|
|
|
|||||||
|
An Interview with MemoryandDream, February 2003
Your
occupation? For the last year or so I’ve not been working for
anyone. I do freelance work from IT things (I did some consulting for
a company to set up a new server and clean up their user pc’s), to
some web design and graphic work, to currently helping out a friend
set up a new database for her client list. I used to work in
professional offices and I’ve run the gamut from Office Manger to
Manager of Telecommunications to Webmaster, etc. I’m a
jack-of-all-trades, but in all honesty, I despise the corporate
lifestyle and try to keep out of it as much as possible. I’m much
more of an artist then a 9-5’er.
What
hours do you work? When I did work the corporate gig, I worked
the standard 8-5 routine. (with generally an extra added bonus of
about an hour commute each way)
What
hours do you sleep? Given my choice, I tend to sleep from about
4am to about noon. I have always been nocturnal in nature and even as
a small child at the age of six, I’d stay awake long after my
bedtime by stuffing clothes under the crack in the door to hide the
small desk light I’d use to read and such. As a pre-teen, I’d
spend 30 minutes “brushing my teeth” just to not go to bed early.
My mother was sure I’d grow out of it, but I never have. Even when I
work corporate hours, I still can’t ever hope to sleep before at
least 1-1:30am with a 7am wake-up time. (Though I prefer a full 8
hours when I can get it and will naturally wake myself up after that
amount of time.)
Where
in Florida do you live? For how long? Yes I live in Florida,
but no, I won’t get into specifics of where. I’ve been here for
the past 17 years now.
Your
age? I’m 25.
Who’s
in your CD player now? Actually, I haven’t used a
“normal” cd player for awhile, however, in my cd-rom drive is the
Sarah McLachlan cd “Remixed” which is a very cool, Canadian import
of her music remixed into dance tunes. On my WinAmp play list, it runs
the range from Highlights of Phantom of the Opera, Rusted Root, Fiona
Apple, Garbage, Enigma, etc. I tend to have very eclectic play lists
which I enjoy singing along with.
What
are your favorite movies? My favorite movie series is “Back
to the Future” because I just loved it as a kid and have always been
fascinated with time travel. Beyond that, I’m a big fan of Disney
and have several of their animated movies in my DVD collection. My
DVD’s are spilling out past the rack and number close to a hundred
at this point. I really enjoy movies as a general rule.
The
last movie you watched? Hrm…In theaters it was “Shanghai
Knights.” On DVD, I believe it was the pilot movie for the
“StarGate: SG-1” television series.
The
last book you read? The last book I finished was “The Crown
of Silence” by Storm Constantine. It’s the second in a trilogy.
I’m currently reading “All Night Awake” by Sarah A. Hoyt which
is a sequel to “Ill Met by Moonlight.” I am a voracious reader and
I am never without a current book-in-progress.
Your
favorite T.V. shows? My Love and I watch “The West Wing”
religiously; it’s simply the best show on TV. I also enjoy
“Buffy” (hey, it’s cheesy and utterly based in fiction, but
it’s well written, witty and entertaining) and am slightly addicted
to “Trading Spaces” and “While You Were Out” on TLC (two
daytime shows I’ve started watching since I despise talk shows and
soaps)
Your
favorite magazines? I read my friend’s subscriptions of Time, PC
Gamer and PC World each month.
Favorite
food dish? Oh my, I doubt there’s just one food I could call
my favorite. I enjoy Swiss cheese fondue and a nice steak; I have a
definite weakness for anything cheesecake or chocolate (and heaven
help anyone who gets in-between me and chocolate cheesecake)
and I love just about every fruit on the planet.
Your
idea of a perfect evening? That really depends on if it’s a
romantic evening, or one with my friends. I enjoy going out to things
– the Orchestra, the Theater – but I also have fun heading out to
the beach at night and walking along the shore and just talking.
