Ryan's 30th Mixtape

My bedroom at 20.

This whole decade thing is weirding me out. Tomorrow I will be one day older than I am today, but for matters of categorization I pass out of the turbulent twenties into a whole new bracket. (People who walk into my classroom assuming I am a teacher's assistant or high school student will be even more embarrassed!) Admittedly, any discomfort with the number 30 is due to endless harassment of older friends (and "Old Man Boyd" as I like to call Ryan) on my part.

I'm fond of my twenties. This is my decade of learning how to teach, how to be a good spouse, how to retain my idealism while dealing in the real, my decade of learning what I really believe in every centimeter of my heart, my years of finally getting so see some of the world, my years of taking the lead, the leap, the unsure steps into knowing it's okay not to know.

There were years there in my twenties where I was just living for the end of the day and the weekends, but I've learned to make a point of enjoying my day-- each part-- because I am not living for the day I retire, I'm living right now. I'm working in the only (albeit more difficult each year) job I can imagine investing myself in. My Horn is in the shop fixed and ready to be picked up, my bass amp is plugged in, and I am still reading and writing.

In much appreciation of my twenties (and the determined teenage me), I am excited to start a new measurable chunk of living. It'll be nice to be able to look back when I hit 40 and see the growth I've made in this next decade. In the meantime, I'm gonna comfort myself through the end of 29 with this mix I made Ryan for his 30th birthday.

***I originally included "Grew Up Fast" by Tom Petty as track four, but couldn't find it on Youtube.