Believe it or not, I actually write in my journal.
It's always fun to look back at entries that are a year old (almost) to the day. Every time I do that, I see that, yes, I have made a lot of progress toward my goals. Working toward long term goals are like growing kids who don't realize that they've even grown until their parents measure the and put a mark on the wall an inch or two above the previous mark. That tends to put things in perspective.
Don't worry, this isn't going to be full of emotional reminiscing that makes everyone else bored or maybe even a little embarrassed for the other person. This is just a casual update on our lives, so lets get to it.
Q: Is it true that you lived apart for 6 months?
A: It was more like 5 months, but sure, I'll probably just round it up to 6 from here on out.
Q: You're crazy.
A: Yes.
Q: I'm just kidding. But really, you're married and you're not supposed to do things like that.
A: I'll point out that we were all single at one point. Somehow we managed it then, did we not? I think maybe the reason why this idea makes others uncomfortable is because of the thought that two people who are in love might slowly forget that they're in love, or something like that. But honestly I think that's only part of it, that's the tip of the iceberg. The real reason it makes people uncomfortable is because it's not what married people are supposed to do. Why not? Well, because that's just the way it is.
I don't recommend doing what we did, but out of all the options, it made the most sense logically. I only had a semester left of school, and Emily had already graduated and there were little job opportunities in Rexburg. We could have used up most of our savings and Emily could have sat around the apartment for 6 months, but we decided to take a path which was more difficult but which we felt was the right path.
Q: Why don't you want to live in Utah?
A: The air is polluted. It snows. The wards are much too big.
Q: Did you just decide to head down to Arizona without knowing where you were going to live and no jobs?
A: Yes and no. We didn't know where we were going to live but one of us had a job. We knew that we were not completely and totally prepared to pack everything up and move to a new area. Think about this though: if we always wait until there's no risk or uncertainty, we'll never do anything. As it turns out Emily's job had been given away to someone else, and what's-her-face was going to call us the day we were moved down to let us know. Nobody is perfect.
I'm actually grateful that it worked out like that. My back was thrown up against the wall, and I applied to employers that I normally wouldn't have. I got an internship at a small company doing web programming and development, which is what I love to do. Emily also got a great job and is making more money than she was at her previous job, with plenty of room for higher opportunity. We spent two weeks living with my Brother and sister-in-law, and they were very hospitable. It was still one of the hardest two weeks of my life due to major uncertainty about what we were going to do, and it's just hard feeling like I'm dependent on someone else.
We found an apartment we were happy with and we were able to move in the very next day. We went from being homeless and jobless to having great jobs and an apartment in two weeks. We only have one car and it also turns out that we work very close to each other.
I'm very careful about titling something a miracle, but this is one of those times where I can't deny that there was something more to this than coincidence. We're not shielded from going through difficult experiences because we are supposed to learn and grow in this life, and sometimes we're allowed to reach our breaking point. I was nearing some sort of breaking point at that moment before it all fell into place.
Q: Are you happy about not being in school?
A: I am incredibly happy about not being in school. I've actually had time to learn, and I spent most of my free time learning about some kind of technology. I'm in the process of creating a program which will create sentences and post to Facebook for me so I don't have to worry about getting on Facebook ever again. Emily is cracking open some of her old grammar textbooks so I can figure out how the algorithms needed to create coherent sentences. See the thing about school is that ironically I didn't have much time to learn. I couldn't create something that was interesting to me, I had to worry about what someone else wanted me to create. I just don't learn like that, and it made me not want to learn. And I would say I have an intense passion for learning.
Q: Have you finally given up on trading? That sounds risky.
A: Hell no. I'm just as fascinated and excited as ever about the market, and trading remains my dream job. I've only been trading for 2 years and there is no way that I will give up this early. I give myself another 6 years before I consider myself eligible to start thinking about quitting. I intend to spend my entire life pursuing my dreams, so no, I haven't given up.
At this point I'm paper trading because I just don't have the time to give trading my full attention, but I'm still aware of what is going on in the market any given day.
That's all the questions for today, I hope you've enjoyed yourself.
BYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
BYE BYE!
BYE!
BYYYYEEE!
BYE BYE!
GOODBYE!
SEE YOU LATERRRR!
poop
