Now that I have reached a milestone in my age, I feel it fitting to discuss it, if every so briefly. I have realized that I have a great deal to be incredibly thankful for, especially right now in my life. Between my career, family, friends and so many other pieces, I am satisfied and excited to be in my life where it is. With this, I have found myself in the wonderful space called retrospect, and I enjoy it. I’ve been looking at experiences and my choices and seeing the paths that each choice forged or followed. The one thing I come across is that wise voice of a parent or mentor or ‘adult’ giving me their sage advice. There were times that I followed that advice, and there were times that I didn’t. In either case, I know that the bit of wisdom imparted upon me was not unfounded. I can’t recall whether or not each piece of advice made sense to me at the time, but there are many things that make sense to me now.

This brings me to the conclusions I’ve drawn from my thought patterns. Knowing what my experience has been, and knowing that I’m fiercely independent, makes me realize that trusting my ‘elders’ is not entirely unfounded. I think I’ve taken experience for granted. There are many places I can go with maturity, and many people with whom I can communicate. However, I can only get so far without the experience to back me up. I hope in the future I can stop, listen, and simply make the effort to understand the advice of those who may have more life experience than me.

This isn’t to say that anyone older earns my respect de facto. I hope that the experience that I have had thus far in life has given me the ability to discern wisdom of experience from the folly of years wasted. I suppose that discerning, in general, is important. I also suppose that there will be times that advice will be given, and I will not be ready to heed or understand it, and it will go by like another phrase. All of this reminds me of a lyric from the “Sunscreen Song” produced back in the late 90′s, which is what I will leave you with:

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than it’s worth.”

I’ve always managed to have many varied interests. I think the majority of that stems in my desire to learn. I’ve made some pretty bold statements around learning in the past, and instead of voicing something so rash while Im writing in a space that may never see a digital death, I’ll go right on ahead and simply say that learning is integral to a life lived well.  An interest in others, and allowing yourself to experience something through their eyes is imperative to keeping my life interesting, as I’m sure that it’s important to many other people’s lives, as well. I remember once telling myself that I wouldn’t maintain the same career for more than five years. Today, this has become the norm for most, though I’m not entirely certain that that is developed as a natural desire or goal in peoples’ minds, more a matter of circumstance. For me, it is a goal. I’m glad that at the age of 16 or so, I could acknowledge that I may never be able to settle into one career and always be satisfied.

The funny thing is, I have enjoyed my jobs for the most part. And i certainly enjoy my current job and career path. Most of them have provided some of the greatest opportunities to get to know people and expand my ability to learn, and also my knowledge. So, to leave and have a set termination date to move on seems silly, but the excitement of learning something complete different than the trajectory I’m on, well that makes sense.

I can even go back to the time that I was going through school. As a younger child I was completely unabashed about enjoying school. First it was reading, then it was the spacial reasoning with blocks, then it was biology, geography, science, art, math… I think I’ve enjoyed so many different subjects throughout my life so far. How dare I stop that now. It feels like a growth process for me, maybe equated with a tree. A very strange tree, at the very least. One that might grow all sorts of different branches, but some that are stunted early, but then grow exponentially after a couple of seasons, others that grow steadily over time, and those that jut out once, and quickly, to see some of the most amazing fruit thereafter. So, I’m now at just over two years in my current career, give me another two or so more, and I’ll move on. I’ll probably end up returning to school (which, I did not think would happen). Right now, I have my sights set on the law. Some form of it. And then we’ll see from there.

Alright, so already a quarter into the year, I’ve finally decided to tell the world what my New Year’s Resolution was for 2009. 240 Stamps. Actually, it is 20 stamps a month, for the entire year. It might just be my favorite resolution I’ve ever made. It put me into a position where I’m contacting more people, or people more, or differently than I might have before. Thus far, I’ve also kept up with it. Not overly ambitious, but enough fun that I’d stick with it throughout the year.

Now, the 36 Books thing was not a resolution, but a newly stated goal. I’ve been reading like mad. And thus far, about three books a month. If you do the math as I did, that’s 36 for the year. At least I can get that far when I mostly work with words the majority of the time. I must admit that not all of the books are great novels or awesome works of intelligent fiction, there’s some pop fiction, some classics I’ve reread, and then a handful of books I somehow missed so far in life (read: Chronicles of Narnia). I’ve found a sort of power in reading. Partly, it keeps me away from watching mindless television and raptured in a story, or in information by which I’m intrigued. I think I’ve always enjoyed reading, between the end of last year and the beginning of this, I’ve discovered a new love for the hobby. Oh, and in case anyone was keeping track, one of the best places to find classics that you might have missed at some point in your life: Thrift Stores; wow, are they a gold mine or what.

And maybe on account of me reading and writing a good bit more, I’ve seen my spoken vocabulary expand. Often with words that subconsciously creep in. There have even been circumstances where I know a word, I think it might be good in the context, I check, and it is. That might be the most bazaar of all. Especially considering that they weren’t on any AP English Vocabulary exams I ever had.

Also these two goals have given me a surprisingly great use of the web application Daytum. It tracks my count, in graphs and such, which keeps me in line with my goals. Check it.

I always have expectations when I return to Montana. About how I’ll spend my time, who I’ll spend my time with, what sort of work I will be able to complete and all of that stuff. I don’t remember a single time that my expectations have been fulfilled, but it always ends up being in the best possible ways. 

This time, I went back to my hometown expecting to spend a good amount of time with my family. My parents and sister and brother-in-law were all going to be around for the holidays and I thought it would be fun to hang around them. I had recently made contact with an old acquaintance from Helena and expected to spend a bit of time with him. I had some deep roots with families and friends and expected a visit with them briefly, at the very least. And yet, what surprised me the most is that I ran into so many faces that I hadn’t seen in years.

To familiarize you with the nature of social interaction in my hometown I’ll do my best to frame it for you: The only way to get away from people that you know, is to escape into the mountains. Even then, it’s not a guarantee. Though I have been gone for nearly six years, with sporadic visits within that time, I still saw familiar faces everywhere I went. I found that the most amazing thing was going out in the evening. There are really only so many places one can go and stay into the early morning. Because of this going out for the night is, as one old friend said, “like going to a class reunion, but for the entire high school”. 

It was insane. And fun! To have a few good laughs and some very inexpensive beer was spectacular. I was pretty happy about being able to run into some folks that I’ve had no contact with since I graduated from high school. After the many conversations I had I’m extremely proud of everyone I knew in Helena. By and large, it seems that many people are doing what they absolutely love to do. Whether it’s compromising a lucrative career for your ethics, teaching, synthesizing proteins, attending law school, planning public transit, or serving at a restaurant, people really seem to be loving it. And it makes me realize that there’s something innately wonderful about growing-up Montanan. I’ll never quite know if it’s the values, the big sky, the community or what exactly, that made us who we are. But going back to it, and realizing that I share something quite deep and spectacular with a few hundred-thousand folks; It makes me all the more proud of the place that saw me grow up, and that I come from that place.