thirty

I've never made a big thing about birthdays - especially my own - but, for several reasons, this birthday means a lot to me. It's a very real marker for the close of an unbelievable decade in my life and the opening of an exciting new chapter.

When I look back at my 20s, I usually have a hard time believing it was all one decade... so much happened and so much changed. In hindsight, perhaps, it was clear going in that things would be intense: two months after my 20th birthday my son, Andrew, was born.

The fast-forward version of the ten years that followed goes something like this: I got married, finished my Computer Science degree at UofT, became a Canadian permanent resident, started my career, bought a house, had a second child - my beautiful daughter, Camryn, co-founded a company, bought an SUV,bought a new, bigger house... then I hit what all my astrologically-inclined friends tell me was my Saturn return... I got separated, moved out, sold the house, tried to learn to cook, lost my father (and all the unanswered questions he took with him), started wearing glasses, rethought my career and tried to figure out 'dating'.

There are certainly days where I feel like an entire adult life was crammed into my first decade as an adult...

So, here I sit at 30... everything feels new, terrifying and exhilarating. Things feel entirely up in the air, in constant flux and on a clear, intentional path. I'm an old man with my whole life ahead of me.

One thing is clear, the change is on. I've marked that here with a bit of a 'relaunch' of this site, such as it is, but the real action is offline. So...

Happy Birthday, me. Here's to the next 10.