Title: Optical Magician

Gender: Female

Age: 19

Sun Sign: Aries

Chinese Sign: Earth Snake

Location: Philadelphia, PA

   Where to begin with a biography…?

   The first thing that comes to mind is a quote by Walt Witman that helped me work my way out of  mental headlocks when I wrestled with the grapples of  “structured” self-identity-

        ”Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict   myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.”

   Fred Alan Wolf quoted Witman in his book, the Little Book of Big Ideas. So simply stated, it was the first quote that I felt I could really relate to. It was one of those catalysts that revolutionized how I handle the streams of information coming from a league of inherent informants, those things called senses that foster the film of our life's movie. It was really something I knew all along- that more often than not, senses tend give you the cut and censored version.

  …..with that said, I'll cut to the chase here. I'm a senior in high school about to graduate. That in itself is a pretty awkward position to be in. In an allegory: Juggling transitions into college lurking in the near future while meditating on the present moment is to a balancing act set to circus music with no time measure.  I think I'm handling it fairly well though. Like most things in life, it's about remaining a child at heart, improvisation/ embracing whatever should fall into your lap, and some good ol' lovin' and communication.

            I know I'm not the first to say it (and hopefully I won't be the last,) that in the larger picture no one is an only child, being that humanity as a whole is our brothers and sisters. But without my immediate family (and dog), I'd be pretty lost. My brother Matt who's almost a year younger means the world to me. I've written and talked about in length how he's influenced my life many times before. Matt was born with autism and a severe expressive receptive speech disorder.  All my life I've thought of Matt not as a “handicapped” individual, but rather as an extraordinary boy that was endowed with unique flair and a contagious personality that is absolutely beyond comparison.

            Living with Matt has opened my eyes in realizing that we live our lives simultaneously as teachers and learners. When I help him with daily routines, homework, the next level of Super Mario, etc., often I find myself taken aback by his actions and words with a huge bubbling grin on my face. I will never personally experience perceiving the world through Matthew's mind, but sometimes when I am able to gain insight into that consciousness through his expressions, I learn an invaluable lesson. Take it to heart- you always learn something new.

Every one of us has so much to contribute to the world in more ways that we would think possible. We can't let discrimination or discouragement deter us from becoming the changes we want to make in the world. We owe it to ourselves and to one another to mine the depths of our creativity, talents, and will power to fill the world with mansions of reverie and illumination.


If you've got some time, you can check out my other photos here:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v193/innamorato/

Member Since: Friday, February 02 2007

Last Visit: 377 days ago.

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