I have a job that I love. I have friends who care about me, and whom I care about. I have a fiancee whom I love, and who loves me. We will be married next May, and we have enough money that we can afford to have both the wedding and honeymoon we want. I have parents with whom I am on such good terms that they will be retiring early and moving near me so they can be a more integrated part of the next phase of my life. I have been sober for almost three years.

I am blessed.

That’s Mark rising to the challenge of Michael Barrish: “we each have a story, often unknown to us, that we try all our lives to prove true. … It can usually be summarized in five words or less.?

So here goes mine….

I never thought I’d turn 30, and yes – I’m very happy for it 🙂 I’ve achieved such kid daydreams as stepping up on a stage and playing my own music for folks and having them enjoy it. Having a job I love, in an industry that is constantly new. Buying a house with my own down payment. With money that I earned from a career that was built on my own terms. Making it to the middle class. Not having to sleep with a can of industrial strenght roach spray anymore. Central air. Wow! Being married not only to a person I love, but to the one. The soulmate I can imagine sitting on rocking chairs with, talking about grandchildren someday, being the old cute couple that embarrases everyone around them 🙂 Quitting smokes not once – but twice (now final!). Having the greatest brother in the world and the best extended family anyone can have. Meeting and learning from numerous mentors across the years. And having some of the best friends I can imagine, who I should hang out more with (you know who you are – yes I am an asshole).

I am blessed too. Statistically – none of it should have happened.

Katie’s mom was telling me the other day… “you two sure have come a long way from Kensington havn’t you?” And that cuts to the quick on my story.

“Never tell me the odds.”

(bonus points if you know where I first heard it said)