Back in 2016, I found myself in a rut, wondering when life was going to get going again. At the ripe old age of 28, I was washed up, hit my peak, no where to go. I found myself in the middle of a quarter-life crisis, wondering what I had to show for it.
My day was routine. Get up. Go to work. Come home. Eat. Sleep. Do it all over again. I knew I needed to make a change. Something had to happen soon. Maybe I could go sky diving? Nah, jumping out of a plane wouldn’t work. I’m no good with heights. Change careers? Not when my healthcare is pretty much paid for and my 401k is starting to look healthy. So, I wondered when the world was going to give me my next big adventure.
But then I remembered my sixteenth birthday and my mom’s advice. The world wasn’t going to hand me anything. It’s my job to go out and make it happen.
When I turned sixteen, I was so excited to get my driver’s permit. Luckily, my birthday falls around Columbus Day so I never had to suffer through a school day on what I considered to be a national holiday. However, this made the anticipation worse because I didn’t have anything to distract me.
For that entire day, my mind was on two thirty in the afternoon when my dad would get home from work. I’d be waiting for him in the driveway and we would go off to the DMV together. He came home all right and picked me up as planned but instead of going to the DMV, he took me to Gramma’s house for dinner and cake. I didn’t complain because as much as I loved the idea of driving, I equally loved the idea of cake. No big deal, I could go to the DMV the next morning instead.
The next day came and went. No DMV. Same with the next day. Disappointment was not an accurate description of how I felt. I was pissed off. In fact, I was so mad that I met my mom, red faced and fuming, at the door when she home from work that afternoon. I came at her the way only an indignant teenager could.
“I’ve been waiting three whole days to go to the DMV. What are you and dad waiting for? This is so unfair!”
My mom didn’t take the bait. Instead she dug her heals in and glared at me.
“I don’t know David. What ARE you waiting for?” she said.
I expected a fight, an argument, a forbiddance, or a grounding but not this. So, I asked what she meant.
“I mean that whenever you’ve wanted something in life, you’ve just gone out and made it happen. That’s what I love about you. You don’t just sit around and wait for someone to hand you opportunity.”
Ah, to have the wisdom then that I do now but hindsight is 20/20 vision. If I had been calm instead of a hormonal teenager, I would have understood that she was trying to teach me a lesson. Instead, her newfound zen infuriated me so much that I stomped out the door and walked my self-righteously angry self all three miles to the DMV. Mom was waiting for me in the parking lot.
Touché mother. Lesson learned. With that in mind, I decided that 2017 would be a year of change. I was determined to make myself great again!
On New Years Eve, I asked the love of my life to marry me. Some may call that impulsive. I hadn’t known her very long but from the moment we met, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Besides, I thought that would be a great way to kick off 2017, my year of change, the right way. Lucky for me, she felt the same way.
I proposed in January. The wedding was set for August. But It wasn’t enough for us to simply plan a wedding. The year of change called for a destination wedding. Naturally we had to do the prep and planning from across the country. Thankfully, we had some amazing family who were ready and willing to help us out on that end.
But wait, there’s more! I proposed in January, the wedding was set for August, and then we found out in March that . . . Surprise, Bex was pregnant! No big deal right? What’s one more thing on our plate?
Besides the baby planning, we also realized that we had to move from our sweet but entirely too expensive three bedroom condo into a more affordable, much smaller, one bedroom place across town. This had to happen because we couldn’t think of any roommate who would want to bunk with a newborn. It works out better having our own place anyways.
So let’s recap; a wedding, a baby, and moving all in one year. So much for that rut huh? It turns out Mom was right all along. When I want something bad enough, I’ll make it happen.
2017 turned out to be a banner year. Here’s hoping— No. — Here’s to making 2018 even better!