A decade's a nice unit. Big one. I also have to say it's nice to have my birthday right before the EOY, it gives me nice round numbers to work with.

10 years ago I was 20 and midway through my last year of college. I was majoring in English literature I did have a job, telemarketing, although I was soon to lose it -- it was a small, 3rd party telemarketing 'firm' I guess and it shut down. I had two tattoos. I had a lot of friends and did a lot of partying. I was on very bad terms with my parents. I LARPed. I smoked cigarettes (Marlboro Smooths, at the time). I experimented with LSD and shrooms that winter. I had lazy eye wink many lovahhhs. 10 years ago this New Year's would be the New Year's I agreed to go with my on-and-off-boyfriend to Philadelphia (or maybe it was even New York -- who knew, it was never going to happen) and instead I ghosted on him two days before NYE and went to Philadelphia with a guy I'd met off OKC like, three days earlier. Look -- I'm not saying that 10-years-ago-me was a lot of fun, but she certainly had a lot of fun, and that's all I can say about that. In April I would become engaged -- to someone else. Someone I met while LARPing.

Fastforward 10 years! Interesting things happen! I move a lot. Believe it or not, eventually, my life actually settles down. I get my first professional job at a bank and then skip around to a few more banks. I get two wonderful fat cats! 16 more tattoos! Many concert experiences later, I no longer LARP and don't frequently party. I have picked up running as a very recent end-of-the-decade addiction. I am both a much nicer person, and a much happier person, than I was 10 years ago. I am also a much more stable person.

What did this past decade teach me?

It taught me a lot about myself. I would say that at 20, I didn't know myself at all. I guess what I'm saying is that "knowing thyself" is also the value. You can't really move forward, in my opinion, if you don't know yourself and who you are.