25

There’s a time in almost every man’s life when he realises he’s unlikely to ever:

• Become a professional sportsman
• Represent his country at the Olympics
• Play in a World Cup of pretty much any variety

At 25, with my only current sporting activity being an F-grade basketball game (and my designated role as the tall, fat guy who sits under the basket and tries to jump).

So today’s my birthday, and I thought I’d take the opportunity for a self-indulgent navel-gazing post taking stock of where life’s sitting at ripe old 25. I’m not even going to pretend to have proper structure here: I’ll think it, write it, publish it and regret it. Work is the thing that’s occupying the most head-space at the moment. While I’m in a better job than I was a year ago (both financially and in terms of interest levels), I’m still left with that feeling that it’s not really the vocation that I find myself envying in others who seem to have found theirs. That and an intense sense that there’s not really that many things that are “good” in an altruistic kind of way about the crew I work for, which is pretty unsatisfying. I’ve been looking at a few things – school teaching for one, but I’m really not sure about anything. Obviously with the economic climate looking the way it is, it’d be a stupid idea to just quit without something else lined up, but sometimes stupid feels right.

Marriage on the other hand, is certainly the part of life that feels the most like how it’s all supposed to be. We’re used to each other, Rebecca puts up with the filthy slob she married, and I get to spend my days with a truly amazing woman. We make each other’s world more fun. Gotta be happy with that.

And church is a bit of a funny one at the moment. We’re starting to feel more and more disjointed from the church we’ve been in – which in lots of ways has to do with not really living in the community that our church primarily exists to reach. So we’re in the process of re-evaluating where we belong, and looking at some options in that area. It’s taking a lot of prayer and a lot of consideration; perhaps even some regret especially given what a huge part of life Yarra Valley Vineyard has been for me. But there’s a time for everything, and there’s never a guarantee that any goodbye has to be the last one.

So there you are – a stocktake at the quarter century. Nothing too spectacular, and plenty left to ponder so there’s no danger that I’m about to stop being so self absorbed any time soon. Bad luck there.