If you’re having a quarter life crisis, it’s important to know you are not alone. Last year over three million people, age twenty-two through twenty-eight, claimed to be having a quarter life crisis. Take a second to let that statistic sink in. Now, take a second to realize that even though that statistic is completely fabricated, there are plenty of people who went to college to be lawyers and now, two years after graduation, they have realized they really want to be bee keepers.

Buying a bee suit and collecting honey does not mean you’re wasting your life. On the contrary, if anything is a waste of life it’s buying a Perry Ellis suit and pretending to be interested in corporate law. No one dreams of doing taxes when they are a kid, they dream of starting a company that invents moon shoes. But they left the moon shoe business because accounting looked like the safer major (inventing moon shoes is not actually a major at any accredited college), and now here they are at twenty-five, knee-deep in W2s, regretting that they didn’t stick with the one thing that made them happy.

It should be noted that I am not a psychologist, nor am I familiar with the career patterns of post-college graduates, but I have spent a whole week Googling “Am I Having a Quarter Life Crisis?” In today’s society, this pretty much makes me an expert. (For those that disagree, tell me you’ve never gone to WebMD for half an hour and convinced yourself you were a doctor?) I decided to begin the quarter life crisis search when I realized the graduate school I wanted to get into hadn’t accepted me. A rejection letter in my hand (later in my garbage, covered in man-tears) left me wondering what I was supposed to do next.

I could um, be a dentist? I could go back to waiting tables? Maybe I could apply for a nice job where I can use big words? Yeah, I’ll apply for a… oh, they’re only accepting resumes from kids who went to Princeton. That’s cool. I’ll just time travel ten years and tell my parents to buy a yacht, boat shoes, and develop the ability to convince their teenage son that a state university means you will end up working at a grocery store until you’re thirty (at thirty they take you into the back office and fire you because “someone from Princeton just applied for your position and they have experience in a nice job that uses big words”).

I have an issue with people doing anything but what they love. As someone equally guilty of this, I understand the reasons why we do other things: money, job security, health insurance, casual Fridays and no-necktie Tuesdays. But at the same time, I don’t understand why we do anything but what we absolutely, unequivocally care about. Why are we collectively working jobs that do nothing but suck out our will to dream big and live meaningfully? Does supply outpace demand for ideal jobs or are we missing out on them because we’ve structured ourselves to fit a mold of mediocrity? If you want to be a bee keeper, buy some bees (please make sure your neighbors aren’t allergic first). If you have always wanted to be a ballerina, but stopped dancing to do information technology, HTML yourself back into a dance studio and code the life you want. Remember: “Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they are looking for ideas.” It’s not the other way around.

It’s easy to test the water temperature by dipping in your foot; it’s hard to strip down and jump in, unconcerned whether your testicles will end up cold and shriveled. We all want warm testicles (ladies you get the metaphor). And I know you can’t foresee yourself paying the bills with moon shoes and tutus—at one point I couldn’t either. But it’s in exploring the inability to sustain ourselves with careers we enjoy that conspicuous consumption—our purchasing of name-brand crap—plays the biggest part. You became an IT chick to buy a BMW, but most ballerinas ride bikes (note: hipsters also ride bikes, but theirs are much more expensive than BMWs. Note: they likely also went to Princeton). Really, what is causing our quarter life crises is that we’re valuing consumerism over happiness. We can’t sustain ourselves as organic farmers because a Michael Kor’s watch is $300. You’re not going to be able to write that novel, because the money you saved is going to be blown on a weekend in Vegas with a bunch of beach-blondes who cry about their cankles when they’re drunk. Farmers have sun dials, and writers spend their time in parks with a journal covered in pictures of balloons and smiling babies. We took the safe jobs because we need enough money to buy Armani socks and iPhone 15s. I have sixty collared shirts. Why? I wear the same four every time I go out. I look fat in the other fifty-six, but now can’t devote my life to writing because I have a credit card maxed out on collared-shirt debt. We’re all doing this and it’s been all good for a long time, until recently, when twenty somethings started to fidget in their cubicles and wonder why in the hell they’re doing taxes and not jumping around in awesome moon shoes. We need to invest in our future, not the liabilities preventing us from getting there. We don’t need another DVR, we need another career. One that we choose for the most important reason: it makes us happy.

Create an eBay account, sell back the crap you thought you needed and buy back the life you know you want.

Reapplying to graduate school… at Princeton,

Daniel Dickey

If I had to guess, I would say that I read under thirty books from the time of my birth until I was 19-years-old. It’s a jarring number because at 26-years-old I’ve read thirty books in the last six months. What caused me to go from an almost illiterate non-reader to one of the most active members at my city library was the understanding that reading is the most effective and powerful tool to build a well-versed and well-educated life.

