The End of an Era. or something.

Where were we? Ah yes, the end of 2010.

At this point in my life, I had some great friends (David, Emma, Jessica, JT, Jaime) with whom I hung out 2-4 times per week, providing not only much needed people love, but also puppy love! We played games often. We also found ourselves in discussions about things about which you cannot be honest and open unless you trust the people with whom you are discussing them. In addition to that, we also went dancing a few times. Now, you are probably thinking that going dancing is pretty normal for 20-somethings in this day and age. But this dancing is not your normal go-to-the-bar-or-club-get-drunk-and-get-all-grindy type of dancing. No sirree! Not for us! After multiple declined invitations, I finally joined my friends to go CONTRADANCING! (This has nothing to do with the game Contra, by the way, so do not get TOO excited) Contradancing is similar to square dancing, but done in long lines, giving you the opportunity to dance with many other people throughout the night. It was a blast.

I had various other friends with whom I spent time here and there. It was wonderful to be a pseudo uncle in the Bouwman family. Before getting close to them, I never spent a lot of unstructured time with kids. It has been crazy to see Shane and Kahlan grow up over the past year or so.

My band led worship at church once or twice per month and I was finally starting to be comfortable with being a lead singer some of the time. I also really enjoyed learning how to play harmonica and utilize it in worship.

A large problem was that I had been recently converted from working full time at the bank at which I worked to working part time. It was difficult to keep my head above water while working full time due to the terrible pay. I had already burned through my sizeable savings (which survived untouched through a full year of unemployment), and now credit card debt was growing month by month.

In addition to that, I was starting to feel stagnant. I was living in the same place for two years at this point, something I have not done since I lived at my parents' house. This might seem a little silly, but I was ready for a change. Especially if that change brought a) adventure and b) financial stability.

And thus, my mind was open.