[DJay23]

1. What's the biggest change in your life since 1/1/00? What parts of your life haven't changed at all?

Biggest change is that I am now happily married. At the start of the decade I was in a long relationship, had distant ideas of marriage but nothing I was planning on. Thing that hasn't changed is that my immediate family is still in tact and as close as we ever were.

2. What are your top three accomplishments since 1/1/00?

a)Graduated from college (12/15/01)
b)Started my teaching career (8/20/02)
c)Got married (9/5/09)

3. What are your top three disappointments since 1/1/00?
I don't tend to stay disappointed in events in my life so these probably won't seem major:
a) That I'm not a dad yet
b) That I didn't take a lot of chances
c) That KU only won 1 National Title in the decade.

4. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your personal experience since 1/1/00? In other words, how did the decade treat you?

I would have to say that taking the pH of the decade for me would put me somewhere in the basic range. Higher than neutral but not scorching bleach. I guess on a scale of 1-10 I'll go with an 7. It started off slow, got really crappy for a few years, then picked up toward the middle and ended with a bang.

5. What was your biggest fork in the road since 1/1/00? Knowing what you know now, would you have chosen the other path if you could go back now?

My biggest fork was making that decision that a lot of guys in their 20's or 30's makes, and that is, do I want to continue "doing what (who) I'm doing" or do I want to settle. I chose settling. I would absolutely not choose the other path.

6. Compared to your expectations on 1/1/00, how is your life different on 12/31/09 than you expected? How is it exactly as you expected?

My life is different in where I live and with whom I live. It's the same in that I have the career I had chosen and that I still have the same basic set of ideals in place, just ammended and refined over the years.

7. What are your three strongest memories of the 00's? Three best memories?
Three strongest memories:
a) The feeling at the end of one particular relationship, where you just thought it would never get better and that heartache is not a misnomer, it really does hurt in your chest.
b) The feeling of complete confidence and joy at landing my current job.
c) The feeling of total contentment with the world that I felt on my wedding day.

Three best memories:
a) Seeing my wife enter the sanctuary on our wedding day.
b) When I realized that I had FINALLY found the perfect woman for me.
c) Watching KU win the national title.


8. What is your prediction of your life on 12/31/19 (ten years from now)? What will be the same and what will be different?

I will be 42. I think my wife and I will have a pair of children, hopefully the oldest turning 10 in 2020. I'll still be teaching. I'll have built my final home after taking several stepping stones to get to that point. One similarity is that I'll have the same ridiculously high expectations for everyone including myself. One difference is that I'll internalize most of that for the sake of the people who have to deal with me on a daily basis.

9. What are the three most important events in the outside world since 1/1/00?

a) September 11th
b) The Great Recession
c) The technology boom.