Do
you have any pets? I have a Russian Blue feline named
“Kush-ka” who’s almost 13 years old, but currently terminal with
cancer. I enjoy him every moment I can and love him very dearly.
I’ve had him since he was a kitten. Kush-ka and I grew up together.
Since
this is not a face to face interview, what are you wearing and what
color are your eyes right now? I’m wearing my standard fare
of jeans (straight leg, I hate boot- or bell-cut legs) and a slightly
stretchy purple cotton, ¾ sleeve V-neck shirt. I took off my white
gold hoop earrings just a few minutes ago, but I’m still wearing my
two-tone, Anne Kline watch (which I wear pretty much every moment of
the day as I lack a natural sense of time). My eyes change color
pretty much all the time based on my mood and my clothing, but a quick
check in the bathroom mirror says…a dark, dark green outer ring with
a bluish-green center. They have yellow highlights in them as well
like the veins of color variation you see in stones.
Where
and when were you born? If you currently live in a different state,
can you list the places you’ve lived in? I was born in
Pennsylvania in 1977. I lived there until the steel mills closed up
and my parents were forced to sell or lose the house to foreclosure.
We moved to Florida when I was eight-going-on-nine and I’ve been
here ever since.
What
were you like as a kid? I was a tomboy; climbing trees, riding
bikes, hiking through the woods in PA and then later the subdivisions
of Florida. (I had never seen a subdivision before moving here as I
lived on the side of a mountain in PA, bordering miles of woods). I
was usually friends with the boys and I detested dolls (though to this
day, I have an unfailing love of stuffed animals and keep tons of them
still in bags in my closet). I was always inquisitive and inventive
and in the Gifted classes at school.
How
did you look as a child? Look? Like a kid. *shrugs* I always
have my hair long – it was always braided or in pony tails. It was
much straighter back then, but still a dark brown. I had much more
noticeable freckles on my face and often my mother cut my hair into
bangs.
What’s
your first childhood memory? When I was three, we went to Busch
Gardens in West Virginia on a family vacation. It was a record-breakingly
hot day and I believe it got well over 100 degrees. I remember
standing on a bridge over water and tossing little pebbles of food you
got out of those gumball machines to the ducks. I also remember being
very hot and miserable and very uncomfortable. What are your parents like? How old are they? (If you answer this, I will give your parents pseudo names) I haven’t spoken to my biological father since they divorced when I was 13. This is by choice. My mother and I, on the other hand, get along well and I see her about once a week or so. She lives about 30 minutes from me, not far from my sister and grandmother. My mother is 30 years older then me (though if you ask her, she’s only 29 years and 9 months older). She is remarried now and her husband and I get along well enough, though we’re not anywhere near as close as my mother and I are. My mother is a vegetarian and a strong supporter of animal rights, stopping animal cruelty and preserving nature and natural lands. She believes strongly in her causes and is a woman of great inner-strength and morality. I admire her greatly. Does
your family know? Support you? No, my family doesn’t know
about DrinkDeeplyandDream.com or anything therein. My mother knows I
am Pagan by faith and after many long talks in which I explained that
being Pagan didn’t mean I was “faithless” it just meant that I
believed in things different then her Christian beliefs (or those I
was taught in private Catholic school in PA) she’s ok with it. Once
she realized that I did have a
faith, she became much more accepting and is ok with that. She’s not
a closed-minded woman, but some things I wouldn’t tell her because I
wouldn’t burden her with such knowledge.
Do
your friends know? A few. The rest just think I have a silly
fondness for cheesy vampire novels (they’re my self-admitted guilty
pleasure *laughs*). The few who do are fine with it and don’t think
anything weird about it as it doesn’t really come into play in their
sphere of interaction with me and certainly does not encroach on my
day-to-day life.
Are
any of your friends vampires as well? My Love is, though he
doesn’t announce it. He doesn’t mind that I run the site, but he
just doesn’t want his life in the public eye at all – and despite
what I do to remain private, sometimes, aspects of my life do end up
rather open – which I respect and keep him out of the range of
discussion.
