To create.
To recreate.
It certainly does bring me a smile.

I'm not the man this collection of journal entries once suggested. Not anymore. It's been more than three years since I felt the need to express my ill-informed and hasty opinions, questioning many things I didn't understand. And that lack of understanding caused a rage to stir within me. Along with the rage came many other feelings, most of which I am not proud of.

But I am proud of who I have become. The jaded, hypocritical, paranoid, over-reactive, and terrified teenager is gone. And I am simply myself now. I will be what I will be. But no more will I judge people preemptively. No do I feel inspired to rant and rave at the perceived injustices of this magnificent universe. They will always exist, but blind rage and fear will not solve those problems.

They never solved mine. And so, I realize now that a cleansing is in order. Many of the journals that expressed hatred and violence and fear have been removed from this archive. I find myself ashamed of many things I said. Proud of some others, though.

I've accomplished what I had once set out to do. So now, I set before myself new goals and new horizons. It is to the sunlight peaking over those landscapes I raise a friendly greeting.

To the world that lays before me, I greet you with open arms.

-Jonathan