2006

What a year. If someone had laid out my life in 2006 before me last Christmas I would have watched it all play out in disbelief. I can say with absolute certainty that this has been the year that has marked me more than all others past. I have been reflecting over this year's events and I have to convince myself that all of it did unfold in just a year's time. Many things have ended and many things are just beginning.
There are many things that mark the end of childhood, but you don't notice they've come until they've past. The realization of Santa as a myth, however seemingly menial, is still nevertheless one. An empty house is another. No more toys. No more bright colors or big messes. An empty dishwasher, refrigerator and laundry basket. Not just the ending of highschool and graduation from college, but the begining of Graduate school halfway across the country. And more than all of these the beginning of new family marks the end of childhood. My baby sister is engaged to an incredible guy and so begins a new family. I watched it happen from a back room and was overwhelmed at the distance our lives had already traveled. As that ring slipped on her finger and I waved goodbye to my baby sister I also bid farewell to a piece of myself, my childhood.
Growing up is by no means over you simply don't realize what you hold in your hand until it has changed or passed or finished. I can't explain it I just know that life is taking one of its inevitable turns.