As I’ve written about before, it was while living in New York City that I developed not only a passion for reading, but a slight fetish for words, style, and story. I began carrying books as a way to engage myself during subway rides to work. Well, more actually, I starting carrying books because I felt like a moron playing Angry Birds on my iPhone and thought a well-worn paperback might make me look appealing to hot hipster chicks. Either way, I quickly found myself encapsulated by prose. My once bleak subway rides on the L train turned into gun battles in foreign lands and memoirs about distant memories I’d never known. And soon, I found I wasn’t just reading on the train, but at home, in the park, and to the frustration of my boss, at work.

What started as puppy love for reading, turned into a reevaluation of my life. It wasn’t long after my mantel became heavy with thrift store books, that I moved back to Florida, re-enrolled in college and finished my bachelor’s degree in English literature and creative writing. Given, I was fully aware that an English degree would only prepare me for a limited number of jobs:

• A teacher
• A teacher
• A homeless man with an extensive vocabulary (depending on who’s in office, this might also be a teacher)

But I wanted to commit myself to an intense program devoted to analytical interpretation and scholarly debate on silly ole’ books. Ultimately, I did and I graduated with highest honors. But there’s more to it than the English degree and nightstands stacked high with written skyscrapers–it’s the social significance that reading and furthermore, writing, have a brought into my life.

I’m not saying that I’m praised via the E! channel because I can quote passages from the Great Gatsby, but that being well-read and well-written opens doors that are padlocked to those that cannot express themselves carefully, clearly, and most importantly, with an intriguing, individual voice. Being an active reader makes you a better writer and in an age where we judge people over text messages that display the improper use of “your” and cover letters that need to stand out over the other hundred, being a good writer is imperative to your success–both socially and professionally.

Before this turns into a preachy “you better read or you’re going to die,” I’m going say this: read any book that interests you. Whether it’s a cheesy crime novel about a maid who doubles as a secret agent or a nonfiction series about boat engines, reading will develop you as an engaging human and interesting member of society. You will become a well-rounded person who can hold conversations on a diverse range of topics and can explain to kids why Harry Potter cannot really fly on a broom. Read books. They will enrich your quality of life. Also, if you don’t read you’re going to die.

Writing a crime novel about a maid who (you know where this is going),

Daniel Dickey

One of the greatest parts of traveling is not only the opportunity to discover new places, but equally, new people. These are some of the people I recently met that aren’t yet tall enough to ride on a roller coaster.

Met this handsome little guy at a rest stop on the Poon Hill Trek in Nepal. He’s eating one of my peanut butter protein bars.

Clean Air

I took this while in the Annapurna Conservation Area of Nepal. It might be my favorite picture of the month long trip. The natural lighting and her beautiful almond eyes truly made for a great photo.

This dapperly dressed young man was walking, alone, between two villages. The villages were ten minutes away from each other.

The video below offers the emotional resonance of a complete Disney movie in under three minutes.

“On the Road,” Steve Hartman reports on an incredible act of sportsmanship, kindness , and compassion. Coronado High School basketball team manager, Mitchell Marcus, has a developmental disability. He has been a part of the team for three years, but in the last game of the regular season, the coach put him in the game… see what happens.

I fully believe that if you devote your time and energy to a well-organized volunteer program it will lead to one of the most rewarding experiences of your life. I have volunteered locally, nationally, and aboard and every time I finish my services I leave completely enriched, with a profound sense of self (note: I also left a couple volunteer programs with ticks, but those programs were in the jungle). With any organization you get what you put in, but I do think it’s imperative to do your research. There are many poorly organized programs that have a great website and terrible infrastructures–and worse, many volunteer opportunities are flat out scams (more so if you’re volunteering abroad). Asides for Teach For America, I have worked with all of the organization listed below.

One of the best times to volunteer is as a college student. Not only do you have long stretches of free time, but you’re not yet bogged down by jobs, kids, and 2nd mortgages. If you’re looking for some good programs to get your humanitarian heart pumping, these are five programs that you can find in almost every state.

