Tabula Rasa

After taking Latin in school for about seven years, I can read most diplomas and the sides of old buildings. Every once in a while I can even drop a phrase like I am some kind of wise old owl with a little extra insight into the goings-on of the world. Yeah. I'm like the most useless member of the Avengers. I don't just veni vidi vici you guys, I amo amas amat like a boss, and when that gets old, I jump on my bike and am like ad astra, per aspera bitches! I'm like episodes of "Rome" and "New Girl" got together and had a baby.

This was my textbook in sixth grade. No jokes.

(Yes. Kids who took Latin are just that cool.)
(Perhaps not. I image searched "Latin is cool" and got a bunch of pictures of young hispanic dudes making obscene gestures and scantily clad ladies. Then I searched "Ancient Latin is cool" and was offered images of old, broken rocks. Damn it.)

Quick, everyone look over there!

I've been ruminating on a particular phrase lately...Tabula Rasa, or the "clean slate."

If you run and Google "tabula rasa" you'll find a lot of interesting writing on the idea of the mind as a clean slate ready to be imprinted with ideas and the origins of modern psychology. But what I'm focused on is more of a clean slate, as in starting over...beginning again.

About an hour ago I asked the interwebs what the best cities for "starting over" are. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting. But I know how I currently feel, which is utterly shattered and exhausted, and ready for life to suck a lot less. I'm thinking that change - big, mega, awesome change - could be just the catalyst I need. Interestingly, a lot of people have also been interested in cultivating their own clean slates, and multiple articles popped up, pegging cities with high rates of employment, nice atmosphere, low crime, and single people (which I, who basically have the mindset of a romantic comedy, didn't even think of). Places in Maine, Virginia, New Hampshire, Nebraska and the Dakotas popped up. Some looked very pretty. But....I think New York and London have ruined me a bit. Even though I am feeling very very very ready for a new life (I'm on the verge!) nothing on those lists seem quite as good. For me anyways. Where the dickens am I supposed to go? San Diego sounds better by the day. I can envision myself heading west, which I couldn't years ago. Maybe Nashville, even? I hear good things. Or like a small coastal town. Downsize everything. I've stayed East so long for my parents, but I'm pretty sick and tired of it. Obviously I'd love to head back to Europe, but nobody is ponying up any visas for my mad Latin skillz, so that seems to be a dream on the perpetual back burner. I wish I had more answers, but right now there seem to be only questions.

durate et vosmet rebus servate secundis - Virgil

Carry on, and preserve yourself for better times.