Bizarr09: A Year in Review
I started off 2009 at home with my family and Jill, determined to have a better year than 2008. Not that 2008 was a bad year -- it just wasn't what I wanted my year to be like. I had dealt with nonsense in the form of a sociology professor madman and the loss of two of my best friends to the real world. With a desire to have an improved twelve months, my mom, James and I started the year off right with a visit to Friendly's for our traditional New Year's feast. Beginning with the observation of my family ritual, I had a transformative and changing year. Bizarr09 -- a term coined by my friend Tim -- would be a year of change, confusing and stunning in many ways.
I christen 2009 a year of change partly to honor the election of Barack Obama, a man whose platform was based on being a wellspring of change. The celebration of his election in my apartment at college with cake and friends was a change in itself, reflecting the loosening of the academic shackles I placed on myself in September 2005. I was freer to do the things that I enjoyed instead of the things I had to do to pass a class. Part of this freedom came from doing an internship during my winter semester. I had fewer classes and spent most days at this internship doing nothing productive. Unfortunately, my time with Kyle McCurry at WINGZ 104.9 did not educate me on the ways of radio but it did give me the opportunity to dress up as a buzzard and have my picture taken, something that all little boys dream of doing.
Meanwhile, in the other radio world -- the one I actually cared about -- I was confronted by terrible news in late January. We discovered that WECW, my college radio station, did not have an updated license and had to shut down until a new one could be obtained. As General Manager, this was a great blow to my self-worth. I had hoped to finish my time with WECW strengthening the station for the coming years, not seeing it silenced. Yet it was freeing in a way; Friday nights were open for the first time since January 2006. Late-night weekday trips to MacKenzie's for pizza and wings became more frequent. The times we spent around the kitchen table eating and laughing were quite different from the freshman year nights spent in my room alone.
The freedom from traditional academics allowed me to exercise my creativity. Songs issued from me much more frequently, starting in early January with "St. Stephen's Green" and ending, last week, with a song for my friend Ed Mulvihill. In total, I wrote or recorded ten songs, prompted, I think, by my almost weekly open mic nights in Waverly. These nights with friends and strangers in a small café on a lovely main street define a huge part of what Elmira College was for me, though they happened only six months out of four years. There wasn't a week I went that I wasn't accompanied by friends supporting me. It was during one of our drives out to Waverly that my friend Anthony told me his idea to replicate the Romantics' month long spurts of creativity by spending time together, somewhere, creating. This, combined with my time at City Year in the second half of the year, has inspired me and shaped my future plans more than any other thing that has happened this year.
I went to my first open mic night at the Acoustic Lounge in January and stopped in May, during Term 3. Term 3 was a simultaneous blast and disappointment. I feel that my life progresses in cycles, most notably following the four year cycle (something that can be discussed elsewhere), but there was a definite return to the atmosphere of my sophomore year two years ago. I was in the same class -- Behind the Headlines -- again, though this time I was the teacher's assistant. This increased my responsibility, but it was a part-time paying gig with a great professor, so I am content with that aspect of my final six week term. Though my workload had increased from sophomore year, my desire to improve myself and my happiness was amplified as well. I skipped my other class with abandon and organized weekly game nights of Kick the Can and Nerdball. There were many shenanigans in May 2009. Though commencement day loomed, my friends and I had a few big events to celebrate. The first was WECW's triumphant return to the airwaves. Though I knew that I wouldn't get to see it in its evolved glory, I did have 5 two-hour radio shows in one week and for that I am grateful. The second was inviting The Instruments Band to rock Perry Apartment on a night that featured a full band playing in the living room, a cellist and guitarist singing with 15 people in the kitchen and chugging of sweet and sour sauce.
My friend Jo returned from her Term 3 trip to Ireland toward the end of the term and left shortly thereafter, signaling the beginning of the end. My younger friends departed, returning to their homes for the summer and leaving me with the core group that I came in with. Senior week culminated with my candlelight speech -- I am still honored to have had that opportunity -- and the feeling that "This isn't my home anymore." Thus I traveled home, spending June 1st as my first full day as a college graduate. I was ready for anything the summer and life presented to me, which turned out to be City Year. Being hired gave me homework, as I had to find roommates and a place to live. This took most of the summer to accomplish, but I had August to prepare for the next big step.
To be certain, the summer was mostly filled with adventure and excitement. My musical growth continued with weekly open mic nights with my friend Joey, playing in northern Wilmington and becoming part of a coterie of musicians. When changing strings to record the final version of an old song, I broke the guitar that once belonged to my grandfather. Thus the Request-A-Song project was born, something that I'll likely continue for years -- especially considering that it has taken me so long to write the songs already requested.
