over again.

Don't fill up your basket with meaningless shit just because it isn't full right now. Only put in there what you really want to have for the rest of your life, or else you're just pushing around dead weight.

What is my teaching philosophy? What have some of my students had to say about that?