Here I am, sitting around on the eve of my twenty-ninth
birthday, listening to random songs on not so random websites, reviewing the
past twelve months of my life, and this is my conclusion: twenty-eight was a very good year,
certainly the best of my post-collegiate years. Now it’s on to twenty-nine.
I’d be remiss to attribute the vast majority of the past
year’s greatness to anything other than my wonderful girlfriend, Melissa, who
has miraculously put up with me (and even seemed to enjoy doing so) for the
past six and a half months. Any
year with her would be a good year.
We have had many an adventure together, and I look forward to many more.
Is it weird that I don’t feel like I’m almost
twenty-nine? Unless I’m coming off
a night with too little sleep or some strenuous exercise (i.e. any exercise), I
really don’t feel like an old man.
Sure, my hair continues to fall out – at least I still have some hair to
fall out, right? It could be
worse. Mostly I feel like I live
in a weird state where I’m not really aware of my age nor does it make itself
all that apparent. Then again,
I’ll be thirty in just over a year, and that kind of freaks me out. Not so much that thirty is old, but
that it’s hard to not think I should have accomplished more with my life by the
age of thirty.
What did I really accomplish this year? Besides the aforementioned wonderful
relationship with my beautiful girlfriend, do I have much to show for my
twenty-eighth year? I continue to
contribute to my team at Ancestry.com.
I did a lot of work with the 1940 US Census to help Ancestry put out not
only the first complete but also the most extensive index, and I feel satisfied
with and proud of my efforts with not only that specific project but many
others. Working there might not be
my ultimate professional destination, but I feel like a valued employee and
that my efforts are appreciated and even formally recognized within the
company. It’s been a good four and
a half years there (crazy). I
mean, I kind of owe Ancestry for putting Melissa and I in each other’s path. The cherry on top: we just won first
place in the company film festival this past weekend, taking home a nice $1000
prize split between four of us.
So work is good, and I went on a couple cool trips during
the past year: to Phoenix to see
Radiohead with some friends and visit my sister and her family; to Sandusky,
Ohio for a week to visit Cedar Point, the best amusement park in the world; to
L.A. with Melissa to visit a couple of her siblings; to Vernal a couple times
with Melissa to visit my family; to Berthoud, Colorado for a couple days over
the Thanksgiving break to visit Melissa’s family.
As I list the details of the past year, I realize that it
was more eventful than I originally supposed this December evening. And then I come to my writing
aspirations, those ideas and thoughts that never leave me alone and continue to
motivate me to, if not write prolifically, at least remain discontent enough to
never get too comfortable or complacent with my writing efforts. As previously documented on this blog,
I began rewriting my long lost novel (originally begun in December 2002, ten
years ago) and eventually settled into a routine that helped me complete the
first chapter in early September, coming in at just under 30,000 words. Since then I’ve struggled to resume my
routine, letting things like moving and indecision regarding the process to
employ as I continue my rewrite get in the way, but I am still mildly pleased
with my efforts. I have much more
to do, and I know that I need to push forward with everything I’ve got, mostly
to see whether this writing thing is just a silly dream or whether it really is
what I should be doing. I
vacillate between believing that I can and will be a writer and questioning my
abilities and lack of important things to say. I’ve read enough about writers and the writing process to know
that I am not at all unique in having those conflicted thoughts, but the
uncertainty complicates things nonetheless.
Very nearly twenty-nine years old. Just a couple hours away now.
I look forward to twenty-nine. Twenty-eight was a good year, and I feel like my life is
moving forward at a good pace and, most importantly, in the right direction. I still have much to accomplish and
much to do to become the person I know I can and should become, but I am
optimistic and resolved to push forward.
This basically preempts any New Year’s Day post I might
make, but I’m okay with that. My
birthday is cooler than New Year’s anyway. Besides, I’ll still have to write a year-end post about
music and movies and all that so expect to hear from me again in the next few
weeks as 2012 turns into 2013, assuming we don’t all die on December 21st.
The end.
