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Change and Nas

As many people who know me will tell you, I don’t like change or moving on. I don’t want to get rid of any of my childhood toys. I hate losing touch with with people. Even the end of the school year is bittersweet. Reminiscing on the “good days” makes me especially sad because I don’t like coming to terms with how things have already changed and how the world has moved on even if I wasn’t ready. This is such a sad concept to me in narratives and real life too. I hate the stories about washed up has-beens who nobody remembers or who die alone. This is a slightly weird example but I was researching for a history paper on Frederick the Great and I found out that he died alone, outliving all of his friends and even his enemies, way past his prime. (Although not the song I want to talk about today, Viva La Vida encapsulates that feeling really well for me). People like Mike Posner chasing their one hit wonder highs really make me sad. Crash from Bull Durham and even Doc Hudson from Cars as ...
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picture of me on a mountain

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  I went backpacking over the summer for 2 weeks in New Mexico. This is a picture of me and my crew on top of Baldy Mountain, the highest peak we would achieve, on the final full day of our trek. It was a long journey that covered well over 100 miles and this was the final goal. The trip ended on a triumphant bang as we reached the summit of the final obstacle between us and our trip home. We had marched along for days with the mountain getting ever closer in our sights. It would loom behind us at every campsite we made. It found its way into the backgrounds of pictures we took just 3 days into the journey. At one point someone let us look through their telescope and we were able to see other crews climbing the mountain. Though it looked so far and arduous, we knew that would be us in mere days. We had come a long way and faced many obstacles (running out of water in the middle of a dry ranch being the most daunting) but we still had one to go: climbing Baldy.  We felt ourselv...
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Songs of my Childhood

I think my earliest memories of music are ones of my father. He did madrigals in high school, acapella in college, and never really lost that love of singing. He has a repertoire of songs that he sings all the time and they are some of my earliest memories with music. I am not really sure what the first one might be so I will talk about the most memorable ones to me. They aren’t necessarily my favorite songs but they are songs he sings very often and have made a deep impression on me. For some of these songs I can’t even listen to the actual recordings by the artists because they don’t match what I hear in my head. My father’s renditions just sound right to me. I am sure I will be hearing these songs in my head for the rest of my life.  Sweet Baby James by James Taylor is a song that has been constant in my life. It is about a young cowboy going to sleep alone with his cows in the wild west. While this whole song is memorable for me, what I want to highlight is Taylor’s description...
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Luna Dog

My dog, Luna, is a rambunctious ball of stress and chaos. She is an Australian cattle dog and feels the need to herd everyone in the house at all times (especially small children). She gets excited when she hears word like “ball” and “squirrel.” She barks constantly when she hears cars outside. She gets tired after only times chasing a ball during fetch. She will bump her head under you while you are in a hammock. She will only let you lay on her or hug her after 10 PM when she gets tired because she is too active before then. This is her personality at the surface level but there are many nuances that make her personality far deeper to me.  My family has prescribed a voice for Luna. It is a high pitched and somewhat raspy voice that we believe conveys the rambunctiousness of her dog personality. She can he dopey, she can be snarky, she can be excited. The voice we do is always based on whatever is happening in the moment but it is still what we want to see in her and what we want ...
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W R G

My name is William Ryland Graham. I like my name though my first and last names are very common throughout the US and the world. My heritage is almost completely confined to the UK and my name reflects that which I like though that probably contributes to the generic sound. My name represents clan Graham of Scotland of which my great grandfather hailed from, and William, a name shared by many English rulers. Ryland is also an Irish name though there is not a specific meaning or intent behind that choice. Through my name and the choices that went into it, I am representing my heritage and family history. My name is a blend of Irish, Scottish and English which is the same as my own lineage and I feel that it accurately represents a part of my identity. I am proud of this heritage so I am also proud of my name.  The story of my actual naming is not a really thrilling one but it is interesting to me. My grandfather is William Robert Graham Sr. and my father William Robert Graham Jr. My...
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