Surfing
The seething, hungry feeling that you get when you see a luscious wave section like in Transworld Surf ad.
It is my belief that paddling out into the lineup through a bank of heavy mist and suddenly finding yourself unable to see the shore is
among the most surreal and inspiring experiences a person can have. As fellow wave riders – strangers and friends – wink out of your
sphere of sight and consciousness, as the steadfast constructs of society become transient and melt into the muffling grayness, all
standards for comparison and preconceptions of perspective vanish and your thoughts branch out unfettered. As you ride (or duck
beneath) the waves that silently appear before you, concepts that have long eluded you suddenly coalesce. The parallel pathfinding
algorithm underlying my project for the Intel STS came to me not in a laboratory or classroom but as I watched the branching rivulets of
water find their way down my surfboard as I emerged from underneath a wave (I saw how signals splitting and rejoining as they
propagate through a network could simulate the shortest path problem in computer science). Often, I find it more productive to open
my mind to the vast ocean's meditative lull than to study…
The adventurous aesthetic of nature is my source of intellectual vitality. Sitting at peace in the stillness between the hollow waves,
inhaling the green-diffracted God-thought-breath of the morning forest, laughing as I hold wide my windbreaker and lean euphorically
into the rushing torrents of the rain: this timeless rapture is my inspiration, this intricate, organic splendor a sanctified model for my
thoughts. This is why I paddle out, never knowing exactly where I'll return to shore.