1. Serious Fun Camps: Founded by Paul Newman, this non-for profit offers a sleep away camp to seriously/terminally ill children. They have multiple locations around the country and you can volunteer from one week to the whole summer. This was by far the greatest place I’ve ever spent my time. It’s summer camp with some amazing campers (I do not care how much you can bench press, you will cry on the last day).
2. Habitat for Humanity: Have you ever wanted to learn how to build a house? How about learning to build a house for a deserving low-income family? Habitat for Humanity offers homes for the needy and has local organizations all over the country. If you’ve never volunteered before, this is a great place to start. It’s extremely easy to sign up online and pick work dates.
3. Students with Disabilities: If you want to get involved, but don’t have a lot of time, volunteering at your college’s Students with Disabilities Center is great opportunity. You’re helping physically/mentally disabled college students with everything from getting to class to studying for tests. Also, if you’re a scholastic nerd like myself, you can audit the class of the student your helping for free! You can learn a new subject while making a new friend. Note: you can get paid to do this, if you choose. I didn’t, but I’m also a great person.
4. YMCA: As a child, I grew up playing every single sport–well, except for baseball. I was terrible at the whole “being able to hit a moving ball with a stick” thing. But as for all other sports, the YMCA was there. Once I hit eighteen I signed up as a youth sports coach and enjoyed every second. If you like working with children, but can’t go to sleep away camp, this is the next best thing. Additionally, most of the games take place at night and on weekends, so it works well for a college students schedule.
5. Teach For America: Now this isn’t actually volunteering (you get paid a teacher’s salary) and you need to have graduated college to apply, but I have a feeling if you’ve cared to volunteer at any of the aforementioned organizations you’ll already be addicted to helping others. Teach For America ensures that all children, no matter there geographic location, get a great education. It’s rewarding and you can pay your bills doing it! Also, hundreds of companies look to hire past corp members and top-tier graduate schools offer fee waivers and scholarships to current/former members.

Best of luck finding a volunteer program that’s right for you,

Daniel Dickey

With the stupidbowl quickly approaching, ad executives around the country are vehemently yelling at interns and ruining their marriages, all because they’re scared the commercial they commissioned won’t be funny. They’ve used chunky babies, spotted dogs, and even giant boobs–all in hopes of being the favorite.

Though not an ad executive, nor anything close to it, I too thought about making a funny commercial for the 2013 Superbowl. But via a quick Google search, I came to realize that after the cost of making the commercial, I would also have to pay 2.4 million dollars to buy 30 seconds worth of air time. Seeing that I’m still having trouble buying lunch, a Superbowl commercial is a little out of my budget.

Well at least one that’s made by an ad company and put on national TV.  Here’s one I could afford to make and broadcast over YouTube:

If you’re unfamiliar with Manti Te’o's story: Notre Dame linebacker makes up story of girlfriend, then makes up story of her dying from leukemia, then gets more Twitter followers, then gets a better chance at winning the Heisman trophy, then gets exposed as a fraud.

This is the hilarious auto-tuned remix of his interview with Katie Couric.

As an avid traveler I have been in many of the world’s airport. I’ve eaten in them, slept in them, and on one occasion, used a bathroom sink as a personal shower (I’m no longer allowed in the JetBlue terminal of Atlanta’s International Airport). Most airports are used as places to transport you to somewhere else; a quick entry and exit from/for extended transit (unless you’re Tom Hanks in The Terminal). Asides from myself and a couple other travel junkies, no one really enjoys being in airports. You associate them with the place you’re overcharged for bags, groped by pushy security agents, and stuck without wifi when your flight is canceled before Christmas. Airports fly low on the list of places travelers want to be (lower on the list is in the trunk of an Al Qaeda terrorist bus or hiking behind a pack of gassy donkeys). But thanks to the ingenuity and consideration of Korean engineers and designers, things just changed.

If you’ve never been to Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea it’s worth the trip. Not even to see the country, but solely for the opportunity to stay in the airport. Like their underground transit system (second best in the world), they built Incheon with the traveler in mind. As far as structure, it’s big and handsome like most new-age airports, but where this stands alone is in its accommodations. Accommodations? You mean like McDonald’s and a Sharper Image that charges six-hundred dollars for a pair of socks? No, silly. This place has a golf course, a museum, and a SKATING RINK! Let that sliver of airport luxury settle into your image of pre/post-airplane paradise. Legitmately, I would book a flight with a layover just to hangout at this place. It’s like a Discovery Zone for communing adults (foreigners: Discovery Zone was a place where little children could climb toy towers and jump into ball pits as deep at the Atlantic Ocean. Since the company closed, the percentage of people who believe in God has fallen). For seven years in a row it was rated the best airport in the world by Airports Council International (I don’t know who Airports Council International is, but they sound official). And as per Wikipedia: “It takes only 16 minutes for departure and 12 minutes for arrival process, which is far above the global standards of 60 and 45 minutes respectively.” Truly, this is a magical place. It is Disney World of airports, and they have a skating rink… people, a skating rink.

