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.
18 tats shit that's astronautalis territory