welcome memories

It's come to my attention that I might have a few new readers in my little corner of the cyber village. It's good to have you here, and I look forward to your comments! Today I spent the good part of the day sifting through the stacks of "stuff" that accumulated in my room over the years. It was kind of like an archeological dig - slowly picking through layers of old birthday cards, 11th grade history papers, programs from middle school band concerts, and all kinds of junk trying to use it to reconstruct who I was back then! Some comical moments included discovering my sisters gave me the same birthday card on my 11th and 13th birthday, and gathering all the postcards my parents have sent me in their travels into one four inch tall stack. It was impressive. I was also amazed at how many friendships I've been blessed with over the years. Many people have been influential in my life, and most of them are represented in the two boxes of keepsakes I'm saving (yes, I narrowed it down to just two!). I look forward to pulling those out in 15 years or so and reminding myself of all those great people. Maybe I'll have kids to tell all the great stories to...

As for the mundane details, I'm still at home with my parents where I'm getting to spend a lot of time catching up with them. It is most definitely not like the last time I lived here (summer before I started at Calvin - I was 18!), but I love the new "Matt-is-an-adult-now" dynamic. (That may be a future post.) I've been spending a lot of time trying to get things prepared for the move to Hungary, both organizing the loose ends of my life here and trying to prepare for life there. July 14 is the big day when I catch the train to LA for my training, so until then it will be more trips down memory lane while sorting through the accumulated junk of my life (so far the cutest find has been the two get well cards my sisters made for me when I was in the hospital for my heart surgery - their Crayola skills were substantial even back then!).

life stages

As I mentioned, I’m now a graduate but I’m not currently employed. This makes me feel post-college, pre-life. However, I’m pretty sure I’ll feel pre-life for a good long time yet. I think it was John Lennon who said, “life is what happens when you’re making other plans” (insert Office joke here), and I think that’s probably true. One of my favorite lines to use when people ask me about graduation is to tell them that when we all had our degrees conferred upon us I felt a wave of wisdom and maturity wash over the room, and that it lasted a good 15 seconds. The truth is that I do feel different. I feel more self-conscious about wearing flip-flops and t-shirts every day, I feel guilty about living off my parents for these 2 months, and I don’t seem to enjoy Adam Sandler movies anymore. In our culture where marriage is occurring later and later if at all, I think graduating is the true right of passage. It seems like the (nearly) universal experience that marks us as adults. I have to say I’ve especially noticed it in my church. It doesn’t help that I’m one of the few, if not the only, person between the ages of 18 and 35 at many of my congregation’s activities. Lots of people remember me as the bratty arrogant 16 year old I was, but many are starting to treat me differently. I even found a 45 year-old father of three who I look up to as a wise role model asking for my advice. How confusing! As I live in the done-with-school but not-yet-working limbo I’ll try to enjoy the fact that I can be an adult if I want, but nobody will say anything if I sleep until 11 and stay in my pajamas all day.

i'm back

As my 6 faithful readers will have noticed, I haven’t blogged in a while. I’ve come up with several excuses like I was testing the faithfulness of my regular readers, I had nothing to write about, or I was blogging under another name (specifically pretending to be a young female lawyer in Baltimore). Of course none of that could be farther from the truth – I could never even pretend to be a lawyer, I have a great deal to write about, and I’m not too concerned with the regularity of my readers (though I love you all). The truth is that things got a bit busy this spring, and when it came to making a choice the blog got the knife. But now I’m a college graduate without regular commitments until July 15, so you’ll be hearing from me much more regularly (as in, at all). Expect future posts on such fascinating subjects as what it feels like to be a college graduate, the future of a virtual Thorubos, never being able to go home again, the appearance of George W at my commencement and my resulting appearance on CNN, why I want an ipod and don’t feel guilty about that, “a whole nother” blog, riding cross-country trains, and why I love Seattle truly and deeply. Thanks for being patient – it’s good to be back.