Something I almost never do is go back and look at old posts in this blog. I figure someday I'll sit down and read this thing through from start to finish and probably smile and cringe all at the same time over some of the things in here. Hopefully more smiling than cringing, but you never know.

I did wonder tonight, though, if I posted this time last year around the time of my birthday (Sept. 4). Sure enough, I did. An excerpt:

By the time I turn 27, Lori will have passed the bar and begun work here in town, which will be a whole new adventure to add to everything else going on right now. What else will have happened by the time next September rolls around? It'll be fun finding out.

Well, what did happen between this year and last year?

1) I returned from Beaufort and still work at the same company, although I don't live near the office anymore (see #5).
2) Lori graduated.
3) Lori undertook an intense summer of studying for the bar, and then took the bar...don't know the results yet (due back in October) but I'm not too worried.
4) The iTest received its first major corporate sponsorship, setting a critical precedent for the organization. The iTest's number of academic events put on during the year has grown from 1 to 3.

5) Bought and moved into a first house!

6) Put in a year's worth of service as VP of the Board of the building where I previously lived. Very interesting, worthwhile experience.
7) Checked off one "life to-do list" item by eating dinner and chatting up longtime Titans head coach Jeff Fisher at a private dinner.
8) Celebrated knowing Lori for 5 full years now, as of September 1. That's pretty crazy. I've been a lucky guy for a while now.
9) Visited and spoke with a variety of teachers and students at MIT during the Harvard-MIT Math Tournament earlier this calendar year, which the iTest sponsored.
10) Logged way more hours than anyone should killing 12-year-olds in Halo on XBox Live.

I suppose those ten items don't really begin to cover everything that's happened, but like everything else in this blog, the list helps me remember and reflect back on what's been a solid, productive year.

I'll be 27 years old on Tuesday. That almost seems impossible.

I remember going to college and thinking "by the time I'm 30, I'll do X, I'll make Y, and I'll be well on my way to being Z." Big, fuzzy, abstract long-term goals always have to accompany tangible, required short-term targets in my way of thinking.

For better or worse, I generally think about progress in terms of age, and that's especially the way I measure myself. It's not enough to have done something...it has to be done now. Age is just an easy way to measure yourself.

And along that line of thinking, I never thought I'd be married by now. And I REALLY never thought I'd be 2+ years into being married by now! But that's why I don't pretend to know what's best for me.

Hopefully the next year will continue to see strong growth for my relationship with God, my relationship with Lori, continued relationships with all those people who matter to me and continued growth of the iTest, a mission He drove me toward and an organization whose time has come.

And maybe by the time I write this same blog entry again next year, I can once again sit back and report another great year.