How I Met Your Mother Series Finale & other musings

9 years ago, a sitcom pilot aired.

Back then, I didn't know that it was a sitcom.  For whatever reason, I assumed that it was a reality show hosted by Neil Patrick Harris about kids reuniting with their estranged mothers.  I don't know why I thought that.  I was in my 20s.  I was young and stupid.

Fast forward to 2010.   I had just been laid off.  I didn't have any sense of direction.  One of my roommates had just received Disc 1 of Season 1 from Netflix.  (This was before the days of Instant Streaming!)  She invited me to watch it with her.  I discovered that it was not a reality show, but a really cool, well-written sitcom about 5 friends who were living in New York, and struggling with things that all 20 and 30-somethings struggle with.  Thus, an addiction was born.

We watched Season 1 together, then when I moved out, I continued to watch the show so that I could catch up and watch the show in real-time.  Since then, watching the show while eating junk food has become my Monday night tradition.

I recently turned 30, and as I watch my friends all around me settle in to their relationships, marriages and parenthood, I feel a bit like Ted.   I'm looking for some sort of direction in my career.  Unlike Ted, I'm not sure I ever want to get married, but it might be nice to one day find "The One"

Tonight, the show will come to end.  We'll see Ted finally find what he has been searching for for 9 years. 

Two weeks ago, the main characters reunited with someone from their past.  Future ted said something that really struck a chord with me.  It "hit me in the feels", as the kids say these days.  He was talking about losing touch with people in your life.  The quote was:

 "You will be shocked when you discover how easy it is in life to part ways with people forever. That's why when you find someone you want to keep around, you do something about it." —Ted Mosby, How I Met Your Mother Season 9 Episode 21: "Gary Blauman"


It really hit me because now, as an adult I understand how true that is.  I've been pretty lucky.  I have some friends from high school, college and past jobs that I may not see all the time, but still catch up with from time to time, either in person or online.  There are also some people that I didn't see for years and reconnected with later in life.  There are also some people who were once a huge part of my life, then life got in the way.  Sometimes a great friendship gets downgraded to an occasional Facebook comment, sometimes nothing at all.  Maybe one day, I'll find my way back to those people as well.

The truth is, kids, you can't plan every second.  You have to live your life, take things as they come, hope for the best, stay positive, and make sure the people you love know how much you care.  It's the best any of us can do.

Scorpion Bowls, Grad School and More

Work has been fine.  The company is cool and my co-workers are awesome.  The job itself is okay.  I don't know.  It's not a career.  It's really just a placeholder job to pay the bills until I find something better.  I really need to pay off some bills, bulk up the savings account and find a place to live.

I'm almost 30.  I feel like I should have figured things out by now.  My 10 year high school reunion is in a month, and I really don't have any accomplishments to talk about.  I look at my classmates posts on facebook and I see PhD candidates, teachers, doctors, writers, and world travelers.  I wish I had something to show for the past 10 years.

I went to college, got a bachelor's degree, and worked in a few different jobs that built up my skillset a bit.  That's all well and good, but I wish I had accomplished more.  I thought by now I'd have worked in the same place for a while, and moved up rather than taken on a bunch of random entry level jobs.  I thought I'd have a house by now.  I thought I'd be in a happy, healthy relationship, maybe even a kid on the way.  I thought I'd have a few stamps on my passport by now.  (Canada refuses to stamp, and Mexico doesn't care.)

Oh well.  I'm in my late 20s and I have a supportive family and great friends.  Things like that make me happy.  I went out for scorpion bowls and Chinese food with my co-workers the other night.  That was fun.

I've been thinking about grad school again.  Since I was a junior in college, I've wanted to work in a college. So many college jobs require a Master's in higher education administration.  I wonder if I could find a job in a college that would allow me to travel the world a bit.  That would be the ideal situation.

Every few years or so, I go back to the idea of going back to school and getting my Master's.  It would be a huge undertaking, and quite honestly, a financial burden that I really can't afford right now.  Then I think that to not do something about it would be cheating on my life goals.

I guess it's just something I'll have to think about some more.