My Relationship With Myself.

It's New Year's Eve once again and content is the best word to describe my life. This holiday usually finds me reminiscing about the year as it comes to a close, sometimes even going over previous Eves and where my life was then compared to now. I'm happy to report that I'm looking more forward than backward right now. But here's a brief recap with little speculation on what's to come.

I'm happy to report that three major changes in my life finally came (albeit long overdue), and although I wish they'd come sooner, I'm just glad they arrived this year instead of never:

1. In January, I finally voiced my career aspirations to the company corporate director of environmental affairs. With naked ambition and unabashedly stating my ultimatum as I pursue my career goals (I told him that I have a clear vision of my purpose in life and if the company wouldn't move me I would move me by June 1 so I wouldn't have to see another hurricane season), I gained a corporate sponsor who made my final life change of the year a reality. Note to self, "Thank him for his support over dinner next week."
2. At the end of March, I finally told Don Carlos (SJA #1) what I should've said years ago: "I get it now! You don't want to marry me, so you can stop pretending to care!" By getting that off my chest, I could breathe what I'd been feeling ever since I met Espen...I don't want to marry a j@ck@$$ either.
3. By July I'd finally settled into my new life here in IA and I can now give my son top priority with the best education available in this country, a safe and wholesome environment to go through puberty, an opportunity for my own career (which is the only future I have to build on in preparation for when he moves on with his own life), and little to no chance of going back to my addictive life with Don Carlos.

It's now 12:08 AM on January 1, 2007 and I haven't gotten one call or text message. I thought Don Carlos might contact me to wish me a Happy New Year, but he hasn't. Maybe 2007 will be the year of the breakthrough, when j@ck@$$es everwhere realize that they're not the center of the universe.

With words I put the life changes for myself in motion in 2006 and with actions I backed them up. In the immortal words of my girlfriend Charlotte, "I can show you better than I can tell you." Now that I've told people what I want and begun to show them that I'm serious, in 2007 I will follow through on my journey to my destiny as the Vice President of Environment, Safety, and Health...and it all starts with me because, "The most important relationship you have is the one you have with yourself."