I will turn THIRTY this year.
That’s OK. I’m not bummed about it.
I won’t go as far as saying “age is just a number” or anything, but it’s a fact of life. People get older… The way I see it, 30 is a great age to step back and look at your life and decide if the path in which you have been walking for the last decade (cause let’s face it adulthood really starts in your twenties) is the right one for you. Are the career choices you made as a child of 18 or 19 still guiding you along the right path? Does God have a higher calling, a more fulfilling career, or even just a change of scenery waiting for you that you have been too busy barreling forward on your own path to see?
Looking back, I did make several GREAT choices in my twenties. I pursued a career as an American Sign Language interpreter. I pursued a closer relationship with Jesus. I moved to Washington, DC and worked there for nearly five years. I pursued, dated and married my beautiful wife. I moved back to Kentucky where we had the cutest, smartest little boy just a year and three months ago. I think my twenties can be summed up in two words. Pursuit and Relocating.
Pursuit… I think that’s a pretty great word. Pursuit is something you should do your entire life, not just in your twenties. For example, I plan to pursue my wife for the rest of our lives, I will always pursue my relationship with Christ, and I will pursue the ideal of “worlds best dad” until I undoubtedly reach that pinnacle sometime later this year. 😉
Beyond that there are a few things I want to pursue in my thirties that I neglected in my twenties. I NEED a consistent creative outlet, hopefully this blog and the videos I will make for it will help with that. I would also like to pursue some type of leadership role. What that looks like is up in the air. However, I definitely feel like God has called and gifted me in leadership.
“Be a person of action not intention.” –My Small Group Leader’s Former Professor
As for “relocating”… I HATE to move. The physical packing and moving and unpacking is bad enough, but when coupled with a complete upheaval and change of friends, environment and honestly priorities that come when moving between places like DC and Kentucky, it’s even worse. I feel like the entire decade of my twenties was spent anticipating the next time I was to relocate.
In college I was looking forward to moving to DC for my internship. In DC, once I got comfortable, I realized it wasn’t the place for me (though I LOVED the experience) and was looking forward to moving back to Kentucky. Once we made it back to the Bluegrass, we lived in Bowling Green for 2 years and were looking forward to moving to Richmond. Now we are here and for the first time in my adult life I am not looking forward to any next big move. I finally feel like I can develop relationships without the trepidation that comes along with knowing I will be leaving before long.
This decade I want to be more intentional. I want my thirties to be known as the decade that I stopped constantly looking forward and started paying more attention to where I am. I want to look back at age thirty-nine see that the areas of my life that I am still pursing are progressing and that my family is more stable and secure because we can finally put down roots.
So… Wooden Pixels. I do woodworking. I do graphic design. I do videography. I liked the sound of Wooden Pixels. My wife said grammatically it should be “Wood Pixels.” She’s probably right. She normally is.
Wooden Pixels 