THEN AND NOW

The world has changed in 20 years. I've changed somewhat. I've been doing a lot of thinking about what life was like back in 1988 mostly because I have this high school reunion looming in a few weeks and while I don't necessarily want to just head down memory lane with these people (I'd rather talk about what they are doing now) it is kind of fun to see what you thought your life would be like back then and compare it to where you are now. How much is similar? What's changed?

So to steal a little from my friend's Newt and OneDaisy's blogs...here's a little THEN and NOW

THEN: Mecury Zephyr (mom's car)
NOW: Buick Regal (formerly mom's car)

THEN: I was heading to Winona State to become a high school english teacher, maybe eventually advise the student yearbook/newspaper and probably be the forensics coach.
NOW: I am still being creative, however for a fortune 500 company, in their marketing communications department. (Along the way I was a customer service manager, assistant manager of the menswear department, a radio dj and news reporter, a telemarketer, a temporary administrative assistant and a tool warehouse order fulfillment clerk.)

THEN: Billy Joel, Chicago, Huey Lewis and the News

(which I'm sorry for the digression but did anyone catch PBS's Capitol 4th? Huey still plays a mean harmonica however it was just so odd for them to be headlining the event? Do they have an album coming out? They didn't sing anything new. And boy, they surely were better than Taylor Hicks who did the worst rendition of Bruce Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark. I seriously thought I was back in high school watching a talent show.)

NOW: My ipod allows me to not "commit" to certain musical styles and for 99 cents a song I have a variety from Matchbox 20, Alison Krauss, Jim Brickman, Jude Cole, Brad Paisley, Aerosmith, Def Leppard (all the while still having Huey and Billy alongside them as well.)

THEN: Barely used my brother's mac plus. Senior year of high school I took my first computer class and I remember somehow knocking our computer lab offline for an entire day because of something I did. I remember this mostly because my brother Jerry ended up winning the Senior Class award for Computer Science and they made such fun of me that I barely knew how to turn on a computer. For high school graduation I received a typewriter that had the coolest thing...you could type in a line of text into this screen and fix any errors and THEN print.
NOW: Just the other day we needed to type something on a typewriter and we had a hard time finding one at work. I can't imagine what my life would be like without a computer - it's pretty much all I do all day. And when I think about what we used to do to layout a brochure or pull together a product launch even just ten years ago, I cannot believe how far we've come.

THEN: I went to Sectionals for Forensics. I loved giving speeches, reading and writing poetry.
NOW: I still enjoy reading in front of audiences however I'm not really fond of off the cuff speechmaking or talking to people in general.

In fact I have to lead a training seminar on Thursday to train a whole lot of people on the website I've built and I have to admit the thought of it somewhat terrifies me.

I obviously enjoy babbling on the blog. Maybe I'll start writing poetry again. I think that's something that a lot of young teens, early 20's tend to do to explore feelings. Wonder what a poem would look like if I wrote one now?