How does it feel to be 29 and Twenty-Two Halves? It doesn't seem real. It's too early. I still feel like my mother's son who graduated a few years ago. Last year I referred to myself as a "Young Adult", which Gretchen promptly laughed at. My first PC was a 286 with no hard drive. We had dual floppy disks so we could store 720 KB of data. (Less than 1 photo) It was our prized possession in our childhood that is not so recent anymore.
Who trusted me with these children? I've never been one to accept that there are rules we need to obey. I have issues with authority and authority figures, but now i have to be one? All i want to do is see my little girl happy, let her have whatever she wants. In order to teach her what is right and wrong in the world i need to tell her no more often than not. No, you can't sleep until noon, skip school and wear pajamas all day. You can't eat candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The whole time in my head I'm thinking that would be a pretty fun day!
What have I learned? Well I know the meaning of life. It's different for everyone. It changes over the years. When I was a teenager, it was the experience of achieving your goals that gave your life meaning, not the achievement itself. When I was in college I learned that it was different for everyone. I always told people i knew the meaning of life but i couldn't tell them. They needed to find out on their own. Sounds like something a college kid would say.
Now I have simplified it to one thing: Have an opinion about something. Having an opinion means that you have lived enough to make a decision about something you like or dislike. My daughter loves Yellow. I thought it was odd but then couldn't explain why I loved Green and Blue. The fact that I have collected enough information about this world, processed it and then expressed my opinion is what proves that I have lived. This is why the greatest compliment I can give someone is to ask what their opinion is without judgement on the results.