I'm off to see the wizard

2004

Last night as I was laying in bed thinking to myself about 2004 I realized that it was the best year of my life and I wanted to write a bit about that before I write about my exciting day. First off I know that everyone reading this had their own part in making 2004 such a great year and I wanted to say thank you, whatever your role was I want you to know it was greatly appreciated. I guess I'll talk about why it was the greatest year of my life, so far that is. I know I only have 21 short years to compare it to but I also know that I have so many years ahead of me to try and top it. In the past year I have learnt so much and accomplished even more, most of the things I accomplished I had never even dreamed of really doing. Starting off with working at Bell ExpressVu, an amazing opportunity that came in 2003 but was a large part of making this year what it was. Not only did I get to work at a great job and on some really cool projects that I could be proud of but for some reason they gave me a nice amount of money for my 'hard work'. With that money a lot of my dreams became reality. (Mom, please edit this line before printing it for Bubbie) One obviously is this trip I'm currently on but I'll talk more about that in a bit, the other was to pay for my last semester of college, which again I'll talk about in a second but also allowed me to expand on my personal canvas and complete my last two beautiful tattoos. Now back to school, two and a half years ago after high school I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life but had always loved my computer courses so I applied for computer programming at seneca just to try it out. I never thought that I'd be walking up on stage that November morning after hearing "Brandon Share High honors" and then hearing the president of the college tell the head of the department how hard I must have worked to achieve it. Don't tell them but I found it pretty easy but it was still nice to hear and I did put in a ton of hours working on those assignments this summer. Now I'm sitting here still not sure of what I want to do with my life but knowing that I have a piece of paper at home that says I completed that program with high honors and that I can do whatever I put my mind to. Seeing how proud my family and friends were made that special event even better. After finishing school I had a lot of time off before leaving for my trip and I spent a lot of that time sleeping, watching tv, reading and when my friends were free, hanging out with them. One beautiful Thursday, my father and I drove up to Pickering and went hang gliding, something that I've seen on TV but never thought I'd actually do. It was so nice being able to share that with my father and that made the experience so much more memorable. It was so nice and relaxing being up there soaring like a bird but the best part was doing something I'd never imagine Brandon Share actually doing. It opened up my eyes to endless possibilities and later that day when I got home I booked a hostel for the weekend in Ottawa. I dragged my best friend out there even though he had tones of homework, I drove the whole way so that he could work on his font. The purpose of the trip was to go bungy jumping, something that always excited me and terrified me at the exact same time. It ended up being an amazing weekend road trip with hours of and hours of fun and many interesting people and place. Doing the bungy jump was only one of many highlights of the trip but again the experience was enhanced greatly by sharing it all with Zach. I guess what I'm really getting at is that by doing things I never thought I could or would do I made this year the best. I took control of my own destiny and did what would make me happy. Even if happiness isn't the feeling I felt when I was standing out there 200+ feet above the water, knowing that the only way back down was to jump. And that was what I did when I boarded that plane bound for Japan on November 18th, it was the hardest jump of my life. Leaving everything I've ever known back home and going off by myself with no plans or idea of what I was doing. But it has turned out to be the most rewarding jump of them all. As anyone who is reading this now knows, I've done so many amazing things here and seen so much that it has made that jump so worth it. I now look back on the first night when I arrived in Bangkok and that scared feeling deep down inside me was bigger then ever and I know that over coming that feeling leads to the greatest gifts in life. So theres my advice to you, if you want to make 2005 the greatest year of your life go and do those things that scare you the most, go travel or back to school, tell that person your interested in that you are, don't let the scared feeling hiding in you win. These thigns I've just mentioned are just a small part of what made 2004 such a great year but there are a few more important things that I must include. One, the most important number, is family. I'm lucky enough to wake up every morning in a beautiful house with a group of amazing people I'm happy to call my mom, dad and brother. Although we might not all be smiling at the same time or at each other, we each have brough a spark of happiness into that home on countless occasions and have all been there for each other on those other unfortunate occasions. These are the people who have been there with me for the last 21 years and have helped to mold me into the person I am today and I thank them for that. Being here on the otherside of the world we all realized that we don't tell each other enough that we love them, although my mom and I try, except it might look like we are saying something else to everyone around us. Then there are my grandparents, the great people who raised and cared for my parents making them into the great parents they are. They are also on the front line of my cheering squad no matter what I'm doing and will always be there to support me, along with all of my extended family. Weither its sitting around watching jeopardy on Friday nights or trying to take me out with one bourbon, one scotch and one beer before dinner, they always have me there in their hearts and I thank them for that. And lastly but definalty not least are the amazing people who I call my friends, these are the people who are there for me no matter whats going on. If I need a someone to lean on when times are hard or someone to laugh with when times are good, they are always there. And Robbie, I am definitely lucky that you fit into both groups. I know this is pretty long already but there is one more special person that I have not mentioned yet. One more thing amazing that came out of 2003 but really bloomed right before I left. Unfortuantly many of you haven't had the pleasure of meeting her but the few of you who have could see right away what I saw when I first met her. And the rest of you who have been reading my blogs definatly noticed her name in the comments on basically every blog. Adeena, although we only had that one short month to count down the days before I left, you made each one better then the last. And while I've been away you've been a constant support and your emails have always brought me a smile when I needed it. I know that you will all have the pleasure of meeting her when I get back and will all love her as much as I do. You all have made this year special to me and the greatest one of my life and I know that as long as I have you all there with me and keep on scareing myself, 2005 will be even better. Thank you once again from the bottom of my heart, Brandon

posted by Brandon Share @ 6:02 PM