When
do you feel ready to tell someone you’re a vampire? All my
good friends I’ve been friends with for years. Those who are just
casual or new acquaintances don’t need to know because there’s no
reason for it to ever come up. I have some friends who are into other
“supernatural” things – one is a witch for example – and so,
it’s not that big of a shock to someone who already sees the world
as more then society tries to make it. I think most people have the
capacity to see in the spectrum of color in the world, it’s just
that from such a young age, we’re taught to limit ourselves to
shades of grey, that we only see what we are told to see. One of my
favorite quotes comes from a great movie, “City of Angels” in
which Nicholas Cage’s character (an angel) who tells Meg Ryan’s
character (a very science-minded doctor) that he’s an angel. She
replies that she does not believe in angels. He counters, “Some
things are true, whether you believe in them or not.” To me, the
people who can understand that some things just are, even if
you don’t know they are, or if you’ve never had the experience to
discover they are, are the kind of people that I want as friends and
the kind of people who are ultimately unphased by such a revelation.
Where’d
you go to high school? College? (If giving both is too personal, just
college would be fine) Sorry, again, that points very
specifically to my location. I never went to college – much to my
guidance councilor’s dismay (I was always one of the “smartest”
kids in school and had been in Gifted programs since I moved to
Florida in 3rd grade) - though I did earn some college
credits through taking advanced-level classes in high school. At this
point, I would like to go back – then, I was just not ready for more
school as school had
always been a boring chore for me – and I would like to get
certified in web design and graphic arts.
What
were you like as a teenager? Lazy and moody like all teens
probably. *laughs* Actually, I got my first job when I was 16, so I
worked through all of high school. I used to cart my friends around
when I got my license because I got my mom’s hand-me-down car. I
never did drugs or drank and though I was far from a goody-two-shoes
(I skipped every week in my Senior year simply because I was so bored
with it), I didn’t get into any kind of trouble. I didn’t party or
anything; I just hung out with my friends, playing video games and
exploring the then-pretty-new world of the internet. (which I’ve
been on for about nine years now). I spend a lot of time in other
activities like I was Vice President of the Drama class and I did the
school news for a year and such.
How
do you feel about international teenage vampire meet-up days that take
place every month? Is this a good way for teenagers to discover
themselves? Do you feel it’s unsafe? I think things like that
are just ways for people who’ve read too much Anne Rice and like to
wear all black to get together with others of similar “dark”
mindset. It’s suddenly the “cool” thing to be/do and that just
annoys me. I also think that there’s a LOT of confused, lonely and
desperate teens out there who want some sort of escape from their life
(who hasn’t at one point or another?) and so think they can find
some eternal dark prince to sweep them away to their castle where they
will live for all time and can be beautiful and powerful and yada,
yada, yada. Because they are so very desperate for someone – anyone
– to hear them and agree that they “belong” to that fantasy
world, or that they are so much better then their peers and should be
liberated from the banality of the world, that they get preyed upon so
readily. There are truly sick fucks out there hiding behind screen
names like “Dark Master Prince Moonsblood” or some-such drivel,
that are just reaping in the young and naive young teens out there. I
fear for them, I truly do. At least with a public meeting there’s an
iota of safety, but what little would it take for the predator
to whisk them away somewhere else where the public eye doesn’t see?
Ultimately, I think people should avoid trying to “find” (for real
life meeting) vampires or any such other on the internet and especially
not when a minor. If they really feel that they have no other course
of action, then they should proceed with utmost caution and realize
the serious risks they place themselves in by displaying their
eagerness and desperation so plainly. (And, they need to remember,
that no matter how much dress-up they may engage in, or how much their
online persona represents all the things they wish they were,
in real life, they’re not some amazingly powerful and immortal
being; they’re just a kid with their head too high in the
clouds.)
