I graduated high school in June of 2005, which was 10 years ago. Next weekend I will get married, and that will complete a decade long journey from adolescence to adulthood. It's been quite a journey and quite a critical decade. It's crazy to think that 10 years ago I was 18 and going out on my own in the world for the first time, and now, a decade later I've found my way in life and am about to settle down into married life. It was a decade full of inflection points both good and bad, and they each shaped my life in a different way.
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| At 18. At the beach in North Carolina. |
I think years down the road I'll look back at this past decade as the defining decade of my life. Sure, my adolescence was important, and future things to come may be just as meaningful, but I postulate that the experiences of the past decade will outshine much else in the story of my life.
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| At 22. Graduation from college. |
Life, love, self-reliance, education, work ethic, values, friendship. They all come at you very fast in those years. Just when things start to make sense, so much can change. People, cities, jobs. In the past decade I've lived in 4 cities, lived with 30 different people, held 4 jobs and moved 11 times. The only time I moved as a kid, I was a 1-year-old. I have moved more than once-a-year since then. I made great friends and watched as they slipped away. I traveled. I saw amazing things and had amazing experiences. I did things I never expected. I quit jobs. I quit relationships. I have been at the top of the mountain and at the base. But I enjoyed the ups and downs of the climb.
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| At 25. Visiting Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. |
So here I am. At the precipice of marriage. I feel wiser than I once was, but still a fool. I know there will still be excitement, and am looking ahead towards future experiences. But the era of me against the world is over. I'll now have a teammate in life. Someone to enjoy the journey with. It's hard not to look back and wonder where I would be if some of life's randomness had unfolded just a little bit different in the past decade. But here I am, and I'm proud and happy to be here.
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| At 28. Married. |
3 comments:
Have you read the book The Defining Decade by Meg Jay? Great book and touches on the same idea. This is a decade of self discovery previous generations didn't get to experience.
I have not. But I did just check out one of her TED talks. I think she gets what I was going for. She basically stole my ideas.
Congrats man. You look old and wise in your engagement picture.
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