I turned 31 roughly 3 months ago.
I didn’t publish anything in celebration of my birthday. You could say I’ve been a little busy. But recently, myself and many others are now participating in the largest work from home experiment thanks to the outbreak of COVID-19.
But here’s a brief recap of my first year in my 30’s:
It was good. Like, really good. My work/life balance has never been better. I’m feeling great (going to the gym roughly 2x a week helps). We moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan at the beginning of last fall. Specifically, we moved to a neighborhood called Inwood. It was a last-minute decision to move, but it was so worth it.
The food, the people, the proximity to the parks, and direct access to nearby highways means we can get to I-684 pretty quickly if we want to travel upstate or out of the city for a weekend. So far, we’ve only been as far north as Brewster and so beautiful in the fall:
Apart from moving, and my work being fulfilling, I still have a big whole in my heart for my home state. I have a deep love for Texas, my friends back home, and more than anything I miss my family. I kind of miss owning a car (but i definitely do not miss oil changes and maintenance). I miss the night sky and Texas thunderstorms that lasted for hours during the night.
But that’s just regular homesick stuff! Enough about that. Nothing a little traveling back-and-forth can’t solve.
The real pickle has been stewing for a long time.
It’s been really hard to stay positive lately. It’s not a singular thing. It’s a culmination. Here’s some stuff just from the top of my head:
- Climate change is absolutely horrifying
- Retirement and Social Security is uncertain for every future generation, thanks to tax cuts and sabotage from Republicans
- Some of my favorite heroes seemingly left Earth in a hurry. Bourdain, Chester Bennington, David Bowie, Rutger Hauer are a few recents that come to mind.
- Donald Trump is President. His henchmen such as Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, John Cornyn, Stephen Miller, and Roger Stone (to name only a handful) are dismantling modern society and transforming American life from the progressive advancement I’ve come to know, into an anxiety inducing conservative pleasantville that is devoid of diversity, inclusion, and empathy. To be frank, I fucking hate it. Every Senate, Congress and down-ballot candidate that disavows the conservative pledges of hate, has my full attention. I am not catholic anymore, but I was raised to give to the poor, care the weak and fight for the underrepresented. So, I fight the good fight.
- And lastly, we’ll probably never own a house. Why? Because the boomers are trying to price-gouge their real estate purchases from three decades ago. They want to live handsomely in the tax-haven of Florida before they’re six feet under. It’s so fucked.
I have felt (and I am not alone in saying this) like the past four years of my life have been completely broken. This country is not the place I know. This president is a fool and his circle-jerking comrades are pissing in the communal pool.
All right, now that that is out my system! Turning 31, feels good. My first year in my thirties, was great. I forgot to mention, we visited Italy last fall too!
It was a fantastic trip. We narrowly missed Venice’s catastrophic flooding too. One of the primary reasons we planned on visiting Rome and Venice was because of climate change. We weren’t really sure when we’d have a chance to see those ancient relics, old canals, and Roman monuments again in the future. So, I’m so glad we took that trip. Here’s a few pictures:
Our trip to Italy was easily the biggest highlight of starting my thirties. It was a beautiful trip. Tiring at times, but the food, the people and the scenery was to die for. I’ll post some more photos Another time because I took so many pictures on my iPhone and only just recently organized them all. It was my first trip abroad, and I left my Sony a6300 camera behind to travel as light as possible. I’m glad I did, because the iPhone X camera was a real trooper on the trip.
So yeah. Personally feeling pretty good. Turning 31 felt good. But in the back of my head, my anxieties are quietly scratching the inside of my skull. Hopefully, the world can come be pieced together again. I’m cautiously optimistic, and probably a naive idiot but whatever. I’m in my thirties now 🙃