There were a lot of places I thought I'd be when I turned 25. As I reflect on those places, I realize they were appropriately idealistic. Immature would be a harsh way of putting it, but to some extent perhaps that is what it was. I imagined a life that was filled mostly with comfort, faintly filled with frustrations, but also had a good share of hard lessons. Of course I thought I'd have a job that managed to fulfill some, if not every, aspect of my "dream job". It would be everything I hoped for, while allowing for growth and creativity. The icing on the cake of my early 20s would be a striking young man that maintained the empty voids in my life that friends, family and work didn't fill.

But as December 27th came and went, so too did that fantasy. The stark realization that what I thought I was supposed to be doing has ended up being completely the wrong route for me right now. And said revelation landed at my feet in the form of a not so pretty present. The big 2-5, in one form or another, is the defining moment in which we walk away from young adult life and gracefully or not enter true adulthood. It's like someone turned on the lights and said, welcome - you are now an adult, figure shit out. Refreshing to some extent, but extremely scary as well. Where do you go from here? And that's of course a rhetorical question, because many know where they are suppose to be going. So I guess the better question is where do I go from here? I can firmly state that although teaching is a wonderful profession and one I hope I return to, it isn't a puzzle piece that fits into my life at the moment. Young and vibrant I find myself in front of the classroom only to be slapped in the face by a hardened education system embedded in ideals and concepts I'm not sure I believe it. Further, although I embody a sort of energy that fills a room, that fortitude and youth may be too close to those I teach. I'm relatable, but perhaps too relatable. Maybe in another chapter of my life.

So then I ask again, where do you from here? All I can say is I hope it's somewhere up, because turning 25 has been a real downer so far.