End of an era.

Today marks the end of another decade. To think, ten years ago, I was a freshman in college, is amazing to me. Simply put, it does not seem that long ago. And yet, I am now in a middle management job with my hair pondering the notion of thinning more and more with each passing day. There have been and will be countless articles focusing on how far we have come as a race in terms of technology, human rights, and as a race. I am not going to focus on that. I want to focus on personal memory. Nay, I want to focus on selective memory and why I have selected said memories.

On this day ten years ago, I had little to no idea that I was about 24 hours away from the worst hangover of my life thanks to Captain Morgan. To this day, I can barely watch a commercial advertising that devil rum without getting a little “green about the gills”.

I remember getting in a one of the only physical altercations of my relatively peaceful life nearly a year later. My opponent was a dude dubbed “Slasher” and apparently I offended him while parading around my college dorm with another buddy. It ended with his own friend punching him for being so out of line. Hilarious.

In the fall of 2003, I drove from Chicago to Tacoma, WA to Los Angeles, CA to Bison, SD to Newport News, VA and back to Tacoma, WA in a matter of eight months due to Army assignments.

I deployed for the first time in the summer of 2004 to Iraq. I liked watching “The O.C.” with my roommate in between convoys.

I deployed for the second time in the summer of 2006 to Kuwait. During which, I became the lead singer of the second band I have ever been a part of - Bobby and the Blowers. As the graffiti so boldly stated on a random bathroom wall, “Even the Pope has BATB on his iPod.”

Probably the second best highlight of the decade for me was my Euro-backpacking trip that my buddy Fred and I took in the fall of 2007. Nostrovia!

I started civilian life shortly thereafter.

I met the love of my life in January of 2008 and proceeded to travel to Mexico and Vancouver in the first several months with her. With her, each day is better than the previous.

I moved into my first house as an adult (a rental) in fall 2008 as well. We moved into another one almost exactly a year later.

All of these memories are imbedded into my mind because of the impact each one had on my life during the past ten years. These events shaped my life much like the events of the next ten years will influence and shape my life another ten years from today. On that note, I would like to propose a toast…here is to the next ten years- may they be filled with even more defining moments than I have experienced in the past ten. May the happy moments severely outnumber the sad and may I give back at least as much as I receive.

Happy New Decade to you and yours.