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No, contrary to what my babyface may lead you to believe, I’m not turning 12 as indicated on the cake above. Today is my 25th birthday and I’ve got to say, it’s quite the surreal experience. Before I got into the world of freelance writing, you could say that I was suffering through some sort of quarter-life crisis. I was fresh out of university with a decent resume, but I had no real direction to my life. I considered getting a master’s degree in Psychology, and while I felt comfortable in the academic environment, I ultimately knew that it wouldn’t be a good fit in the long run. There’s just too much bureaucratic red tape.

After setting out on my current career path, I was stifled with getting respect, because most of my friends and family didn’t see what I was doing as a real job. After all, I work from home and I don’t have much of a set schedule. They just figured that I was on a semi-permanent vacation and that simply isn’t the case. But I digress.

When Beyond the Rhetoric celebrated its first birthday, it represented a rather major milestone, not only for the blog, but also for my place in life. I feel that I found the right niche to write for the masses. I like what I’m doing right now, but at the same time, I’m turning a very curious age. By turning 25, I’m officially halfway to 50, a quarter of the way to the century mark. It’s totally surreal. I even catch myself saying things like “kids these days”.

People who are older than me — like a certain panda killer — still see me as a young kid, someone who has barely step foot in the real world. People who are younger than me see me as getting up there in years and they wonder why I’m not married (maybe even with 2.5 kids) yet. It’s a “sandwich” time. Perhaps even more so than Bob Buskirk, who feels old at 23.

I’m still not entirely sure how I fit into this wide world of ours, but I’m not going to go out of my way to “fit in”. I’m still going to play fighting games and watch hockey, just as I’ve been doing for years. After all, dot com entrepreneurs are unconventional… and proud of it.