What
makes a vampire a vampire? (Just some examples are fine) While
you asked for examples, it’s hard to really give any since there is
no hard-and-fast checklist for people to follow. It’s one of the
reasons we strive so hard on DrinkDeeplyandDream.com to ensure people
don’t just come to some vague conclusions because they happen to
like black or had a dream with a vampire in it. Generally, the most
commonly seen traits are very normal and many are exhibited in
“normal” people as well. Often times, vampiric people tend to have
a heightened sensitivity to lights – not just sunlight, but often
also bright indoor lighting and especially fluorescent lights. Being
pre-disposed to migraines is another commonly seen trait and many are
medically diagnosed as migraineurs and take medication for it. Other
factors include sometimes heighten sense of smell or taste; possessing
quick reflexes and stronger-then-average (for others of their body
type and build) strength and toughness. None of these alone is a sign
that someone is or is not a vampire, however. I can’t stress enough
how these are simply commonly observed similarities, not guidelines. I
also can’t stress enough that if someone has a change in eating
habits, sleeping patterns, ways of thinking, etc. they NEED to see a
medical doctor first to ensure they are not suffering anything
physically amiss. The commonality in all of this is of course, the
need to consume small amounts of blood on a regular basis as a dietary
supplement to maintain normal health. Failure to do so results in the
same effects as a weakened immune system – listlessness, more easily
prone to catching colds, longer duration of illness, etc.
Can
someone become a vampire or are they just born that way? I tend
to use an example of any other physical condition to better explain
the realities of “vampirism” to dispel the ingrained notions of
fictional and mythic vampires. You can’t “catch” being born with
red hair nor can you “catch” being born with the vampiric
condition. It’s most likely a recessive gene somewhere in the mix
which triggers after maturity (as it is most commonly seen to come
into play during the ages of 18-24). Though many people try to tell
you otherwise (and why so many fall victim to internet predators),
it’s not something that is contagious or obtainable in anyway.
What
percentage of vampires out there do you think are fake? 95%. I
think most are “lifestylers” meaning they enjoy trying to fit in
with the vampire stereotype of fiction – black clothes, pale skin,
capes, etc. This always makes me think of the originating stories of
vampires (and the vampire mythos) which were much more
“rotted-and-bloated-corpses-rising-mindlessly-from-the-ground”
when I see someone claiming “information” about vampires straight
out of modern vampire fiction. It’s only in the last 30 or so years
that it’s really been the vampire equals “dark, powerful and
sexy” most people only now associate the word to be. In the
excellent book, “Vampires, Burial, and Death” the author takes a
look at the connection between the old beliefs of vampires and the
ritual burial practices of many countries/cultures to see where the
they came up with the originating myths of vampires. Overall, I think
most people who flock to the OVC (online vampire community) are one of
two types of people; either kids wanting to be something bigger and
badder then they are, or two, those who feel the need to set up
“Houses,” “Orders,” and “Courts” to give their lives
drama, to give themselves excuses to wear capes, and to enact some
silly monarchy-based hierarchy among their members. To me, these
people are truly much sadder then the teens looking for escape because
at least the teens have some drive behind their searching (albeit, a
bit flawed). The “Lord and Lady” or “Master and Mistress”
crowd are nothing more then clingy wannabes – and are most often
adults! Many of the “big names” in the OVC are founders
of/participants of all that useless drama and this is why
DrinkDeeplyandDream.com doesn’t affiliate itself with such groups.
We don’t need candles, bad attempts at “Olde English” and pomp
to make our lives have more meaning.
Do
you believe in vampire hunters? I believe there are most likely
a handful of psychos out there who are just as brainwashed by their
need to believe in the fiction of vampires, but for some reason,
instead of wanting to be the fictional vampire, they instead
want to be some avenger of humankind and so must hunt the
fictional vampire. Do I believe there is a “chosen one” or any
such drivel from fiction? No, not at all. I don’t see real-life
vampirism as anything but some quirky genes and as such, why in the
world would there be hunters for it? You don’t see hunters born for
blond people after all.
