Jason Wells

7 more exams in the next 36 hours...

Then I can breathe and sleep. And head to Florida!

2 more weeks of non-stop finals...

Then, Florida vacation! Can’t wait to see all my friends in Gainesville and Clearwater!

And hopefully Atlanta, too!

Best thanksgiving partner ever!

I hope some smart vegans, outcasts at the Thanksgiving table, will do something like this.

Alternative medicine wouldn’t exist if Western medicine actually worked.

Goodbye to a Home and A Lesson in Misunderstanding

I knew I was in for an interesting adventure the moment I stepped into my new house, having just arrived to live in Portland, Oregon. The walls were covered with abstract, mismatch artwork; there were no couches, only a bunch of blankets and cushions strewn across the living room floor; tacky sculptures of Jesus and other biblical characters lining the shelves.

I was in for even more of a surprise when I met my roommate a week later. He fulfilled the mental picture I had of someone studying Chinese medicine: long, unkempt hair; non-matching thrift store clothing; and a joyful, carefree attitude to top it all off.

As the months passed, I failed to grow close to him. I could not relate with his eccentric personality and lifestyle. I contemplated moving out, because the distance between us made me pretty uncomfortable. Before I had moved here, I had my own house, a vehicle, a good job, amazing friends. Now I had none of that, and I was living with crazy dude. My soul begged for a taste of the old familiarity.

Now, I have lived in this situation almost a year. It took that long, 11 months, to realize how beautiful of a home this was. How beautiful of a home my roommate made it for us. How much I look forward every morning to walking into the bathroom that he painted to resemble a sun (the toilet being the focal point). My roommate painted the sun for us so that we could have some brightness and cheerfulness in the dead winter of the Pacific Northwest…I am moving out next week, and it took me losing this home to realize how much I took it for granted.

Maybe my roommate wasn’t the crazy one. Maybe I was the crazy one. Maybe I walked on the Earth too harshly and took myself too seriously. I’ve been avoiding him these last few days, because he took the news of my moving out rather poorly and he decided to move out as well. I finally approached him and was real with him tonight. I realized how much he taught me this last year and how much I misunderstood him. He taught me about truly being open minded, and not just feigning that virtue. He taught me about not being scared, and that loving our imperfections was the only way to overcome them. The list goes on.

Now, we are both leaving this home. I only hope that its next residents learn the lessons that this home has to offer earlier than it took me. I hope they don’t paint over the sun, but they probably will.  It’s hard for people to appreciate things that stand out as odd, and people often don’t take time to appreciate the eccentricities.