nathan chow:

Today my roommate’s best friend complimented me in a way I hadn’t heard in a while when she said my voice is “very calm and soothing” and that it puts her “at ease.”

I’m not really sure how much I believe what I say in the next few passages, but I’m just gonna toy with an idea:

Few people compliment others’ voices. It’s always clothes, accessories, and hair styles that we notice and can easily make statements about. But after thinking about the compliment I had just received and how it was in line with my personality (or at least how I think of myself), I realized how accurate of a judgment you can make of someone just by listening to their voice.

Actions depend on circumstance and setting, clothes depend on fashion sense, and posture sometimes depends on just how comfortable it is. But voice stays relatively consistent. At big social gatherings, I can very easily act crazy and be an attention whore, while in classrooms, I am often an obedient and reserved teacher’s pet. Obviously I would raise my voice at a party, but whether party or classroom, I think my voice pretty much stays the same. Other ways of judging me may be accurate every now and then, but judging me by voice gives you a picture of the core of my personality.

Think of some of your friends and what their voices say about them. Is the voice soft, loud, weak, powerful, energetic, lively, monotone, blah, fast, slow, rushed, calm, shrill, piercing, stuttered, overly formal?

Compliment them! Even if someone’s voice has a traditionally “negative” quality to it, it probably says something positive about the person’s character. A weak voice probably means a chill personality. A piercing voice probably means a fun personality. Point it out and your friend may be pleasantly surprised by something few people notice about them!

I haven’t been to an airport in more than half a decade.. and in my four years at BU and in Boston, never have I ever been to Logan Airport (a fact that a lot of my friends who live far away find hard to grasp). That changed at the end of August.

My first visit to Logan was when a few friends and I (and especially Sima) surprised Katie there. My second was when I wanted to see Giselle there when she landed (even though I got there later than her plane.. haha).

My visits to the airport reminded me of the ending of the film Love Actually—that “love actually is all around.” Maybe my friends who fly often have grown used to them, but I thought the arrival gates were really exciting places to be. Giselle’s flight came in really late, but Katie’s came in at around 11 pm.. and I was still able to see lots of family members and friends reunite with each other.

I’ve been to few airports in my life, but after my most recent visits, I think I’ll vote them the number one place to see the happiest hugs. I really wish people gave hugs like that every time they saw each other and every time they said good-bye.

Yes, I truly believe love actually is all around. But I wish we were open to showing it more often—on a day-to-day basis, not just an airport arrival and departure basis.

When he was put back on the shelf, Teddy finally realized that he was loved only in the fleeting moments when there were spiders.

i love you: the world’s most plagiarized phrase.

who said it first – and how many of us are fakes?

- Nathan

i’m gonna go up for more free pizza. wanna come?
i would, but i can’t.
why not?
she’ll notice me.
no she won’t. i went up three times already and she never noticed me.

yeah, but unlike everyone else…
i said thank you.

- Nathan

About the Virginia Tech shooting:

It’s so easy to blame a killer.
It’s so easy to say 32 died and not 33.
It’s so easy to say he has no soul.
It’s so easy to say he deserved to kill himself.
It’s so easy to hope he’ll rot in hell.

But what’s easy isn’t always what’s right.

By no means was he justified in what he did, but he still had reasons. And as awful as the event was, if all we do is skip the understanding and call the killer names, then not only will we never correct the problem, but we will also fuel the problem.

Instead, time can be better spent reaching out to those in current need: perhaps helping a troubled friend, perhaps listening, or perhaps just smiling at a lonely stranger.

I’m not defending a killer. I’m only defending the future.

- Nathan

She was hungry all day, so she went to the market to buy an apple. She had plenty to choose from. She sorted and sorted through all of them, then came to a stop when one glistening apple caught her eye. It sat alone, resting on the top row. She picked it up and realized the back of it had a little scar. She was about to set it back down, but then she realized that everyone else who came to the market that day probably ignored it too, perhaps never even picking it up. It was barely touched, unlike all the others. After some thinking, she finally decided to buy it, despite the scar on the outside. When she walked home that day, she took a bite out of the apple. It satisfied her hunger well, and it tasted just as delicious as all the others.

- Nathan