After years of dreaming of adventure, I finally went on one in July. Jill and I traveled by train to the great city of Chicago to check out a Harry Potter exhibit and got to see a lot more. I'll always love New York City -- it is the greatest city in the world, after all -- but that metropolis belongs to the Riley family. Chicago, that's the town for me and Jill. A few weeks later, I brought several worlds together with my graduation party. Friends from Delaware, from high school and from college met at my house. It was a great way to begin the end of my full-time residence in Delaware.
At the end of August, I journeyed up to New Hampshire with my family, a truck full of furniture and a car full of personal effects. Though I went into it with a cynical outlook, I quickly discovered that City Year is everything I wanted and needed in life. Placed on a spectacular team, I spread the "whiff" and ====E to others, two things that continue to ripple in the lake of humanity. City Year demands a lot from me and, as a sign of devotion I have given it much of the time I would otherwise take for myself. However, I absolutely love what I do, something that many people can't say about themselves. Every day, I am surrounded by exquisitely beautiful human beings who make me happy just to be alive.
I have not lost touch with my old friends, though. In fact, moving to New Hampshire has given me more time with my girlfriend and though I have a lot of improving to do in that relationship, I am blissfully happy with where we are today. My two visits to Elmira this fall reminded me that I do miss that place, though not so much for the college lifestyle. I miss the memories: sitting in the Arnot Mall parking lot listening to William, It Was Really Nothing," looking out from my third floor window in Perry during Term III 2007, the radio shows, the joyous shenanigans and the everyday moments. I miss the people who celebrate me whenever I return. I miss them not because they tell me I'm wonderful, but because they support me and have helped mold me into the person I am today. Seeing them, I have no hesitation in spreading the gospel according to City Year -- see people as people and be happy in your life's work.
This year has had its rough points. Dealing with a grody, self-absorbed man who drinks Diet Mountain Dew like it's water. Losing WECW for four months. Crying in Jill's car as we pulled away from Elmira for my last time as a student. Eating my first dinner in New Hampshire without my family at the table with me. The death of Boo Boo when I was seven hours away. The long nights of work with no time for me to breathe. But the balance of life requires these sorts of things. For every low point, there have been moments that threw me into the stratosphere. I lived blissfully during the last few months I had at college. I wrote many songs that I'm proud of. I've become part of an organization that promotes every idea I've had of what humanity can and should be. I have friends across the country supporting me in whatever I'm doing and who help me be a better human being. Bizarr09, the final year in a decade of mind-blowing changes and transformations, was a great year and I'm excited for what the next ten years will bring. See you on the other side.
-Paul
I christen 2009 a year of change partly to honor the election of Barack Obama, a man whose platform was based on being a wellspring of change. The celebration of his election in my apartment at college with cake and friends was a change in itself, reflecting the loosening of the academic shackles I placed on myself in September 2005. I was freer to do the things that I enjoyed instead of the things I had to do to pass a class. Part of this freedom came from doing an internship during my winter semester. I had fewer classes and spent most days at this internship doing nothing productive. Unfortunately, my time with Kyle McCurry at WINGZ 104.9 did not educate me on the ways of radio but it did give me the opportunity to dress up as a buzzard and have my picture taken, something that all little boys dream of doing.
Meanwhile, in the other radio world -- the one I actually cared about -- I was confronted by terrible news in late January. We discovered that WECW, my college radio station, did not have an updated license and had to shut down until a new one could be obtained. As General Manager, this was a great blow to my self-worth. I had hoped to finish my time with WECW strengthening the station for the coming years, not seeing it silenced. Yet it was freeing in a way; Friday nights were open for the first time since January 2006. Late-night weekday trips to MacKenzie's for pizza and wings became more frequent. The times we spent around the kitchen table eating and laughing were quite different from the freshman year nights spent in my room alone.
The freedom from traditional academics allowed me to exercise my creativity. Songs issued from me much more frequently, starting in early January with "St. Stephen's Green" and ending, last week, with a song for my friend Ed Mulvihill. In total, I wrote or recorded ten songs, prompted, I think, by my almost weekly open mic nights in Waverly. These nights with friends and strangers in a small café on a lovely main street define a huge part of what Elmira College was for me, though they happened only six months out of four years. There wasn't a week I went that I wasn't accompanied by friends supporting me. It was during one of our drives out to Waverly that my friend Anthony told me his idea to replicate the Romantics' month long spurts of creativity by spending time together, somewhere, creating. This, combined with my time at City Year in the second half of the year, has inspired me and shaped my future plans more than any other thing that has happened this year.
