This is a book

Dear Readers,

Lately I have felt stirrings of confidence and passion within me once again. With excitement, I welcome back the familiar feeling of purpose and of hunger for life. Each new day, I feel as if I am emerging a little more from the hazy confusion of youth and inexperience. I am ready to commit to a craft, no longer fearful of abandoning many potential paths for a single one. After all, it is much easier to repel distractions when your energy is focused, and not thinly spread over too many efforts. No longer am I sampling freely from the all-you-can-eat buffet of life. I am digesting now - absorbing the lessons and wisdom like nutrients, expelling the frivolous and foolish like shit.

I see myself now with a marvelous clarity that I did not have several months ago. I can state with confidence my core values and where I learned them. One must never underestimate the importance of this recognition. I still remember the confusion of having an undeveloped set of values, like an adolescent attempting to maintain physical coordination throughout a growth spurt. Thankfully, as I am entering a phase where I will be making very big decisions about my education, career, and home, I know very well who I am as a man.

Furthermore, I feel greatly aware of the length of a human life and how my actions now fit into the big picture. With my job, I am fortunate to gain a much larger perspective on life. Life is long, but the world is full of others who have lived through theirs and from whom I may learn. The future is a mystery, but it is *probably* coming, so we had better be prepared anyway. We will never know what the world is going to do to us, but if we know who we are, then we will always know how we wish to act within the world.

I should like to write more on the actual values and lessons at a later date.

Until then,

Your Working Boy, Arnold