Where to Begin ...

"Nothing can be enduringly useful which was not done honestly."
In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin tells us that this lesson stuck with him his whole life.
I would like to create something enduringly useful here at Blogger, and so I'll start by pledging my honesty.
I've come a long way to get to the place where this account begins, and through long-overdue perseverance, some temperance, and in many cases sheer luck, my position in this world is a good one. I'm happy for that, and I'm able to look ahead to these next five years and smile.
One realistic reason for blogging is vanity, and I am vain to write. But another reason to write is that I might turn out something worth reading now and again. Take, for example, some of my immediate personal goals:

• Get back into fighting shape. I'm only 22, was in the Infantry, and now I feel like the Pillsbury Dough-Boy.
• Experiment with healthier diets until I find something sustainable. I have tremendous heartburn that alters my day-to-day in ways I don't like, and instead of feeling energized by meals, I feel like building myself a vomitorium.
• Become better than my geology professor at racquetball, challenge him to a game, and demand extra credit for beating him.
  
• Spend at least half of my time at Baylor University abroad, journalizing my experiences the whole way.
• Become a businessman.
• Juggle a job in fine dining with striving for A's every semester, so that I can rake in scholarship money to study overseas.
• Impress more and more people by writing about my awesome adventures online.
• Become a better person every single day.
  

My objective is to become the very best I can be -- to touch my own capacity for success. My occasion for writing is my first semester at Baylor, and perhaps the first time in my life I've ever been able to stand on my own two feet. Join me, or just watch for fumbles from the sidelines. I'll stay accountable to anyone who can read.

(This painting is "Franklin's Arrival in Philadelphia," by N.C. Wyeth, [1923]. It depicts a young runaway Franklin walking past a girl in clothes that haven't been changed in weeks. He's carrying three small loaves of bread -- all he could afford with the shillings he brought with him from Boston. It is among my favorite paintings.)