The 20 Year Meme
20 Years Ago, I...
was 6 and life was awesome. I was in first grade. I loved school. I loved that the school always smelled like tator tot casserole. I loved my friends (many of who I still love). I loved my mom. I loved Sesame Street. I loved playing outside. I even loved math. This was though, the first time in my life I really knew that I didn’t have a dad, and that made me weird. Everyone had a dad, except for my best friend (Jamie). So that made me less weird.
15 years ago, I...
was 11 and in sixth grade. Mr. Hepp was my homeroom teacher. I had perfect attendance that year because I was afraid to be sick. I was chubby (even then!) so I wore stir-up pants a lot. I was sad because I couldn’t get the cool jeans that everyone was wearing and couldn’t have Emily tight-roll them before school.
10 years ago, I...
was 16 and just starting my junior year of high school. Life was so sweet. I had lots of friends, lots of opportunities and no real responsibilities. Things with my mom weren’t so good, but they hadn’t really fallen apart yet. I was still crushing on boys and hadn’t really ever tasted failure yet. Those were heady, beautiful, fun-filled days of idealism and optimism.
5 years ago, I...
was 21 and just starting my senior year of college. I was drinking far too much, but not in the self-destructive way that surely would have been the case if I had been legal one or two years before. I was focused on school, working a lot (but not too much) and having a good time. I loved the research that I did, and the classes that I had. I talked with my best friends daily, and started to mend some of the fences that I’d broken. I would later reunite with the person who I thought was my soul-mate, only to be disappointed again. That experience however, would create one of the best days of my life, and one of the shiniest, most wonderful memories I have.
2 years ago, I...
was 24 and was a new-ish transplant to the Twin Cities. My job was crazy and I had just started dating Dave. I was desperate to be loved, and so tired of being alone. I was glad to be in the big city and taking advantage of some of the opportunities it offered.
1 year ago, I ...
was 25 and preparing to end my relationship with Dave (just over a month after moving in with him!). I was enjoying my new job and the awesome new people I had met.
So far this year, I've...
had a lot of fun, met a lot of new people and grown a lot. I’ve fully accepted that I’m an atheist, and that hoping there is something more is not the same as there actually being something more, and that’s okay. I’ve lost some weight, and started working out again. I’ve accepted that the reason I eat is to help ignore some issue or pain, not to actually feed myself. I still struggle with that daily and lose more than I win, but at least I recognize it. I’ve set goals that I haven’t accomplished, but I’ve dealt with that. I’ve grown closer to some incredible people. I have become better than I was.
Yesterday I...
worked, gave Chad a tour of the office, learned something about a friend that I never would have guessed and ate way too much.
Today I...
got up, came to work and started this thing.
Tomorrow I'll...
go to work, run, and hopefully refocus on my diet.