Hello everyone. I'm hoping to meet some like-minded people and to grow in my search to find my place in this existence.
A little about myself -- I'll try and keep it brief. I'm a 25 year old college student from southeastern Michigan. I was born and raised in a conservative Christian family and it became clear early on that that wasn't for me. Following this was a casual interest in various philosophies such as Zen, tarot and astrology. To make a long story short, for a research on a paper I wrote for a college course a few months ago, I checked out a copy of the Taoteching (the Red Pine translation) from my local library and I found it to be one of the most beautiful books I'd ever written. From the first verse it seemed to totally make sense immediately. I especially like that particular translation since it seems to be the one I've found that's closest to the original Chinese... it just sounds so organic. Too bad I can't seem to get a copy of my own... I tried ordering it on Amazon and it's been backordered since April!
I found this site through the Tao Jia website which has a lot of really cool stuff on it. I'm not sure if you'd call me a full-fledged Taoist but I've found Eastern philosophies helpful to supress all the negativity, bitterness and depression that has been keeping me down throughout my life. It's been quite a struggle, especially in this point in my life where school and financial troubles are extremely stressful, but I'm doing all I can to maintain a positive outlook. I'm also a long-haired heavy metal fanatic who's majoring in journalism (I want to write for a heavy metal magazine someday). Oh yeah, and I have a dragon tattoo... which is actually a Japanese dragon since it has 3 toes on each hand:
