During January in…
Jan 1st, 2004 by mark
- 1994 ~ I received my shodan in karate
- 1995 ~ I was still obsessed with the martial arts, and I was struggling with nearly every other aspect of my life.
- 1996 ~ I was making the first tentative phone calls to my then future wife, Michele, after meeting her in an AOL chat room.
- 1997 ~ I was anticipating Michele’s move here, and the beginning of our life together.
- 1998 ~ Michele and I had just celebrated our first Christmas and New Year’s as husband and wife.
- 1999 ~ We had moved to Vancouver Washington earlier in the year and I was suffering from depression at being so far from my family for the first time at Christmas.
- 2000 ~ Michele was desperately ill with pneumonia, and I was struggling with keeping everything working. We were living in South Carolina and neither of us had felt farther from loved ones than ever before.
- 2001 ~ I had gone into business for myself and we had relocated back to Springfield. We were discovering that while you could move home, you could never return home.
- 2002 ~ Michele and I had just returned from a trip to her adult home town, Tampa. It was a wonderful Christmas vacation for us, filled with friends old and new.
- 2003 ~ Michele and I again celebrate the holidays away from here, this time with a trip to Hawaii for a 7-day cruise.
- 2004 ~ We just completed a very good family holiday here at home. My relationship with my brother is better than ever, and his family is special and fun to be around. And I have the best relationship possible with my parents
The future is wide open, and I am ready to go where my life takes me. Who knows what I’ll have to say this time next year.
