One year ago today was my last official day in the cube. Hey, I'm a year older. Wow. I need to pause over that one.

I'm probably volunteering too much here, but honestly I don't feel a year wiser. I'm still strugglin' with most of the same old bug-a-boos I've been dealing with my whole life. In college I had a saying of which I was fond, “Wherever you go, there you are.” Back then it applied to this fellow that was always complaining and blaming his problems on external factors of his environment. He'd change his environment thinking that would solve his problems. He changed colleges, majors, and friends with regular frequency. But no matter what or how much he changed, he was still upset and unhappy about something or another. It was no surprise to me because wherever he went, he was going to find himself there.

Fans of the Dusk album by The The may remember their song on this topic. The refrain went, “if you can't change the world, change yourself.” Obviously this is not a new or unique phenomenon of human existence. My favorite part was for the final refrain they rephrased the lyrics to be “if you can't change yourself, change your world.” Hmm, that didn't work so well for my college friend.

Well, maybe it's a little fitting that I now find myself on the receiving side of my own bit of wisdom. Fortunately I get along with myself pretty well, no doubt to a fault. So as much as I want to be better  about seeing more of my personal projects through to implementation, and will always keep trying harder to improve on my follow-through, I feel no compunction to run away in search of my own personal utopia.

So I got that going for me.