The one thing that is many things

I'm not an easy person to know. Many people -- including all of my old bullies -- believe that they know me but they really have no clue and it's only half their fault.

It's far too easy to single out, ostracize, give unspoken approval to or obsess over someone you've spared one glance. But so many qualities go undiscovered, so many possibilities are lost, much to the detriment of the planet and our chance at happiness. And though several studies have claimed that our first impressions may be spot on, I remain unconvinced.

When I was little, I had few friends and was bullied often. I spent most of my time at home creating lives with Sarah and Teddy the brown bears, my most cherish toys. I had thousands of stuffed animals (all of which had little lives of their own), but I gave most away to children at a homeless shelter when I was 12 or 13. I ran away from home at least twice -- the first time my mother caught me, the second time the neighbors called to tell my parents that I had claimed their honeysuckle bush and was living under it.

I wrote my first story when I was five and it is, I'm not joking, pretty much what happens in the book Life of Pi, except all the animals lived together in peace and we never left Meerkat Island. We spent the rest of our long lives living like the Swiss family Robinson.

I started writing with a passion when I was 11 years old. I wrote my first screenplay in a wide-ruled school notebook; it filled every page. And things sort of snowballed after that. I discovered that my heart plays percussion to a steel drum band when I put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and so I do as often as I can.

I live in a world of color, sound, silence and sensation. I like talking to people, even if they don't relish talking to me. I love travel because it's nice to know that there are places as beautiful as the strange worlds I dream about when I go to sleep and because the act of physically moving, of going some place new, is awe inspiring.

I'm so curious that I often alienate my parents and peers by forcing them to take a journey with me into the warehouse full of random facts that I have accumulated over the last 22 years. I can remember those strange tidbits better than I can remember almost anything else. And I don't mind that.

I can't eat meat because I think about the animal's life and how terrified it must be when it goes through the ordeal of being slaughtered. I don't fault anyone else for eating it, but I hate trophy hunters and poachers. I hope a rhino stomps them to death. (Oh, and I'm not enlightened yet)

I shoo flies and spiders out of the house, but worms will set my heart racing and my teeth on edge (I still save them when I see them sizzling on sidewalks, though). I try to see a situation from the perspectives of everyone involved before I offer an opinion on it. I'm often wrong and I'm okay with that. My opinion is rarely set in stone, because I always have something to learn.

I have a list of things to do and see in my life and I had it long before that mediocre movie The Bucket List came out, but I encourage everyone to make such a list and stick to it. Most of the things on mine have to do with writing, travel and enlightenment.

I can listen to music made by A.R. Rahman all day and if you want to cook me something, give me dal, aloo ghobi, pad thai or vegan pizza with roasted garlic and zucchini. I love to laugh until I cry. I believe in god -- just probably not yours. I finger paint and sculpt clay masks. 'Sculpt' is a good word. So is 'perspicacity.'

And here's the philosophy: I see the universe and everything in it as a giant ball of energy. We are not only all connected to each other and this planet, we are also dependent on and directly affected by the generosity, positive intention and action that we fill the world with. I'm not better than anyone and no one is better than me. I wish everyone as much kindness as they show to others and I treat others with the same benefit of the doubt that I hope they will extend to me. Because regardless of your religion, color, creed or class, we're in this together, folks. We can create or destroy, we can hate or love, we can be self righteous or we can understand. And, maybe, we can leave some room to be wrong.