It's 2009, and I refuse to come wack.

"Stern, firm and young, with a laid-back tongue. The aim is to succeed and achieve by twentyone."

-- "Jazz," A Tribe Called Quest

Eight things I'm proud of:

1. Making it this far without any major, major screw-ups. Y'know, nothing for my parents to be embarassed about.
   
   
2. Having the same best friends now that I had back when I was eleven.
   
   
3. The fact that my brother and I have lived together for twentyone years and aren't constantly at each other's throats. Far from it, actually!
   
   
4. Making it to Uni, getting into the Honours program and being THISCLOSE to graduating.
   
   
5. How much I've changed since I was younger...and at the same time, how not much has actually changed at all.
   
   
6. Having a ton of people I can actually consider as my close friends.
   
   
7. How I once got my entire grade to chant my name in unison. Rock star status, WHAT UP!
   
   
8. Managing to convince numerous people (friends, supervisors, teachers, markers) that I'm actually smart. Using big words works wonders. Alliteration, word?
   

Five things I want for my birthday (now with 900% less materialism and superficiality!)

1. Love. From my family, from my friends, from strangers, from whoever. You can never get enough love.
   
   
2. Wisdom. Preferrably the kind that gets me better marks at Uni.
   
   
3. A greater sense of spirituality. I think this one requires more effort on my part. Uh-oh.
   
   
4. A better grasp of how to properly handle tough situations. Mainly, not resorting to dramatic outbursts and downing uncomfortable amounts of scotch. HAHA.
   
   
5. A more blunted sense of emotionality. Two important issues: being able to let go more easily and avoiding any overreactions to the smallest things (be they positive or negative).

Three things I wish I could've done differently:

1. Worked a lot harder during the first three years of Uni. I know my marks have been good enough so far, but that's my problem. I've always settled for "Good," when I know that if I work my ass off, I can get that all the way up to "Fucking Awesome." I can't fathom what my marks would be like if I decided to go all out instead of being lazy all the time.
   
   
2. Handled issues properly to avoid alienating people. I have people now that I'm not exactly cool with. And not like I'm begging them to come back, 'cause I'm enjoying life without 'em. But at the same time, it'd be awesome if we all put everything aside and found a happy middle ground. I don't know, though; on my part, it'll take erasing years and years worth of friendships and starting over. And my bionic memory just won't let me forget.
   
   
3. A bunch of my relationships go in this space. I can't hold on to a romantic relationship for any substantial length of time if my life depended on it. It's always one thing or another. ROFL. But I guess it's not all bad. All the mistakes so far are just a part of one ginormous learning process. I'm working on it, and I'm working towards something better. It'll all pay off, someday. Amen?

- marty

P.S. I'm writing this post now and letting it auto-publish Tuesday, at 6:36PM. Why then? Because we're three hours ahead of the Phils, and I was born at 3:36PM on May 5, 1988. Exactly twentyone years. Y'know, more or less.

END COMMUNICATION.