So, I turned 24 today. At 1:37 AM this morning I have officially been on this earth for a full 24 years. Uh, not counting my gestation period, I suppose.

24 will be a big year for me, and my life will continue to progress toward one seeming more and more like that of an adult. In one year...

By the time I'm 25
• Most obviously, I'll be a husband.
• I'll be tenured (a big deal for teachers).
• I'll have celebrated my younger brother's 21st birthday (he's so grown up!)
• I'll have spent my first christmas entirely away from my family.
• I'll have drug Alli through the Daugherty Dual-Thanksgiving.
• My mom will most likely move out of Redlands.
• Friends will graduate, will get jobs, will move on, and most likely, be even harder to keep in touch with.

You know, forget New Year's Resolutions. They don't mean anything because New Year's is a holiday, a celebration for everyone, and they're thought of because everyone is doing it. That's why they tend to be generic things like weight loss or being more organized (both of which were mine). But birthdays... ah, birthdays make you introspective. So I'm going to make a birthday resolution right now. I resolve to work harder to maintain those relationships that mean the most to me. I've gotten lazy because I live with Alli, don't have to work at that one, and for everyone else, I let the internet do my work for me... holy crap... I'm teaching Fahrenheit 451 to my 10th graders, and in it technology has made people lazy and impersonal... Fine, now it's more than a resolution, it's my duty to make sure this horrible, dystopic future never comes about!

Seriously, to all my friends, those who read this, and those who will never see it - Thanks for everything.

posted by MAtt D. at 9:27 AM