When I was 8 I moved from Washington D.C. to California and drove across the country in 2 weeks with my parents. I was so afraid that as we travelled from state to state I would become less and less “me,” so I spent the entire two weeks trying to catch my reflection in every possible place I could to see that I hadn’t changed. When I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close I was immediately reminded of this and saw a little bit of myself in Oskar Schell. Now as a 23 year old college graduate, I aim to wander around the world for awhile, but this tattoo is my reminder that I am still me, no matter where I am or who I’m with.

“I shook my tambourine the whole time, because it helped me remember that even though I was going through different neighborhoods, I was still me.” - Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

(Source: contrariwise.org)

"Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
In Flanders Fields we fought"