No cliche

Never has the phrase “caged bird” meant more to me than this moment. Never has writing been more important to my virtual freedom than today.
Being in a foreign land, struggling with foreign culture, and being reminded everyday of the fact that I might not belong here, writing has become my way out. Literally, I feel that I can breathe again. When I feel suffocated, I grab the laptop and start writing.
There are a few things around us that offer the best and the cheapest way of escape from life. Cameras, computers, microphones, just to name a few, are all great opportunities for us to assume a different (and outside) role than the one we play as human beings who are part of our surroundings. When you grab that camera, and look through that lens, it almost transforms you into another being. Microphones, video cameras, writing… all make us breathe freely while we look at life from another outlet. The girl from the Blaire Witch Project was taping all that was happening as a form of escape. Her lens gave her the courage to be in the middle of the craziness without feeling the fear. I am the same way. I use this blog to escape from the life I live now and assume the role of the writer I’ve always been. I do not pretend to be someone else, I just long for those days when I wrote for a living. I enjoyed it, I loved it, and I did it from the bottom of my heart because it set me free. Most of you non-writers will see this as the biggest cliché ever, but I am hoping writers will understand. If you are passionate about writing, then there’s no mistaking, it sets you free. Not a cliché, but an absolute truth. Without writing, I feel like a caged bird.

My picture

This is me. My brother took it a couple of years ago, but I still look the same. It was one of those times when he had his camera in his hand, and he kept clicking and clicking and clicking. You get excited thinking he's taking some great pictures of you. But then, when the photo comes out, you see a part of your nose, your mole maybe, a hair in your eyebrow, etc :) He loves close-ups. I'm lucky this photo is an actual face with everything in it. I always teased him about that, but he's a great photographer.

Credits

Silly me forgot! The reason, the one and only reason, I started this blog is because of a great and sweet person. She kept encouraging me to do it until I finally did it! Everybody... behold... the wonderful Raluca! Thanks Luca :)

Thanksgiving memories

I am getting ready for Thanksgiving, something I am not used to. Where I'm from, Lebanon, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving. I've only been in the States for a little over two years, and I can honestly say that American families have embraced me quite well for their special holiday traditions. My first one (when I didn't know the difference between a casserole and stuffing), I was invited to one of my very first and very good friends from LSU, Desiree. I met her during my first weeks of graduate school. I had a great week there. We were looking forward to it for a long time, so I couldn't wait to be done with that horrible Research Methods class that I had. That professor just didn't like me. I cared less, cause I didn't like him either. I thought he was a bad bad bad teacher. A good researcher, but a bad teacher. Anyway, that first Thanksgiving holiday week was great. I felt loved again. I was missing my family so bad, that at times, I thought I couldn't take it anymore. Desi's family was there for me and made my first Thanksgiving ever a memorable experience.
The second one was alright. The thought behind it was really nice, so that's all that mattered. A family I became friends with was out of town for Thanksgiving, so they wanted me to go to their friends' house. It was thoughtful of them not to want me to be alone.
I cannot predict what would happen this year, but I'm sure it'll be great.

Welcome

I'm new to this, so please be patient if you don't find something interesting to read. As you all know, I love to write. The best way I can express myself is throught words. And what better way to write and receive comments than a blog.