i wanna fall asleep under a new sky.

You know, I haven't gotten up to a whole lot in the 22 years I've lived.

I haven't traveled much. I've never even been out of the country, and rarely do I venture out of the Charlotte area (occasionally I drift to Denver, NC, because it's the world's largest sensory deprivation tank, but that's another blog post entirely.) I've been to D.C. and Alberquerque, but both of those were trips with the Metrolina Native American Association; otherwise my travels have been relegated to the Southeastern states. My high school years were largely nondescript; while there were predictable teen-love dramatics and the drama class that birthed my obsession with theater, it was, otherwise, a typical high school career. My family life has been hectic, yes, but really, there's nothing there to really examine that hasn't been examined already by some Lifetime movie or another: alcoholism, sickness, mental disorder--twenty years ago this might all have been shocking, but today it's pretty much par for the course.

The problem here concerns my writing. While I'm perfectly satisfied with my body of work thus far, and content to continue exploring the darker side of being human (man, I'm arrogant these days), I haven't experienced very much. People describe things to me and I think to myself, I'd love to try that. I'd love to drive down the highway at 2 in the morning, or be at a bar when it closes, or visit New York and see a Broadway show. I'd love to sit and listen to a guy on the street play guitar for a few bucks.

I mean, as a writer, one of my primary responsibilities is kind of filtering experience through my perspective and handing you the results, right? Sharing stories with you, even if they're fiction, through my point of view and my style--that's what makes my poetry and short stories worth reading, right? My perspective is what makes my writing unique (or it would be, if I wasn't trying so hard to be David Foster Wallace 2, but that's neither here nor there.)

So I've decided that it's about time I start checking out more of the world around me than just Charlotte, North Carolina. I love this town, and most of the time, this town loves me back--I've been more successful in getting roles and work here than I ever thought I'd be (yes, even a tiny role like Dap in Camelot. You leave my low standards out of this.) But my writing is beginning to stagnate. I catch myself writing phrases over and over again. I find myself coming up with similar ideas for stories and poems. I could honestly clear 10 or 12 pieces out of my gallery at deviantArt and none would be the wiser; while I keep them there for posterity's sake (posterity, oh man, I'm getting ahead of myself) they're extremely similar in both scope and execution. Because I haven't had much in the way of new experiences, I keep filtering the same ones over and over. Even considering my favorite subject matter--see my blog post "On Writing"--this is detrimental.

I guess what I'm saying is that I want to experience more of the world around me so I can write about it more effectively. I'm going to make it a point to meet new people (starting with where I work), go to new places (college, for one; new places in the woods behind my house, for another) and do new things (one of these days I'm going to go to Jackalope Jack's and just hang out 'til the bar's closed. Just to see what it's like.) I need less third-person and more first person narration so I can tell a better story, write a better poem, and improve my ability to entertain and engage you as a reader.

Starting...now, I hope.

Hi, how are you? My name's Chez...