This next week something will occur that I've been thinking about for the last two years......I will be entering my 30's. Now most people don't freak out about getting old till they hit 40 or so, but when you work with a bunch of 20 to 22-year-olds every day 30 starts to seem kind of up there. This means I'm just one step closer to my inevitable death, which I know is at least another 50 years off given my drive to keep active and advancements in technology. But it doesn't mean that sometimes at night I lye awake dreading my own mortality and I'd even take being a sparkling vampire over what will someday happen to me. So anyway, I'm getting old, I wince a little every time I bend over, blah, blah, blah, right? I think about I what I was like 10 years ago and maybe, just maybe, I really have changed.
I turned 20-years-old just before my second year at Vincennes University. I got an apartment not to far from campus with my buddy Shaun and his friend, Fisher, whom I never met. Then of course there was our unofficial roommates Jason and Bryd who seemed to sleep there more than Fisher did. There are a lot of good memories in that apartment. There was the time Shaun stumbled in from a luau on crutches, the dance party Shaun and I had one night with 3 girls, and of course the daily viewings of Old School. The first night we lived in that apartment we even broke it in with Jason, my buddy Caleb, and some girls who I couldn't even tell you what they looked like now. Hey Jason, you want a Reese Cup? I was young, naive, and thought I knew what my life was going to be like.
After VU I was going to go to USC film school (I got rejected), and then I was going to become the next Kevin Smith (whose movies aren't as good as I remember). I'd of course then put Jennifer Love Hewitt in all my movies until she fell in love with me, and we'd live in a Tony Stark style home on the beach. If you would have told me back then that in 10 years I'd be living in Austin, wearing a suit every day and selling them, I'd say that was the funniest joke ever. It's weird how your view on life changes the more you live it.
Back then I never even knew Lisa Lach existed and I thought I was meant to be with a girl who I wasn't even sure liked me. I also had just been dumped by girl who I worked with so I had to see her several times a week, and she had a new boyfriend. I remember getting some co-workers together one night to go see The Matrix Revolutions. Someone invited her, she invited her boyfriend, and I spent two hours in a dark theater just wanting to leave while the guys in front of me were obviously high and giving the people around them a running commentary about what would happen next. I went on that year to do pretty well with the ladies. I had my fair share of run-ins that led to one of the craziest and confusing nights I may ever have. But it would be un-gentlemanly of me to tell that story, so I'll pass. It was a great school year that ended with me, Shaun, and Jason getting a house together for the summer and having some wild parties, and me leaving Vincennes for Ball State a month after I turned 21. I had to start the college freshman routine all over, except now I could buy my friends booze, which is always a good conversation starter with 18-year-olds. Anyway, If I've never properly said it, thanks Shaun and Jason for being social butterflies, getting me out there to meet people, and making me become comfortable with who I was. It meant a lot.
Fast forward 10 years and I graduated from Ball State, realized I didn't really want to become a film director, but maybe still write them. I made some great friends at Ball State, some I feel I'll know the rest of my life, and I met and married Lisa, and somehow she convinced me to move to a place where 60 degrees is considered "cold" to the locals. We have a beautiful daughter and the highlight of my week is taking my nephew swimming every Tuesday and being in bed by 10pm some nights. 10 years ago I was still getting ready to out at that time!
But as we've seen, times change, people grow-up, and I feel like I've definitely done that, at least a little. A part of me misses playing beer pong at the Meat Locker till 2am and then going over to Egon's afterwards to chill out. But then I realize that those days are done. Every once in a while I feel it's healthy to have a semi-wild night, but then I get to come home to my wife, my daughter and my comfortable home. I like it when I'm the one who makes Logan smile. I like seeing Nora learn new things every day, and I like looking into Lisa's eyes and knowing that she chose to spend the rest of her life with me for being exactly who I am. The 20-year-old life was exciting, but I made a lot of mistakes, got my heart broken a few times (and vice versa), and probably killed waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to many brain cells that I probably could have used years from now. But I think my experiences at 20 will lead to me being a better 30-year-old. To me, Steve Martin said it best in Cheaper by the Dozen (starring Tom Welling) when his friend asked if he was giving up on is dream. He replied, "No, just going with a different one." So thanks 20-year-old me for being soooo stupid. Now I know every trick 20-year-old Nora will try and play......which by then I'll be 50.....oh lord!
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