2-21-25
Before getting into the real meat of what I want to talk about today (a five year plan) I’d love to just acknowledge how great of a winter it has been this year. Cold, like, “ARCTIC FREEZE” single digits cold. Snowy, frequently and with a big one that stuck around for a week or two. I want a winter to make me bundle up, brave a hostile yet beautiful environment, and be glad to be home. And just like last year, a sledding excursion cements the title of a wintery winter. Oh winter, how much slander you accept, yet our summer would not be as glorious without you. And I very well could have been speaking in metaphor in that last sentence.
NOW.
To the meat of today’s entry.
I need to develop a five year plan.
When I say “five year plan” I do not necessarily mean that it has to mean five years from now. I use it similar to how I would use “five paragraph essay.” Simply as a structure, format, or most specifically in this case, a mindset. When I graduated college (at 22) I created goals for when I was 25. And I realized earlier this year I was feeling a lack of direction, and this was due to, amongst other things, having completed all of my 25 year old goals. At the time, the only goal I could formulate was to have Narrowbridge going by 30. -Which is a fair, daunting, but loose goal.
Not only having 26 coming up, but I am doubly inspired by talking with Emily (Gass) last night. I think movement, after a period of time, is needed. She currently has her eyes set on NYC. I don’t know if I’ll follow suit, But I can agree with the sentiment.
*Whether within the next five years, or at the end of five years, I want to live somewhere not in Eastern Standard Time.
Previous conditions on movement were to not live in New Jersey, which I got almost on a technicality.
On movement…
The only deterrent here, if I may invoke the name of a Springsteen song without remembering its meaning, are “The Ties That Bind.” Friends, family, nostalgia, and more I’m sure. But, family is dwindling. Colin and Keith, family members whose time I greatly value, already live in remote locales. Unless there is some great renaissance of family gatherings, which I would welcome, that would leave only my parents as a true familial tie to New Jersey. But
We both make a good effort to see each other currently, and I’d like to think that would be maintained even with moving.
Though more familial ties, there is nothing that so firmly cements them in New Jersey. It could have just been talk, but they previously stated that they’d move if both Colin and I moved. There was also serious talk of moving to PA after Kevin retired.
Conclusion on family in regards to moving, the main concern is my parents, but I’d like to think we’d figure it out. If anything, for the both of us, it’s about an invitation. Like vampires, invite us, and we’ll be there.
As a quick sidebar, or more as a “for the record” I am in no rush to move from Doylestown. It feels like the correct place for this moment. Familiar to where I grew up but NOT where I grew up. Local, downtown community that I feel will support my artistic career and a nice, fun, cheap apartment for two. Doylestown itself holds within it it’s own five year plan, but I think I have to look farther first in order to figure out what I want from Doylestown. But to live somewhere with potential energy is the right move for right now. As previously stated to Deirdre, it’s exactly what I wanted from Lambertville/Luminary, But I feel as if I can actually get it this time. Now, with that acknowledged, back to our regularly scheduled journaling.
FRIENDS.
Ideally, all of my friends disperse before me and then my job of moving is far easier. And if moving overseas I’d just start fresh with new furniture and stuff. So I wouldn’t need friends help with the move.
Friends that are established in cities (Philly, NYC, DC for Charlie I pray) will be fine. Once again, I assume our locations will have enough to offer each other where we would see each other. I would love for Emily to move to NYC as well.
Then the concern turns to my locals. But I believe they are well established enough where they’ll be fine. Ev and Maura and Sophie and Alex not only have each other (partners and the other couple), I know none of them are so dependent on Deirdre or I for their survival. And my beautiful Benny Boy will be fine. And if not, he can easily live with us. I believe myself to still be in a golden age of hanging out, and I do not foresee that stopping, but merely changing.
As for nostalgia, New Jersey will always hold a place in my heart. I reserve the right to return, but I think I need to experience something else. Visiting France electrified me and other lands, such as deserts, have been calling to me.
Doylestown seems a fertile breeding ground to begin to forge my adulthood, but to deprive myself of varied and other experience would be foolish, against my own growth, and unnecessary. If I am more solidified, and my relationship/partnership is strong and confident, why not then seek more? Sail out to lands I have not explored? <= Sorry to go classic white guy. But again, if the unit/bond is two, and those two are strong, why not see what is possible? Test them not in the sense of seeing if/when they fail, but test them to see what they can accomplish with their strength?