hello from Chapel Hill, North Carolina

[openeyes]

Hi,

So much to say ... I'm a 22 year old senior at UNC Chapel Hill. I got into martial arts at 7 (taught by my father), meditation at 8, weight lifting at 9 (about when I hit puberty), and finally yoga, nutrition (involving occasional raw food diets and fasting), investing and photoreading at 13. One of my greatest joys has always simply been to learn something new, to come across something that challenges my world view and dive into it.

Rather than any particular hobby, I often seek out new activities where I can grow a bit, trying out unicycling, skydiving, rock climbing, barefoot hiking and hang gliding so far, to name a few. Growing up I spent a lot of time watching and helping my dad at the race track with he and his friends playing with their cars. The one thing he wishes he had done that I may opt to do is get a private pilot's license.

I sing with a local club here, play drums on occasion, go contra dancing on weekends, and focus on having several close friends that I can share quite a bit with. A couple years ago I was very active with Toastmasters, giving a speech each week. Since then I've done door to door sales and taken acting and public speaking classes, generally enjoying all of it. Though I used to be shy, at this point I'm the only student that really speaks up and actually tells jokes in class, even when there are literally 400 people in the room. The students and professors generally love it.

Right now I'm interested in getting back into playing music, along with more visual art. I used to do quite a bit of photography and drawing, now I'm beginning to draw again, mostly the human form. There is no end point in sight, rather I'm just enjoying the journey, making good friends, sharing massage, fixing great meals, taking naps, watching foreign/silent films (no regular tv), and reading, reading, reading.

Over the next few weeks I plan on becoming an early riser again, which may be facilitated by a ten day meditation retreat at the end of the month with a wake up time of 4 am. Sleep is something I generally enjoy, but as a senior I want to make more time to start a portable (preferably online) business, and getting up early really does seem to benefit productivity.