Do The Evolution - Pearl Jam

I joined the Department of State when I was 23 years old.  Boy was I young.  Back then, I was amongst the youngest members of the Foreign Service.  (Although not the youngest.  Some joined at 21, and one of my friends joined right after graduation.)  Needless to say I think I probably wasn't ready for the job and what I had to do at that time.  Since then I've always considered myself as a newbie.  You know, not like the old grey-haired elders of the Department.  Sort of still an entry level person that didn't know enough yet and had a lot left to learn.

Then the other day, as I was working, it hit me that I am no longer that young kid that has no idea what he's doing.  You'd think that would have come after being in charge of the Management section of an Embassy and a Consulate and also working on issues in Afghanistan.  Nope.  It came because I immediately started talking about what the regulations say without once having to check them, and on Saturday I turn 36.

Yep, I am on my 13th year of working for the Department.  No longer can I claim that I'm a newbie.  I actually do know my job, and seem to be doing it decently well.  (They keep giving me jobs, right?)  Plus, I looked in the mirror and there is a lot more grey hair than I remembered, and my hairstylist made a comment that my hair was getting a little thin in one area and that maybe I should start doing something about it.  My son will be 3 at the end of the month, and the boss trusted me enough to leave me in charge while he was out. I guess I have to face it: I'm a grownup.

Yes, a grownup that has Batman shoes, collects comic books and watches "Phineas and Ferb" with his son, but a grownup all the same.  Am I the same person I was 10 years ago celebrating my 26th birthday with my Peace Corps friends in Suriname?  No, of course not. (Hi guys!  I've still got pictures from that party.  Be afraid!)  But am I a full grownup yet?  Maybe.  Maybe being a grownup is a state of mind.  Maybe I've had to evolve to being a grownup.  In some ways (at work) I'm a grownup.  But in others I suppose I'll always be a kid.  Perhaps that's the secret to life.  Be a grownup when you have to be, but stay a child where you can.

Anyways, for my birthday we're going out for lunch with a friend of the family at The Cradle of Humankind and then Lovely English Lass and I will have takeout while we watch a movie at home after putting the kids to sleep.  (We're going out the night before for dinner.)  It'll be nice.  Still, I might make her watch a Batman film or an absolutely ridiculous movie just to keep the kid in me happy.  Caddyshack would do just fine, I think.