Black Coffee

This is the last week of 2015, which means it's a perfect time to reflect on this past year, and look forward to the new year...

As I dive into my late twenties, one change I realized I  made was drinking my coffee black. I'm not even sure why I've started this. It's usually on a week day morning when I'm rushing to work. I don't really care about adding taste to my coffee, I just need a warm drink to wake me up. The bitterness I welcome before I instruct and help dozens of adult learners. I start to really enjoy the taste of pure coffee. Sometimes now I order it in restaurants. My parents think I'm nuts, but I think this could be a subtle transition into turning more into an adult.

That's where I really start to reflect, as we are on the verge of 2016. Adulthood. It's one of those things where you never really know where the transition is. I thought I would feel more like an adult after college, or when I got my first "big boy job". I thought it might have occurred when I moved out on my own. The strangest thing is I still have the same thoughts, feelings, and disposition as I remember having back in the eighth grade. And I certainly wasn't an adult then!

This is an unusual time for me. I'm watching a lot of change happen, and I've never really been a big fan of change-both good and bad. As I sit back and sip my black coffee I just watch the people I'm closest to change all around me. One of my closest friends just had their first child! As I held little Samuel for the first time, I felt a tinge of joy and apprehension. Could I be next? Am I supposed to have one of these... soon???

Also another one of my best friends and his wife bought a house on the west side, and my twin brother and his wife are looking for houses. This brought another feeling of, should I be looking for one of those too? I mean my twin brother is! I have to keep up with the sibling rivalry!

Maybe adulthood happens when you get married, buy a house, or have a baby- junctures that I have yet to cross. But some of my friends would look at me incredulously saying how much I have changed in the past few years. Maybe we notice change in others, but not change in ourselves?

I am looking forward to what's ahead in 2016. I don't know what change is to come, but I know there is going to be change whether I like it or not.

Happy New Year Everyone!