Today is my 30th birthday.
There, I said it. I have survived on Earth while it has rotated around the sun 31 times. I have survived 18 years under my parents' roof, four years at college, including a semester in Europe, and eight years of somehow, some way being able to provide for myself while still receiving amazing support from my parents and extended family. I have managed to receive an undergraduate and master's degree, have been immersed in two different career fields, have friends and family spread all throughout the country as well as internationally, and have managed to do all this with no real blueprint as to how to do so.
All and all, I'd say these first 30 years have gone by pretty well.
And so, I'd like to take this particular blog to note some of the highlights of my previous decade. It was hard to narrow down the list of amazing experiences I've had from 2004 to 2014 but I felt the need to do so to help me reflect on my life thus far. I can honestly say that I had no idea I'd be where I am today at age 30. I had hoped that I'd be settled down by now with a child in hand. That ship has sailed so I've finally realized that life happens and it gets in the way of, well, life. You can't give yourself a set timeline to accomplish things because if you do you either force things or feel like a failure if you don't achieve them. Going into my 30's, I hope to keep an open mind and to expect the unexpected because if you had told me that my 20's would have looked like they did at age 19, I never would have believed you. That being said, here are some gems from my roaring 20's, which came to an end early this morning.
A Spanish Adventure - My 20's started out by spending four months attending Spain's oldest university, La Universidad de Salamanca. In addition to taking classes and living with a host family, I was able to travel all throughout Spain and even ventured to Paris, Italy, and Portugal for international experiences. My semester abroad not only improved my Spanish and helped land me two teaching jobs, but it also gave me enduring friendships that were forged by club hopping at 4 AM in the city that never sleeps. The abroad experience taught me that even if you don't know where exactly you're going (literally and figuratively) as long as you project and air of confidence, people will just let you be. Good advice for any travelers, both foreign and domestic.
A College Graduate - Upon returning from abroad, I rejoined the life of a college student which consisted of studying, boozing, and chasing women in that order. Despite irreplaceable liver damage from my fraternity days and an unpaid internship my last semester (read: student teaching) I somehow, some way managed to graduate with honors from one of the most rigorous and demanding colleges in the country. Obviously, the fact I was an education major helped my GPA, but I also made a conscientious effort not to "waste a buttload of my parent's money" as the great Van Wilder once said. I definitely worked hard and partied hard and I feel that my grades were justified by the good social life I was able to have at college. Do I have regrets? Sure, everybody does. But by and large, I felt I made the most of my college experience.
The Other Side of Public Education - I grew up as a privileged White male. For the first twenty-two years of my life I had no idea this was even a thing. It was not until my first teaching job that I realized that not everybody had the same educational opportunities as I did growing up. My first teaching job at a low-income, high-poverty school shook me to the bones and it did so because it shattered my belief that everyone in America had equal opportunities. I saw middle school students that had already given up on school because they knew they would just be dropping out in a couple years anyway. Thirteen-year-old kids with no hope and no future is not something I had ever experienced growing up. And yet, they were perfectly justified in their worldview. The system was stacked against them from day one. This idea of an unequal playing field would play a huge role in my eventual decision to leave the profession.
Becoming A Master of Education - Earning my master's degree was something I had always wanted to do. So, after two years of classroom experience, I went running back to my parents begging them for money to pay for two additional years of education. They happily (begrudgingly?) obliged. And so, at the ripe old age of 24, I was again in the classroom, this time as a student. The highlights of my master's program were the friendships I made as well as the opportunity to spend three weeks in Kenya in the summer of 2010. The downside of my program was that I didn't receive the kind of education I wanted to. Sure, my GPA was stellar, and I felt I mastered the classroom material, but overall the program wasn't structured in a way where I could immediately put the information to use to help me improve my daily teaching. For me, my master's program ended up being a drawer full of handouts, reference sheets, and textbooks and not much else. I was appreciative of the extra money the degree afforded my in my teaching paycheck, buy overall I don't feel the program helped me grow as an educator the way in which I would have liked to.
The Charter School Alternative - Leave it to me to quit my job during the worst economic recession in nearly eighty years. And yet, that's exactly what I did when I moved out to California in the summer of 2009. With California having no money to hire new teachers the only places where I could even be considered were charter schools. Charter schools sell themselves as an alternative to traditional public schools. They have more resources, better technology, and smaller class sizes which undoubtedly aid student learning. The downside? The staff at charter schools are worked to death. The expectations placed upon them are beyond ridiculous. The school administration cuts corners to ensure that the schools stay open and continue to receive public funds. That combination of being overworked and under-appreciated all while watching as kids are essentially being taken advantage of became unbearable for me and so after five years at three separate charter schools, I had no choice but to call it quits.
Love And Marriage - Toward the end of my 20s, I was able to score roughly a dozen invites to various weddings throughout the country for a variety of friends and family. These weddings took me to such places as New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maryland, North Carolina, Colorado, and California and there were also a couple of bachelor parties thrown in which took me to Florida and, of course, Las Vegas. I'm not ashamed to admit that weddings may be one of my favorite things to experience. Seeing people you've come to know and love become united with someone else is definitely a beautiful experience and the fact that people from all over come together to celebrate the happy couple's love just makes it that much more rewarding. I enjoy not only being able to reflect on the time I spent growing up with my friends, but I also relish the opportunity to meet people from their lives that, like me, were fortunate enough to have crossed paths with a member of the happy couple.
Friends And Family - Throughout my 20s, the consummate theme for me was that of friends and family. I can say that, especially tonight after receiving a phone call from my parents at work, being taken to dinner by my grandparents and uncle and then receiving 50+ Facebook posts all regarding my 30th birthday. It is through my upbringing, my schooling, and my jobs that I have met a variety of crazy, unorthodox, kooky, loving people that have touched my life in so many positive ways. Throughout my wandering journey, they have always been there for me and I'm so grateful to have such a solid support system in place. Technology has made this easier, but I fully credit my friends and family who have reached out to me and supported me throughout my journey through this crazy thing called life. It is because of them that I have survived as long as I have and that I feel as fulfilled as I do.
Three decades down. Seven more to go.
The journey continues.
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