What is this place, anyway?

The long and short of it is I’ll be turning 30 next year.  Whenever I approach the precipice of a big life event, I turn inward and evaluate where I’ve been as well as where I’m going.  When I think about the fact that I’ve been alive for nearly three decades, I first suppress the urge to vomit.  Thirty years?!  How did this happen?  One minute you’re the fat kid doing cannonballs in your friends’ pools, getting ready for the first day of school, renting a tux for the big dance, practicing for your driving test, getting your first job, dreaming of the freedom of college, graduating from college….you see where I’m going.  I’m no longer that fat kid.  Now I’m a…pleasantly plump…guy who looks around and says “what next?”  Cannonballs don’t really transfer well to adulthood.

So far my life has been status quo.  In many ways I’ve been lucky with how things have turned out.  I’ve got a great job working with people I enjoy.  My wife is my best friend who always seems to know what I’m thinking.  We have a mortgage, two cars, a new puppy, and families that love and support us.  We’ve had a lot of great opportunities together.  What more could I want?

However, none of that is good fodder for a blog.  So, I’m going to create a list.  This list will be like a living organism, and it will be composed of things I want to accomplish before I die.  You will see it change and grow over time.  Then I’m going to write about the list, my frustrations, my hopes, my fears, and my dreams.  There are a great number of things I hope to accomplish as I head toward my third decade and beyond.  Join on my quest to meet life head-on.  There’s an entire world out there to explore, and right now all I know is that the waiting is the hardest part!

Me and a doomed waffle in Bruges, Belgium