The Return of the Tennessean-Turned-Baltimorean:

And with that age-old line of computer programs: "Hello World."

So let's just say I have this nostalgic bent. Or maybe it's just the beautiful, soothing blue, of my old blog. Whatever it is, I simply can't resist putting another post now that I've read my old blog for the first time in a long time. It's interesting how time just kind of froze over here. At least for me. Here's the old me...struggling through undergraduate, conscious about friends, trying to be funny, and my poetry is everywhere here.

And here's the new me. A graduated engineer, with a degree, passed the FE Certification exam, enrolled in a PhD program at Johns Hopkins and doing Glaucoma biomaterials research. Quite the contrast. I even own my own little rowhouse and my family live 12 hours away in Tennessee. I must say, I miss the countryside quite dearly--and the family. And yet...Life is...strangely...wonderful. It couldn't have turned out better in retrospect. I have followed where God led me, I have a great new church and network of friends I'm in the process of making, and I have the hardest classes I've ever taken in my life...not to mention full-time medical research! This is the kind of thing that was only a dim aspiration a few years ago. And yet...though life is wonderful...I must confess that it is not the extenuating circumstances and things that make it great, but it is the relationships, and the fact that I am at peace inside, and where God wants me that makes this place awesome. I can look back over all those years of development and see the ways God has challenged and changed me. It makes me excited to see why he has me here and what he'll do with me in the future! :D Now that I'm by myself and far away this might be the perfect time to occasionally update my blog. I'm not sure if any of my old friends will notice but we'll see! I'd love to catch up with you all. :)

And before I go, I'll give the typical Dan outro and provide a piece that I've written recently. This poem is an original Baltimore composition, and hopefully the first in a long string of new writing as I revitalize my old hobbies and habits. enjoy! This one is my tribute to the beautiful falls and winters of the North (sorry Tennessee) ;)


Fall,
The rush of autumn colors arise,
clashing in their variety.
Like fire wending its way
Through the treetops of the North.

A dance of dizzying colors
Swirls around me,
A veritable shower
Of falling, flying leaves.

Wading through sunset,
Scarlet blazes with burnished bronze,
Yellows, fade to pale green,
In a dizzying array of winter preparation.

One could imagine that the trees
Were putting on a show.
A drama known only to them
Of the joy and heartbreak of the bygone year,
The climax and end fast approaching.

Each color represents,
The hopes, loves, and fear,
of each tree's experience.
Some display with exuberance,
Shouting their jubilation
In a blaze of crimson, gold, and ochre.
Others, fade in dismal desperation,
surrendering with a sigh of drab brown,
Welcoming the coming numbness of sleep.

But human life continues on.
Where the colors in the trees
Eventually fade into obscurity,
Humankind remains ablaze with color,
As if shouting defiance to a sleeping, white world,
Refusing to bow to the rhythm of nature.
But we will not last forever either...

When each of us ends our lives,
With years to count,
Loves, laughs, and sorrows to remember,
Will we celebrate with exuberance
As the trees so unabashedly do?
Or will we fade into sleep,
With a sigh of relief?
Another brown leaf,
Fallen on the forest floor?
The choice is yours.

10/27/12 11:52 PM
Dan E. Midgett