It’s that time of the year again

I can’t believe it, I’m 39 today. Thirty Nine! It doesn’t sound as bad as 40, but I’m getting there. In retrospect, I’m going to recall what happened to me 30-20-10 years ago.

30 years ago – 1977 – I was in Grade 2. I don’t remember much at this age, except for the original Star Wars movie that my uncle “obtained” on VHS tape (or was it Betamax?). I watched this movie many many many times, even though the picture and sound quality were really bad. I also remembered the scene in the middle of the movie, where the Millennium Falcon approaching the death star, was gone. Since English was not my first language, I didn’t understand the conversation. I only watched the battle scenes, over and over again. My wife wondered why I had this slight obsession with Star Wars. This was the reason.

20 years ago – 1987 – I was graduating from high school. I remembered our prom night. With the advice from my best friend, I bought a tux. Of course, the tux didn’t fit any more and it was long gone. The prom was also my first “unofficial” date. We kept it strictly friendly, danced and talked all night. Hey, I was a shy geek back then. In 1987, I also remembered my first day in college, with the initiations, and a lot of yelling and drinking. College daze went downhill after that, but that was another story.

10 years ago – 1997 – I moved to San Francisco Bay Area. This was my biggest move of my life, leaving my comfort zone. Earlier, I stayed in my parent’s place in Toronto, so I didn’t have to pay rent. I had a decent job as a sysadmin. I had a lot friends, some I had known since high school. After a failed long-term relationship, I decided to pack my things and moved to United States to start over. Here in the US, I knew only of only one person and started to build a new network of friends since then. I hardly kept in touch with those friends now – distance has that effect on friendship.

In retrospect, those times were my milestones – life changing events that shaped my current life. I can’t say they’re all good, but it’s certainly not all bad. I am glad those years have a special meaning for me.

Special thanks to Mary Demuth and her inspirational blog that encouraged me to write this entry.

Tags: birthday, change, life, retrospect