Natal Day

I'm 24 today. I've been on this planet for 24 years, and what do I have to show for it? Two cats who love me? Well, I love them back, and its much better than being alone, but what else? An awesome roommate? She is awesome, and I love her too, but she's most likely heading off to Spain in a couple months for a fantastic job experimenting with sustainable living, which is one of her passions. What does that leave me with? An apartment I can't afford to pay for by myself, full of stuff that I'd have to drag with me anywhere else I move to. My job? It pays the bills. No, it's more than that, I do enjoy it sometimes, I like my coworkers, and my boss is great. But basically I'm working in a kitchen. Not exactly on my desired career path. My city? Small. Really a small town, about 30,000 people. Friends? None within one hundred miles other than my soon-to-be-leaving roommate. Desired destination? Chicago, DC, Copenhagen, London, Rome, basically anywhere with more than a million people. How am I spending my birthday? Alone in my apartment with a pizza, a bottle of wine, and my cats.

At this exact moment, my older sister is in Afghanistan, doing something doubtless fascinating and important as a representative of the FBI. Not an agent, but still. That's exciting, and exactly the kind of thing I want to do, travel to places off the beaten path where bad things are happening, and stop them. I want to help people, and yes, I might be a little bit of an action junkie as I always want to be in on the action, but that's not a crime. She's doing something important in a war zone, while I'm lying on my bed in Small Town, USA, trying to figure out what it takes to get someone to hire me.