Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Next tuesday I’ll be…27. Every year around this time I reflect and think about the future as well. I ponder where I am and where I would like to be. I understand more fully every year a scene in Fight Club. In the scene Edward Norton mentions that he feels like a 30 year old boy. I’m not saying I don’t feel mature, but I remember thinking that everything would seem so much different when I became an adult. The only thing that’s really different is what I know and how I look at things. The world hasn’t changed at all. At least the way it is. I never imagined I’d be walking around with my phone in my pocket or that I’d have been on stages with people I respect. I would not have thought that younger people would look to me. Yet all these things have come to pass. Time is funny when you think in increments…I remember telling my man that when the time that passed since we graduted from high school passe again we’d be thirty. Now thirty is three years away. Just think, in another 27 years I’ll be 54. Right now 10 years is more than a third of my life. When I’m 54 it’ll just be another period like High School is to me now. I don’t regret my age in the least. It’s just funny sometimes. I remember being the youngest amongst a group…often times I’m one of the oldest now and if I’m not we’re talking about people with children a few years younger than me. My improvements now come with action I take. Not just because I’ll get taller (though I am still waiting for my beard to connect) or my voice will get deeper. My growth now is a choice that I must follow through on. It’s really the antithesis to being young. Things are in my hands now. No one can force me, if people chastise me it’s my choice on how to feel about it. No one can make me stay anywhere and they can’t force me to leave. My legend roams about crafted by my actions and the perceptions of others…or their misconceptions. I can change my image in the eyes of others…if I care to. The most important thing now is it’s my choice. How will I mold my present and my future?