365 till 30

I sit here at my computer with a Miller Lite in hand thinking back over the last 29 years. For some reason every year gets longer and harder as life moves forward. A lot has changed from 25 till now. Friends have come and gone, jobs have changed, good times were had and some rough times have shown up as well. At times I feel unaccomplished while other times I feel blessed. I try not to compare my life to anyone else because then it becomes a matter of measuring up. That is not a game that I want to get caught up in.

Looking back at 28, it was a good year for me. I said goodbye to my job and friends at Billy Reid to pursue a career opportunity at Wise Alloys. This transition has not been easy. Getting acclimated to shift work and losing contact with my friends due to my work schedule has been a little stressful. All of that is just a sacrifice that is now giving me the financial freedom to do things I have never been able to. For starters, I am thinking ahead and planning for life after 50. Putting money in a 401k used to seem like something that only my Dad did... now I realize that I am not a teenager anymore and need be proactive about my future. I am also in the process of booking a trip to Hawaii... this could never have been possible without taking that leap and changing jobs.

Over the years as my life has changed and been somewhat chaotic, my family has always been my constant. I am very proud of all of them and my niece and nephews are pretty much the stars of the family. It's kind of weird to have a twin brother that has been married 7 years and has a 2 year old daughter, and here I sit single and pretty much free to do as I please. If you went back to high school and asked I am positive that everyone would have guessed these roles would have been reversed. My Mom has had a tough time here lately with her health but for the most part the issues seem to be medicine related and are working themselves out. Then there is my Dad.... I now understand some of the sacrifices he has made of the years working at Wise to provide for us and put me through college. Working at Wise has completely changed our relationship. It was never bad, but now it seems that we are more like friends than just father, son. I can relate to the stress, lack of sleep and crazy shifts he has worked for the past 40

+ years.

As for the next 365 days.. who knows what will be in store for my last year in my twenties. I look forward to what is coming and hope for the best. I will try to make the best of 29 and hopefully I am blessed with 29 more. So here is a big Happy Birthday to my twin brother Ben and to myself.

All about nothing

Welcome to my very unprofessional, uneducated blog. A little background about me. I am a home grown product of small town Tuscumbia, AL. I spent pretty much the majority of my life in school, well, at least enrolled in one. I attended The University of North Alabama for the better part of a decade and bounced around from job to job. I have worked in some great industries such as satellite TV, banking, and fashion. I currently work for an aluminum company as a supervisor and basically melt used beverage containers into usable metal that you now drink your cold beers and sodas from. People watching and the observance of the obscure situations in everyday life are a couple of my hobbies. Basically, I am just your everyday no-one trying to share some of my opinions with you out there in the universe.

I have never been a person that could articulate my thoughts out loud. It seems like my brain is faster than my tongue and everything I say turns into a collision of Forrest Gump and Charlie Brown's teacher arguing about tongue twisters. Expression though writing is something that I have always had a gift for. Could be why English comp classes were always an easy A. I never really thought about public writing until one day my Uncle (Sam) read some postings I had written on his blog and suggested that I try to write a little and see where it goes. So... here I am.

To be honest I don't know where this blog will go or what I will focus on. One day I might be talking about some gadget that I bought or I might be talking about social issues that most people shy away from, or I might even just get on here and unload my feelings about the day. Who knows. One thing I can say is that I will try to keep things interesting and hopefully someone can find this funny, ridiculous, offending, beautiful, outlandish or crazy.

In the end my goal is to just enlighten your mind with some thoughts from a simple southern dude. Enjoy, or not... but I prefer that you do.

Will