Behind the Rooftop Effect

Don't forget that everything you deal with is only one thing and nothing else.

Paulo Coelho

Somewhere between realizing that I have developed a nervous habit of clenching my jaw while pushing my tongue against the back of my teeth and the suffocating feeling in my chest (which may or may not be my heart), I remembered the Rooftop Effect.

This is why I have changed my blog— I’m going back to myself. Unedited.

You see, my freshmen year of college I thought that I wasn’t cut out for the life I had set myself up for. I saw a future beneath sterile lighting with carpeted, gray walls and 9-5 routine. So I stopped going to class, discovered Buddhism and just did whatever I wanted— within certain boundaries. I was not a rebel in the traditional sense of the word.

At the end of the year I decided that it wasn’t college that was wrong for me, it was a Jesuit college that was wrong for me. What the hell was I thinking?! But I needed to experience it to know.

And here I am today; at another college—a senior. Of course this is a severely abridged version of my inner musings. It's more than the institution of college that is wrong for me, but I'm still discovering what that is. It doesn't mean I'm going to drop out of college either.

…I used to stay up all night contemplating the Rooftop Effect. It was a lifestyle that my friends and I thought up as we discussed 99942 Apophis. The Rooftop Effect essentially was what you wanted it to be.

If the asteroid hit in 2036, where would you be? Would you be content and could you sit there on the rooftop watching it as it hurtled towards you? I decided that I would prefer it that way. I’d take it with a smile and a beer (or wine depending on my mood). I’d hope that on that rooftop were all of my loved ones with me.

So will you join me?