Splendid. My First Post

Hello everyone! I am excited to contribute to And The World Keeps Spinning (love the title because it expresses how I view life; an endless mirage of craziness both in postive and negative ways with occasional blessed moments of peace). I will go by Flamenco or FlamFlam or Flammy; the last two, I guess, silly nicknames dubbed by Flora. Like Flora, I don't care much for talking and rambling on about myself. Rather, I like to take my experiences and observations and turn them into reflection, which is why we usually have such great discussions amid "I, me, my, mine" conversations.

Because this is an introduction, however, I feel obligated to say something about myself, which really begins with my username "Flamenco". Both my parents were born in Spain, and met in America. My father is a California representative in the House, and my mother owns and operates homes for people with mental diabilities.

I am a second-generation American. I am also a proud American through-and-through (note: does not mean I agree wholeheartedly with the current administration or fail to question authority), and I also feel a strong connection to Spanish culture. Flamenco is such a powerful, emotional, beautiful dance down to the hand movements, facial expressions, guitar beats that mimick the paces of the heart, and the elaborate yet almost conservative costumes. I am 17 years old, and I plan to go to the college of my choice, and major either in International Relations or Government (perhaps double major, I am crazy, I know).

I am not the best writer. I still don't quite grasp my writing style, and I only hope that you will be able to follow along my ramblings interposed perhaps with long drawn-out sentences filled with semi-colons and commas that do not belong. This is my theory: In English class, they tell you to rid your writing of ambiguity, to walk away from being a "talking thesaurus"; they tell you not to use the word "being". Just did. They want you to create your own voice, express who you are clearly, but follow a set pattern, lets say, of deductive or inductive reasoning. I "reason" all over the place. I say "walk away" because it literally takes physical effort to change your habits in writing.

Quotation marks are only for quotes and words you pull from the original text to fit the context you are placing it in. I, however, use it unreasonably, putting quotation marks around almost every word that slightly differs from its original meaning in the way I am using it. I say "yeah" a lot. Forgive me. They tell you so many seemingly contradicting "rules" to follow, that I say.... create your own. . In English they tell you one thing, and in Physics they tell you another. In English they say "do this", but common sense tells you otherwise.

Anyways, I will approach this blog with sincerity, with honesty, and I want to offer some of my own insight, and hopefully you can relate to it on some level. This is such a great way to be heard, to listen, to learn, and I genuinely want you to benefit as much as I want to learn and grow from these sorts of little things in life that help us get through; to try and understand ourselves and the world we live in.

Your fellow blogger,

Flamenco