Ten years ago [almost 11 now] I was entering my final semester of school. It doesn't feel that long, and I still often think of myself as inexperienced, like I'm still getting my bearings after school. So I wanted to remind myself of how much has happened in the past 10 years. I'll call graduation my starting point.
Where I've been
I stayed in Brookings for about 6 months, moved to Cedar Rapids for about 6 months, then back to Brookings for another 2 years. I was living in Sioux Falls area for 7 years, but now have moved to Cologne, Germany.
Friends and family
Gabb and I got married August 20th, 2011, so we have now been married 8 years. We've been to many friends' and family weddings, including Luke and Lindsay, Travis and Katie, Joe and Tina, Molly and Ryan, Theresa, Paige and Al, Caroline, Mark and Tessa, and recently Mike and Sam.
My oldest niece graduated high school, the next oldest is hot on her tracks, my sister and my sister in law got Master's degrees, lots of people have had kids and lots of people have bought their first houses.
Travel
I've been to a ton of national parks including Badlands, Wind Cave, Teddy Roosevelt, Rocky Mountain, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Yosemite, Lassen, Redwoods, Crater Lake, Olympic, Mount Rainier, and Cuyahoga.
I've been to a lot of foreign countries, too. Canada, Italy, U.K., Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, China, Japan, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Burkina Faso.
I've also been able to take advantage of conferences and remote work to visit San Diego, San Francisco, Eugene, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Washington DC, Huntsville, Auburn, and others.
I've been to Universal Studios them park twice, Disney once, and the gulf coast of Florida twice. I've visited friends in Rapid City, Denver, Fort Collins, Des Moines, Minneapolis, and Madison.
Other stuff I've done
Trans-Siberian Orchestra, LAZERFest, Barenaked Ladies, season tickets to SD Symphony Orchestra, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Lion King, clay studio, board gaming, bought a house, worked everything in it, sold it, adopted (and lost) Fezzik, adopted Weber, adopted Alonso, started Christmas crab legs dinner tradition, visited so many breweries, saw Nightmare Before Christmas cabaret show, Carmen opera, read a ton of leadership / self-improvement / business / entrepreneurship / psychology / economics books, listened to a ton of similar podcasts, began learning German, led 2 teams at work, became regarded as a general technical expert, ran a 26:35 5k once, ran other 5k's and trail runs, started kayaking, snow-shoeing, and cross-country skiing.
I've volunteered at BRHS, visited lots of museums, tried any interesting food I can, grew garden fruits and vegetables, built a shed, built a fire pit, demoed and installed a corner shower.
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