Can
you tell if someone is a vampire just by looking at them? This
is a hard question because the answer is generally yes. The reason
it’s difficult is there really isn’t any set reason why most tend
to recognize each other. It’s certainly not dress, or speech or look
per se, it’s just that like I feel tends to recognize like. You see
this all the time in life, in all walks of life however. People
inevitably seem to be drawn to others such as themselves. Some say
they feel a slight “buzz” or other triggered response (like
getting chills) when around another, while some simply can see it
reflected back in the eyes of another.
How
did you know that you were a vampire? And for how long? Like
most, I lived a very normal life and childhood. It wasn’t until
about five years ago that it came into my life. Things just started
being different and I was plagued by reoccurring dreams I didn’t
understand. My physical senses started to change and I slowly grew a
gnaw deep within that never seemed to go away. I truly didn’t know
what it was and vampirism was the furthest thing from my mind. Before
Awakening (the common term for this coming-of-age that vampiric people
go through), I wasn’t even remotely interested in vampire fiction
and in fact, I thought it was pretty gross and dumb. I was never a
“Goth” or morbid and my tastes still run to the light and airy
stories of fantasy and not of horror or death. I met my Love and he
helped me to figure out what it was because he had been through it as
well. It’s like another form of puberty; there’s a ton of small
and subtle changes that take place and when it’s done, you’re just
not the same as you were before it starts. I wish there were a better
way to explain it, but there’s not. It’s not the same for everyone
and you don’t just wake up one day and say, “Oh hey, I’m a
vampire!” There’s a lot of soul-searching and a lot of fear and
for some people, they are so set in their beliefs that vampire = evil,
that they can’t accept that part of themselves and they try to shut
it away (with generally poor results).
Do
you drink blood? How much? How often? Whose? Real life vampires
do ingest small quantities of blood on a semi-regular basis, as
determined by personal preference. Many times, the vampiric person
uses their Significant Other as their primary donor as many perceive
it to be a very personal act and many connect it to the one-on-one
nature of sexual relationships. When it’s not possible to use a
partner, people use volunteer donors – many times friends or other
acquaintances – who they most often set-up long-term associations
with. Donors do it for their own varied reasons but are always willing
volunteers. There is no such thing as the hack-and-slash, kill someone
in the alley to it, which is why many times, there are a lot of
vampiric people who go without. It’s not always easy to find (or
keep) a donor. The amounts vary but I would estimate an average of a
few mouthfuls a couple times a week to a shot glass or two every
couple weeks. Obviously, the more often it’s available, the more
likely the vampiric person will want to partake, but most get by on
very small amounts, few and far in-between out of situational need
(lack of donor; donors
away; illness with the donor, etc.) Do
you allow others to drink your blood? No. My specific reasoning
though is unique as some do engage in exchanges of blood with their
donors either as a sexual act, or in a way to bond with the other of
sorts (and I don’t mean “magical” bond, I just mean a coming
together of like interests and a strengthening of ties). My reasons
are health related. I have issues properly digesting iron and so
require iron injections to maintain proper stored iron levels. This
immediately sounds like an explanation for vampirism, but it’s not
for many reasons. First, mine is a rare problem and not even remotely
common in the vampire population. I know no other who has this issue.
Secondly, I lack the ability to digest and store iron in my bone
marrow and blood, while it made from iron, it is not a source
of nutritional iron (the iron in the bone marrow is used to make the
blood so the iron in the blood is already spent so to speak). Fixing
my anemia (with the iron injections a few years ago from a
Hematologist) did nothing to being vampiric nor does being vampiric
mean you are automatically anemic.
