About

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“Cogito ergo scribo.” ©2015 cafeemily.com

About Café Emily

Café Emily is the brainchild of Emily Condit. That’s me. I’ve always been a prolific thinker and my greatest form of expression has been through my writing.

This blog is an attempt to get some of the millions of scattered thoughts out of my head and into the world where they can hopefully serve some useful purpose.

It would be easier if I fit into some niche but I don’t. I don’t only think about one thing or a couple of things. I think about everything (thus, this is a blog about everything). I realize this may make it hard to find an audience but hopefully, a few will find what I have to say interesting.

If you’re wondering why the site is called “Café Emily” and not something like “The World According to Emily” (too long anyway) here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia that might help clear things up:

“Historically, cafés have been an important social gathering point… Coffeehouses in Western Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean were traditionally social hubs, as well as artistic and intellectual centers… They were—and continue to be—venues where people gather to talk, write, read, entertain one another, or pass the time.”

I actually did work at Starbucks for about 5 1/2 years though so I do know how to make a mean cup of coffee.

About Emily

I was born in Los Angeles, California in 1975. I look about 12 in that photo because it was taken in 2007 when I was 31. But it’s the only photo I have where I’m thinking. If I ever get the energy, I’ll get my dad (a professional photographer) to take a recent photo of me thinking.

I grew up in a strange household. We’re all mad here. My mother is from Oklahoma and my father is from New England. My father moved to Oklahoma when he was ten which is how he ended up eventually meeting my mother. As a result of my parents’ influences, I was raised with both small-town southern and north-eastern values in a western metropolis without any religious affiliation.

This was very confusing growing up and it wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned to embrace the fact that I’m never going to quite fit in anywhere. If you read enough of what I write, I’m sure I’ll both repel and enchant you with my views about the world. I’m okay with that. I’m not looking for anyone to agree with me all the time or to like everything that I like to write about. I have very eclectic tastes and I have some views that almost no one agrees with.

I love learning and for the majority of my adulthood, I have been in college both on campus and online. I have studied graphic design, astrophysics, aerospace engineering, theoretical mathematics, web design and development, and computer science. I’ve always had an aptitude for academics and in total, I’ve spent about 15 full-time years in community college. I have four associate degrees: one in General Science, one in Computer Science, one in Computer Programming, and one in Web Programming.

I was awarded two summer internships with NASA at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH in 1999 and 2000, the highlights of my academic career.

In 1999, I worked on the first manned mission to Mars which is now on hiatus. In 2000, I worked on the now defunct Breakthrough Propulsion Physics project which was dedicated to the discovery of breakthrough technologies which would allow humanity to travel to other star systems. If you can’t tell by the decor of the site, I’m a total space nerd.

With all this, why did I never get a bachelor’s degree? It wasn’t for lack of trying. In 2001, I transferred to a 4-year university as a theoretical math major. Three weeks in, I got horribly ill and was forced to drop out. I have never recovered. I’m now permanently disabled with Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and severe IBS. I have been essentially housebound since 2012.

My illness has been both a blessing and a curse. It has robbed me of my youth, robbed me of many of the rites of passage of adulthood, isolated me from the world, and been extremely painful both physically and emotionally. However, if it weren’t for my illness, I don’t think I ever would have figured out who I was or what I wanted or learned to be grateful for what I have. I can say with certainty that suffering leads to wisdom but whether the suffering is worth the wisdom is debatable. Some days I think it is. Some days I think it isn’t.

I’m not like a kid in a St. Jude’s commercial who has a perennial smile on her face despite enduring horribly tragic circumstances. I’m not inspirational all of the time or even most of the time. I lost a lot and that loss still hurts. But I try to make the best of it. That’s all anyone in my situation can do.

I hope you enjoy my writings.

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