A Meme From Monkerstein

The good Dr. Monkerstein tagged me (and my lovely bride) with a meme:

List five things that I never pictured being in my future when I was 25

1. A father. I was absolutely certain that I was never going to be a parent. I frankly didn't think I'd be a good parent. I probably wouldn't have been at 25. I was really pissed off and pretty irrresponsible. Fortunately, that's changed. I'm a lot happier guy, and very happy to be a parent.

2. A husband. I was dead certain that I was never going to get married. I'd witnessed so many dysfunctional marriages, and I just didn't think I'd be very good at marriage.

I did manage to get married. My first two marriages failed, but the current one seems to be doing pretty well! ; )

3. Alive. I was certain that I wasn't going to make it to 30. It turns out that I very nearly didn't-- I'll post soon about "The stupidest thing I've ever done," a story I shared with a few bloggers at the get-together at the tiki bar last month.

4. Studying Pharmacy. I thought I'd go back to school and get a pHD, but I assumed it would be in my original field, Political Science.

When I was working my first job, as a cashier at the Walgreen's in Western Springs, Illinois, my boss offered to get me into a scholarship program that they had where they'd pay my tuition to become a pharmacist if I agreed to work for them for a certain amount of time. I had no interest back then. I'd feel like I missed an opportunity, but I would never have finished the program back then, and I would have missed a ton of great experiences.

5. Living my life without my close friend Mark Evans. His murder in June of 2006 was one of the things that drove me to start this blog. I'd always assumed that he'd be one of the handful of longtime close friends that I'd grow old with. Probably 5 or 10 times a day, I see or hear something and wish I could call or email him about it. I still miss him terribly, and suspect I always will.