The year 2009 rang in with cheers and great expectations. I was at the Showbox SoDo taking in a great show by Ghostland Observatory with my friends and spending the night in a nice hotel in Seattle. As the clock struck midnight...I was in a toilet stall. I've never had the stomach for hard liquor and this night certainly etched that fact in stone. It was a time to celebrate and to do things not normally done. I did exactly that and ended up having too many shots of Patron.
After the show, finding a cab in Seattle on New Years was next to impossible. We were unable to find a cab and decided to walk the 2.83 miles in the rain back to our hotel room. People were surprised that we had actually walked that far and not hailed a cab. We probably could have, but we just put our heads down and hoofed it. 2009 started off in good company, but with mixed results. As the year comes to a close I remember the ups and downs that were, in fact, 2009.
I became the first person in my family to graduate from a university. The University of Washington graduation commencement in June was one of the best days of my life. I had given up on ever going back to school when I was 22 and I never saw myself graduating from college. However, there I was. Standing there amongst the other graduates with high hopes and my eyes set on my future. I was ready to take on the world. However, I still had to take a 5 credit class during the summer because I had dropped Arabic a quarter earlier. Taking a class AFTER already graduating was one of the toughest things that I ever had to do. It's like taking $100 payment for a job that you're supposed to do, spending it, and doing that job after all of the excitement had already run out.
I worked during the summer months and moved back home with my Dad at the end of August. As of right now, I will have been living at my Dad's for nearly four months. Four months without a job. Four months of getting turned down for job after job and having my most desired job follow suit. I even got turned down for "safety jobs". I had graduated in June feeling on top of the world and by the middle of November, I had hit one of the lowest points in my life.
I started looking for jobs that didn't require me to have a degree. A degree in which I quit a $27/hr desk job to pursue. A lot of people thought that leaving a job making that much money was a very risky choice. However, deep down inside, I knew that this was the right decision to make. I owed it to myself, my parents, my friends, and my Grandfather. I had promised him that I would go back and finish school.
During spring break, I got the opportunity to visit our nation's capital, Washington, DC. I went to visit my friend Seth and his girlfriend Erica at their place in Glen Burnie, MD. I got to visit Baltimore and Washington, DC. I wish that we could have spent more time in DC, but to have actually been there was a dream come true. I'm a political junkie and to stand at the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the White House was truly breathtaking. It was a trip that I will never forget.
As I sit and write this, I now have a job waiting for me in Philipsburg, Montana. It's a political research position with Vote Smart. This job allows me to live a simple life, pay my bills, and gain valuable experience in managing an organization and working in politics. It was the one job that I really felt a connection with because I believe in everything that the organization stands for. I'm really looking forward to starting my career.
The next two years of my life look full. Unlike the four months at my Dad's house, I know what the future holds for me. I'll be going to two bachelor parties and two weddings in the summer of 2010, I'll be home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, and I'll be within driving distance of home. I'm afraid to leave my nephew and I hope that things improve. If I had gotten a well-paying job in Washington, I would have considered adopting him. My Mom needs to start living her life, Tyler needs the love that I can give him, and my family needs to continue to grow together and heal old wounds. I feel that me leaving will only make the situation worse. However, I have to live with that and help out as often as I can. It may not work out in the end, but I can't allow myself to drift too far from my goals. I need to start thinking about my future, my career, and whether or not getting married and having kids are in the cards for me.
As 2009 comes to a close, I'm glad to see it go. It has been one of the most memorable and forgettable years of my life. I fulfilled a life-long goal of graduating from one of the best colleges in the world, I visited Washington, DC, and I spent four months living on practically nothing and without work. This year closes out on a high note: I was on top of the world, I endured the toughest four months of my life, and I have a political job waiting for me. I'll be living in another state for the first time in my life, living in the mountains, getting paid doing what I love, and creating new relationships. I don't know what the future holds, but I know that it's all up to me.
Let's close 2009 and remember to reflect upon it from time to time. Note to self: Always remember the feeling of shaking President Emmert's hand at your commencement; achieving your goal of becoming a college graduate; sitting in the middle of Husky Stadium; living in your Dad's basement for four months; struggling everyday to find a job in the middle of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression; and ACTUALLY finding a job doing what you love. Remember the high moments and remember the low. 2010 will shape you for years to come. You have endured a lot pursuing your passions and you came out clean on the other side...just like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption.
You did it, Matthew. Now...on to the next chapter in your life.