Whiling traveling from Shanghai to Kathmandu I had a ten hour layover in Incheon–the best layover of my life. By far the biggest perk was the sleeping accommodations. Yes, I know JFK and LAX have hotels right next to the airport that makes it “accommodating,” but you have to pay for those. I travel on a budget, and therefore dishing out a hundred something dollars for a room so I can sleep while waiting for my next flight is not something I’m going to do (think of how many dinners that would buy in Haiti). This place had a whole floor devoted to the enrichment of your layover. You take the escalator up toward heaven and what you find is a palace in which the world’s royalty lie around watching movies, using the internet, and getting massages on free massage chairs. The only things we get free in America is trans fat and videos of cats hugging dogs–I didn’t know how to act. I ran around using computers (specifically, setting my blog to each computer’s homepage), getting foot massages, and renting books from the 24-library. I thought: Finally a country recognizes my royal bloodline. This was the greatest layover of my life. Here’s an except from my travel journal:

It’s 2:30am and I’m at the airport in Seoul, South Korea. This might be the greatest airport I’ve ever been to. There’s a huge lounge with showers, beds and free back massage chairs. I’ve been getting a back massage for the past half hour in front of a Internet cafe covered in Chanukah lights. Is it possible to marry an airport?

As I flipped through my library book and browsed the showtimes for the movie theater, I strongly considered skipping my flight and living here for several months. If I had to reenact the life Tom Hanks’ character in The Terminal this is where I’d want to do it (I don’t know why I would ever have to reenact this character’s life). It would be like living in a giant hostel, but with less bed bugs and warmer showers (yes, there are warm showers in the airport–if only Atlanta’s airport added them as well).

Incheon had so many amenities that after landing I spent five hours wandering into different rooms and stores. I was exploring the inter-workings of an Asian airport in the middle of the night. But unfortunately, by the time my Louis and Clarke expedition was over, everyone else in the airport had found the travelers oasis and took up all the beds. Given, there were still plenty activities to keep me busy, but the time change and jet lag began to take effect. It was 4:15am and I walked around the floor considering my options for sleep: laying flat across the row of massage chairs, a booth at one of the sushi restaurants, and, and, then I saw this:

It was South Korea’s version of Discovery Zone–with added disco/holiday lights. I walked in, turned the lights off, and made my bed in a sea of plastic balls and gymnastic mattes. Not only did this airport offer golf, but it afforded me an opportunity to reignite the flame of childhood. I felt like a child–a balding, slightly bearded, jet-lagged child.

Note: At 6:15am I was awakened by a security office calling out: “Sir, why are you sleeping inside the play pen? There are beds everywhere.” I ignored him and played on the rope swing–my flight wasn’t for another two hours.

I’ve considered believing in God ever since that night,

Daniel Dickey

I just wasted the last two hours of my life trying to find a YouTube downloader that actually worked. It took that long because 99% of the websites online are scams. Legitimacy, the first thirty minutes were spent downloading programs that filled my computer with coupons for .99 cent pancakes and buy-one-get-one-free escorts. The next hour was spent browsing video tutorials that were either outdated or also pointed me back to the websites with the pancakes and prostitutes. I gave up on trying to download videos and made a turkey sandwich (this was great idea, as the sandwich was delicious).

After eating and napping, I found YTD Video Downloader. I downloaded it from CNET, but feel free to get it from wherever. As for the program, it works perfectly and reliably. The only downside (which isn’t that big of deal) it loads itself on your Firefox/Internet Explorer search bar and favorites menu. Just go to options and remove it.

If you appreciate the time I saved you, please click on the link below to like my blog. Thanks!

After a busy six months of elections, grad school applications, and world travel I’ve decided to sand down the internet rust that has begun to form itself all over my blog. In the past I remember signing onto this site and thinking: well damn, this is one fine-looking piece of intern blabber. But as of recently I’d sign on and think: ugh, this design blows. That header looks like a fat penguin threw up on it. I then close my computer and eat doughnuts until I fall asleep on the couch. 

Things are changing (specifically, since the last paragraph). People all over the world are going to save this blog as their homepage just because of the fresh, functional design and layout (this is a complete and utter lie. Not to mention I don’t know how to make a blog fresh–it’s not a vegetable). But it would be nice if your eyes start to dance a little when they see all the Photoshop made fireworks I’m going to release on the homepage (again, this too is a lie. I have no power whatsoever to create fireworks on Photoshop or in real life. It’s more of a metaphor for: I’m adding additional colors).

When is this actually going to get done? First I have to add a e-commerce shopping cart for my travel photography. I’ve been telling myself I would do this for the last two years, so going by that time frame, the design changes should be finish by mid-late 2017. Which is fine, I’ve already projected 2017 to be a great year for my blog. Note I only say this because 2008-2012 and the first couple weeks of 2013, have all been terrible for my blog. Not in regard to hits and readership, that’s going awesome–but more so that the blog only makes me like six cents a months. Therefore, I’m hoping a rainbow color splash and photo shopping cart will make me as rich as Zooey Deschanel, or at least as rich as that Backstreet Boy that continues to wear ski-goggles into his late thirties (dude lives in Orlando. It’s eight-five degrees in the winter).

Getting rich off of my blog or buying goggles,

Daniel Dickey