8 years

I'm picking up my first new pair of glasses this week in 8 years. The last time I got glasses I still had good vision insurance through TMP, so they were practically free. My insurance for vision care now, quite frankly, blows. But it was time to just bite the bullet and get a new pair anyway. My eyes are seriously horrendous (-10 in left eye, -11 in right), but I'm hoping that MAYBE I'll even be able to wear these out in public from time to time. We shall see.

The fact that it's been 8 years since I've had new glasses got me thinking about where I was 8 years ago in my life as a whole. I shall summarize (and this is difficult for me, because I don't have the best long-term memory):

• I was 25 years old. It's funny to think that at one point in my life, I thought for SURE I'd at least be engaged by this age. And now it's funny to look back and realize that if that had actually happened, I'd be soooo much worse off today.
• I had just moved into the Chaunticlair condo with Mel and Tracy. My first time out on my own, unless you count OU (which I kinda do and kinda don't). Before moving in with them, I was on the brink of moving to Columbus. Some people might say I was trying to escape from my past on the eastside. Some people might be totally dead on right about that.
• Ollie was just a teeny tiny kitten, much resembling a baby squirrel. He was also still pure evil. He didn't mellow out til Stewie came two years later.
• I was still, on the whole, completely miserable. I was in a relationship that I knew wasn't anything that I wanted, but boredom and loneliness kept me in it.
• Obviously, I hadn't met Dan yet. When I met him, around this time of year almost, in 2003, as Sophie says to Brody, he "changed...everything".
• As I mentioned, I was still at TMP in a job going totally nowhere. When I started there in 2000 right out of college, it was the best job in the world. God, we had so much fun there for a couple years. Unfortunately, it all started to go downhill around 2002. All I can say about that place is I got some absolutely amazing friendships out of it. Karyn, Debbie, Barra, I'm looking at you guys. And of course Rose, Mel, Tracy, Sarah, Rachel...I'm so glad to this day we all still keep in touch as much as possible!

I know they (whoever "they" are) say that your past shapes who you are in the future. I'm pretty proud of the person I've become. I'm happy and content with my life for the most part now. Of course, I wish we were living just a liiiiiittle more comfortably, and that we weren't worried about Dan's job situation, etc. But to be able to say that I'm really, truly happy is a big deal. And I'm proud of the fact that I'm really going for my dream now, after so many years of putting it off. Even if nothing comes of my story, at least I can say I went for it, that I finished something I'm totally proud of. And then I'll move on to the next one in my little brain and try all over again. I'm not giving up this time. I refuse to put what I want on hold ever again.