How
cautious are you in case of diseases? Any vampiric person
who’s got two brain cells to rub together knows they need to not
only thoroughly test their donor for STD’s and illness, but also
things like health conditions (anemia, diabetes, etc.) which can pose
safety risks to their donor. This again goes back to the fact that
most vampires will set up long term relationships/friendships with
their donors.
What
are some vampire myths? Most of the vampire myths stem from
ignorant peasants who were confused and scared of the changes which
happened to dead bodies (i.e.: cycle of decomposition, effect of
climate on corpses, etc.) The older myths include things like
“bloated of body and red of face” while the modern fiction
includes being able to fly and somehow suddenly becoming “powerful
and sexy.” Though of course, it’s all hooey.
Why
do you think people don’t believe in vampires? I think people
would be silly to believe in vampires straight out of fiction.
There’s actually a lot of thought out there that by even using the
term “vampire” in association with the condition, that we lose
credibility. This is a valid argument, but the counter is that if we
start making up our own words (another commonly used term in lieu of
vampire is “sanguinarian” or “sang” for short), then no one
would know how to find help sites like DrinkDeeplyandDream.com. It’s
a bit of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t dilemma. The fact
that so many lifestylers and kids-in-capes call themselves vampires
also don’t help. I think if people could be told that there’s just
a condition which causes minor changes in a person’s nutritional
needs and it was better studied by science, then there wouldn’t be
such a problem or a stigma (and perhaps, we could actually get a term
which was well known, but not burdened with such stereotypes).
Have
you ever experienced any vampire racism? No, not really. The
only time I’ve ever had problems is when the kids-in-capes crowd
tries to demand their views of characters a la Anne Rice are
“factual.”
Do
you believe other supernatural beings exists? I.e. werewolves,
mummies? I’ve heard of some people claiming they were
“Therianthropes” (their term for were-creature) but, they define
it as a spiritual thing, not a physical (they spiritually feel to be
akin to a creature such as wolf, panther, etc.) Though I don’t know
any personally offline, there are several members of
DrinkDeeplyandDream.com who claim they are. There is, as far as I
know, no such things as mummies. Most people who relate to
“supernatural” stories do so for a start-point label only and most
don’t see anything supernatural about it. Many consider witches to
be supernatural, however, it’s simply another point of view and for
many, a religion. It goes back to my quote above, “Some things are
true, whether you believe in them or not.” I just think that the
fiction takes the reality and blows it out of proportion. So why not
have someone who fits a much toned-down version of such a myth?
How
did people react when you told them? As I said above, most of
my friends have been so for many years and most did not really have
any reaction except curiosity to learn the concrete truths.
How
have ex- lovers react when you tell them? I had just broken up
with my last boyfriend when this started in my life, and I’ve been
with my Love ever since, so there’s none to speak of. How long have you been with your ‘Love’? Is he a vampire? We’ve been together four and ½ years now and yes he is (see above answer).
How
did he react to you being a vampire? It wasn’t a big deal.
Why
do you separate your vampire life from your personal life?
There isn’t a “vampire life” and a “personal life”;
there’s just my life. The only real separation is that only
some people know of DrinkDeeplyandDream.com. As being a vampire
isn’t a lifestyle choice, and as it’s not a costume you only put
on at pre-set times, you’re always who you are and everyone
has a thousand labels we all live with everyday. I’m a daughter, a
web designer, a girlfriend, a best friend, a Greek and Russian mix, a
Democrat AND a vampire all at the same time. Being any one of the
above doesn’t mean I’m any less then the others.
How
does your lifestyle show evidence that you’re a vampire? Not
particularly. As I said, we’re all a mass of different things –
small pieces that make the whole picture – and that’s just a small
part of my life and a small piece of the whole of who I am. I go out
to see movies with friends; I play video games; I enjoy the Orchestra;
I love the beach – all of these things are part of my
“lifestyle” because my lifestyle is just my life – not window
dressings I have to put over my life to hide or change it.
