CURRENT MISSION

To experience, learn and grow as much as possible during my 8 months in Australia

ABOUT ME

I'm a young student excited about exploring the world, meeting people, and engaging in thoughtful conversation. I'm open-minded and I look for what I can learn from each and every experience.

PHILOSOPHY

I believe we all aim toward happiness and that whatever exactly happiness is, it is the highest good. I believe that an indispensible foundation of happiness is our relationships with other people. I'm also a moral naturalist, and I beleive that we are fortunate enough to be endowed as a species with natural instincts of compassion and empathy for our fellow beings, and that as individuals and cultures we should strive to cultivate these social emotions. I also believe that we are happiest when we strongly pursue that which we personally value and which is meaningful to us, and for that reason I am an individualist. While peace is the ideal we should strive for, we also need those willing to fight for it, and mere kindness is impotent without strength. I have no taste for ideological or dogmatic ways of viewing the world, but at the same time I disagree with those who say we can know nothing, especially about how we should live life and treat others. I view every experience, every book and every person as an opportunity to learn and grow. I believe the best experiences, like the best books and the best friends, leave you a better person. I'm excited for life, and think it is a tragedy to settle for anything less than joy during these ephemeral moments of thought and feeling that constitute our short life.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Im totally new, excited to get familiar with the whole project and its members.

Interests

I like talking about just about anything, and I love literature, all sports, writing, philosophy, film, psychology, econcomics, music, the outdoors, learning about other cultures,running and yoga.

• horses
• arts
• writing
• books
• literature
• yoga
• running
• socializing
• drawing
• music
• piano
• outdoor activities
• kayaking
• surfing
• scuba diving
• buddhist
• sports
• basketball
• boxing
• martial arts
• rock climbing
• soccer
• tennis
• economics
• psychology

Music, Movies, and Books

Books - some favorites: All the Kings Men, Lord Jim, Blood Meridian, Wolf Totem, The Iceman Cometh, A Brave New World, Closing of the American Mind, Timeline, Prey, The Symposium, City of Thieves, The Oedipus Cycle, Indignation, Into the Wild, King Lear, Othello, Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Fall, Nichomachean Ethics, Complete works of Nietzsche, The Moral Animal, The Buddha in Your Mirror, Man's Search for Meaning

Music - all different kinds: The Strokes, Flaming Lips, Chris Cornell, Chopin, Passion Pit, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, U2, CCR, Ratatat, Lil Wayne, Tupac, Lupe Fiasco, JayZ, Biggie, Beatles, Soundgarden, Audioslave, Wolfmother, StereoSpeak, Citizen Cope, Devotchka, Bob Marley, Gorillaz, Joe Cocker, Led Zeppelin, The White Stripes, Kid Cudi, Jefferson Airplane, The Killers, Lynard Skynard, MGMT, Vampire Weekend, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beck.

Movies: Lives of Others, Godfather I&II, City of God, Collateral, Cinderella Man, Snatch, Patton, The Truman Show, Glengarry Glen Ross, Memento, Forrest Gump, The Hangover, Anchorman, Goodfellas, Waiting, Hot Tub Time Machine, Dinner for Schumucks, Pineapple Express, Hot Rod, The Aviator, Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Inception, Frost Nixon, Being John Malkovitch, Talladega Nights, The Verdict, Hamlet 2, Redbelt.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hoping to have something to put here soon.

Teach, Learn, Share

To start - this is gotta be one of the best ideas ever.
To share: (and learn)
Philosophy
Political Philosophy
Economics
Boxing

To learn: (just some highlights!)
Working with, riding horses
Surfing
Psychology
practical advice from wise people who have been around longer than me
Tennis
Soccer
Kayaking
Trecking
Rock Climbing
Drawing/Art
Yoga
Martial Arts
Scuba diving
Basketball
Piano
Healthy Eating
Buddhism
Writing

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