Three more sleeps until I hit the quarter of a century mark. 25 years old…wow!
It amazes me because it seems like just yesterday that I was 5 years old running around my grandfather’s store (“The Store Famous” on the corner of York and Barrie St.) stealing candy and knocking the Portuguese bread off the shelves for kicks. Oh those were the days when the only thing I had to worry about was out running my brother after getting him in trouble with the parents again or trying to untie myself from a tree while my brother and his friends played cowboys and indians and made me their “sacrafice to the gods”.
I miss those days, where a “stressful day” would be the day of our big road hockey game which inevitably ended in a brawl with us (The Fairview Flames) kicking the crap out of those punks from Hillendale Avenue! That reminds me of how much of a brat I was, but to my credit I was a loyal brat! For instance, my brother got himself into trouble with our older and much larger next door neighbor, Brian. This of course led to a fight of sorts which ended with me jumping off the nearest picnic table like a flying squirrel and biting the first thing that landed between my teeth, which, luckily for Vern was Brian’s ear (Mike Tyson’s got nothin’ on me).
Then came École Cathédral, where I met some fun friends (Greg, Travis and Luke) and we had some pretty fun games of tackle football on our paved school yard! HAHA I remember waiting for that first snow fall so that we could play, which of course would only result in a few centimeters of snow, but that was good enough for us (idiots)! Oh and then there was my first girlfriend…Laura Kittner! LOL (I now realise this blog will only make sense to me for the most part, but hey, I like it), while the “big thing” was to be french kissing behind the dumpster on the school yard (how romantic) the biggest step I ever took was kissing Laura on the hand! HA, that was too funny.
And looking back to the days of high-school we all probably say the same thing: “I wish I knew then what I know now…”, this applies to all of us I think, but in different ways of course. With me it was more of a “I wish I was more outgoing with respect to getting to know people” (believe it or not, I was shy), by this I mean not being so worried about “cliques” and just trying to get to know people on a one-on-one basis. I wasn’t a “cool kid” and I wasn’t “loner” either, which I think is a good thing, but that made me sort of just sit back, go to school, play football and go home. That of course meant I didn’t really get to know many new people. But I did meet a couple good ones and to this day Adam is still one of my best friends, I mean we don’t get to see each other very often (school for him and work for me) but when it comes to Luke and Adam we can still get together and share anything as if we haven’t missed a beat.
Oh and in this “This Is My Life” blog entry I can’t not mention some of the experiences I had at my first job…McDonald’s! Oh, BTW, thanks Mom for kicking my ass when I turned 15 and making me get a job. I can’t blame her, I must have been annoying as hell to have around the house all day – just ask my coworkers Amy and Matt, they have to share an office with me!
While at McDonald’s I learned so much, not because of McDonald’s “great training” but because of the people there around me. I learned how to take criticism, how to motivate, how to self motivate, how to delegate, how to be responsible, how to work and most importantly how to “Clean As You Go”!!! 
And of course, McDonald’s was where I met my first “real” girlfriend, Lindsay. This of course lasted pretty darn close to the present (close to 6 years). And for that I’m grateful because that relationship taught me a lot about life and love. I also met lots of good friends there, Adam MacLeod, Phil, Alisha, Chris, Ali, Jeremy (a.k.a. Randall), Al, Lacey, Colleen, Steve, Joel, Jon, Skittles (Boom Tisssttt Boys) and the list goes on and on. Side Note: The hardcore cage match we Adam, Adam, Phil and I had was one of the funniest memories I have to this day…oh and smoking pot in the *UNDISCLOSED LOCATION* was pretty funny too!
And now the present, after graduating from SLC with the “Four Horsemen” I was fortunate enough to find employment in the field. I say fortunately because the market was completely saturated when we graduated and only a few us actually managed to get positions in the field. While at college I met some really good friends and some people who would help teach me some great lessons in life and would be great tests for me as a person.
Needless to say the four of us have trimmed down to three and I’m happy with how it turned out because I learned a heck of a lot about the nature of certain people. Its hard for that to sound inoffensive but I mean it that way. At first I was resentful, but that has since turned to indifference and made me realise that no matter what some people say, they don’t always mean it. Which sounds completely obvious, however, the depth of what was being said made me think that there is no way someone could not mean what they just said, or there is no way someone could change their “feelings” about what they just said. But I was wrong, it happened, suddenly what was so strong and so conflicting was suddenly so weak and acceptable. It was quiet amazing actually, and I’m glad I was able to witness this. So thank you.
And this brings me to today…I have an amazing job and I work with some pretty amazing people who put up with me on a day-to-day basis. Thanks guys!
So that was the first 25 years of my life in a nut shell. Not overly exciting but for me it was quiet the learning experience. Now the true test will be how I can apply what I just learned in mapping the next 25 years of my life. Which of course, is REALLY important, because I need to make sure I have a kick-ass retirement! Honestly though, I started this blog by saying I missed the days where I had nothing to worry about…but the truth is I can’t wait for the next challenge. I’m excited about getting my own place, about being a landlord, about my next relationship, about the next 15 years with Max and about seeing my friends and family grow over the next 25 years. Good luck everyone, and buckle up because it will be fun.
Cheers!
Andrew
