I turned 28 today, and I’ve got the love handles and thinning hair to prove it. Five years ago, I was 23, in the Philippines, working 36-hour days in digital video editing, living in a tiny shared room, and wondering what goals I should set for myself. I remember clearly, writing them down:

1999: Within five years, I aim to:

1. Move to the US. (How very Filipino!)
2. Get a Master’s Degree in something creative and computer-related.
3. Get a decent web development job.
4. Settle down someplace nice.

Here I am, five years later, and by the grace of God, everything on the list is checked off. Now I guess it’s time to plan for the next five years.

2004: The next five years:

1. Homeownership.
2. Marriage.
3. Build up upper body strength, arrest accumulation of waistline fat, and become paragon of masculine physique.

Yup. I’m going to pray over these goals tonight, then break out the exercise gear.

“For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”