Did
people in your schools know your lifestyle? Again, vampirism
isn’t a lifestyle, it’s just a part of who you are. At the time I
was in high school – over nine years ago now – it wasn’t part of
my life yet.
What
made you devote a section of your website to telling people how to
protect themselves from fake vampires on the internet? Common
sense is far too rarely common. People are too easily lulled into
believing the most outrageous things if they want strongly enough for
them to be true. There are so many people out there who are lying, or
role-playing, and it can be hard for someone coming into it, to know
what to believe and what to dismiss. A lot of those people are
dangerous and actually prey on the young teens drawn to the vampire
mythos. I don’t want anyone ever getting hurt because they simply
weren’t informed on what to look out for. Information should always
be shared and if I have the information to help even one person learn
how to protect themselves, you better damn-well be sure I’m going to
share it.
Should
people fear vampires? No, not at all. People should fear a lot
of things, but someone who uses willing volunteers to drink a small
amount of blood once a week or so, isn’t one of them. We mostly go
out of our way to keep quiet, to keep out of people’s ways and to
not harm or trouble anyone with our nutritional needs.
Is
there a difference between vampire and vampyre? Oh, what a
heated question that is. There are many online who use “vampyre”
because they somehow think it’s the older and more “correct” –
which is an incorrect statement. (To quote my friend, Orb, “I do
happen to own an unabridged Oxford dictionary no entry. Nope ... in
fact, it's only in some of the newer editions is it even listed as a
secondary (you did read that - secondary) spelling with no
listing on its own. Seeing as the root words and original origin of
the word are as follows:
Do
vampires live longer? I don’t really know to be honest. Some
have said that they haven’t so much lived longer, as they’ve lived
in good health for longer, while some claim that their grandparents or
such were vampires as well and that they lived ten or so years longer
then expected. This is sheer hear-say and speculation though, so I
can’t give any true facts.
Why
did you start a website? Because, over four-and-a-half-years
ago, there wasn’t much out there. And I continue it because
four-and-a-half years later, there’s a lot more, but most of it’s
junk. There’s still only a handful of sites out there which are
willing to give the non-fiction reality of things; sites that don’t
gloss over and make it seem “dark and mysterious.” Few people are
willing to stand up and say, “Hey, I’m a normal person, just like
you” – most all want to try to be better, or sexier or smarter. I
don’t see a reason to stupidly feed my ego by posturing on a
website. Instead, I see it as a great opportunity to help people who
are seriously confused, scared and who have no one to turn to. When I
can help even just one person learn that they’re not evil, or
they’re not some freak, then it’s all worth-while to me.
How
did you come up with the name? I actually saw the phrase
“drink deeply and dream” in a book and I liked it so much that it
stuck. I’ve always been fond of the name. It inspires hope in my
mind and doesn’t rely on clichéd terms like “bloody” or
“dark” or such.
How
do you feel about all of your awards? To be honest, while I
think it’s nice that people have found my site a good site and that
they wish to give me a token of their high regard, to me, it’s not
about the number of awards I have or the number of people who link to
me, it’s about being there for the people that need the information
on the site and being able to help someone.
The
best advice you could give anyone? Don’t get so caught up in
terms. Don’t feel the need to define yourself with a convenient
title – and don’t let anyone else define you by them either.
Embrace the fact that we’re all more then the sum of our parts and
that while we might fit in with a hundred different labels, we’re
not limited by any one of them. Always give yourself room to grow and
learn, physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally in life.
Never stop asking questions. Find, make and keep friends. Be happy to
be yourself – whoever you are, whatever labels you’ve taken to
help define you. It’s not about making other people like you in
life, it’s about making sure you like yourself. And above all else,
realize that we’re all here together and no matter our differences,
we often have more in common then we think, so don’t let yourself
get hung up on what’s different or wrong about someone when
there’s so much more that’s the same and right. |
|||||||
