7/24/1978

"Oh but strawberries will never taste so good again and the thighs of women have lost their clutch!"

John Steinbeck's lament is a good one about getting older and how things will never be as good as they once were. Well, at least at age thirty, I have to disagree with Mr. Steinbeck. As for the former, strawberries are out of season right now but I just ate an amazing peach and the latter, well, that's a definite no.

If you toss out the last few months of my life, I can truly say I feel better than ever. Much room remains for improvement and growth but I think I have a solid foundation on which I can make it happen. In terms of physical health, I'm feeling great but want to be even better and more focused. Mental health is a far more complicated issue these days. I'm taking a beating but I'm fighting the good fight. The language is still a problem. But lately, I've become a whole lot more confident and in reality, I'm much better than I give myself credit for. Even if there are moments I go completely red in the face, I know that I will eventually be where I want to be. Rome is much less of a mystery than it was on my 28th and even 29th birthday. Not only the language, but the gestures, and the buses, just about everything is slowing down (except the drivers) and becoming more comprehensible (except the drivers). Though, I must admit that I took a bus one night recently that I thought was going in the direction of my apartment and I ended up getting lost for about 35 minutes in a neighborhood I'd never been in. However, I found my way home. A slip-up here and there is to be expected and it kind of made me laugh afterwards.

Sure, a lot of things aren't as I had expected them to be on this day but I never turned in that life plan that we were supposed to write in high school. Had I written that plan, I doubt I would have done, what I have done. I would have never celebrated my 21st birthday while living and working in Las Vegas, Nevada. I definitely wouldn't have celebrated my 23rd birthday in a stank cow-town known as Ellensburg (it doesn't smell anymore), Washington while attending Central Washington University after transferring from UW. And last but not least, not in my wildest dreams would I have planned to celebrate my 30th while living and working in Roma, Italy!

Maybe at age 40 or 50 I will have to bow to Steinbeck's words but at age 30 he's wrong on both accounts.