I went to my first open mic night at the Acoustic Lounge in January and stopped in May, during Term 3. Term 3 was a simultaneous blast and disappointment. I feel that my life progresses in cycles, most notably following the four year cycle (something that can be discussed elsewhere), but there was a definite return to the atmosphere of my sophomore year two years ago. I was in the same class -- Behind the Headlines -- again, though this time I was the teacher's assistant. This increased my responsibility, but it was a part-time paying gig with a great professor, so I am content with that aspect of my final six week term. Though my workload had increased from sophomore year, my desire to improve myself and my happiness was amplified as well. I skipped my other class with abandon and organized weekly game nights of Kick the Can and Nerdball. There were many shenanigans in May 2009. Though commencement day loomed, my friends and I had a few big events to celebrate. The first was WECW's triumphant return to the airwaves. Though I knew that I wouldn't get to see it in its evolved glory, I did have 5 two-hour radio shows in one week and for that I am grateful. The second was inviting The Instruments Band to rock Perry Apartment on a night that featured a full band playing in the living room, a cellist and guitarist singing with 15 people in the kitchen and chugging of sweet and sour sauce.
My friend Jo returned from her Term 3 trip to Ireland toward the end of the term and left shortly thereafter, signaling the beginning of the end. My younger friends departed, returning to their homes for the summer and leaving me with the core group that I came in with. Senior week culminated with my candlelight speech -- I am still honored to have had that opportunity -- and the feeling that "This isn't my home anymore." Thus I traveled home, spending June 1st as my first full day as a college graduate. I was ready for anything the summer and life presented to me, which turned out to be City Year. Being hired gave me homework, as I had to find roommates and a place to live. This took most of the summer to accomplish, but I had August to prepare for the next big step.
To be certain, the summer was mostly filled with adventure and excitement. My musical growth continued with weekly open mic nights with my friend Joey, playing in northern Wilmington and becoming part of a coterie of musicians. When changing strings to record the final version of an old song, I broke the guitar that once belonged to my grandfather. Thus the Request-A-Song project was born, something that I'll likely continue for years -- especially considering that it has taken me so long to write the songs already requested.
After years of dreaming of adventure, I finally went on one in July. Jill and I traveled by train to the great city of Chicago to check out a Harry Potter exhibit and got to see a lot more. I'll always love New York City -- it is the greatest city in the world, after all -- but that metropolis belongs to the Riley family. Chicago, that's the town for me and Jill. A few weeks later, I brought several worlds together with my graduation party. Friends from Delaware, from high school and from college met at my house. It was a great way to begin the end of my full-time residence in Delaware.
At the end of August, I journeyed up to New Hampshire with my family, a truck full of furniture and a car full of personal effects. Though I went into it with a cynical outlook, I quickly discovered that City Year is everything I wanted and needed in life. Placed on a spectacular team, I spread the "whiff" and ====E to others, two things that continue to ripple in the lake of humanity. City Year demands a lot from me and, as a sign of devotion I have given it much of the time I would otherwise take for myself. However, I absolutely love what I do, something that many people can't say about themselves. Every day, I am surrounded by exquisitely beautiful human beings who make me happy just to be alive.
I have not lost touch with my old friends, though. In fact, moving to New Hampshire has given me more time with my girlfriend and though I have a lot of improving to do in that relationship, I am blissfully happy with where we are today. My two visits to Elmira this fall reminded me that I do miss that place, though not so much for the college lifestyle. I miss the memories: sitting in the Arnot Mall parking lot listening to William, It Was Really Nothing," looking out from my third floor window in Perry during Term III 2007, the radio shows, the joyous shenanigans and the everyday moments. I miss the people who celebrate me whenever I return. I miss them not because they tell me I'm wonderful, but because they support me and have helped mold me into the person I am today. Seeing them, I have no hesitation in spreading the gospel according to City Year -- see people as people and be happy in your life's work.
This year has had its rough points. Dealing with a grody, self-absorbed man who drinks Diet Mountain Dew like it's water. Losing WECW for four months. Crying in Jill's car as we pulled away from Elmira for my last time as a student. Eating my first dinner in New Hampshire without my family at the table with me. The death of Boo Boo when I was seven hours away. The long nights of work with no time for me to breathe. But the balance of life requires these sorts of things. For every low point, there have been moments that threw me into the stratosphere. I lived blissfully during the last few months I had at college. I wrote many songs that I'm proud of. I've become part of an organization that promotes every idea I've had of what humanity can and should be. I have friends across the country supporting me in whatever I'm doing and who help me be a better human being. Bizarr09, the final year in a decade of mind-blowing changes and transformations, was a great year and I'm excited for what the next ten years will bring. See you on the other side.
-Paul