The Aughts...

Nathan reviewed the early part of the 2000s already, but I'm going to take his idea and personalize it a bit more.

Btw, the reason behind the title is that many people in history would say 19-Aught-1 when they wrote or spoke, so thusly, we are completing the aughts decade.

2000 - We moved to a ranch home in Sandy Springs. In January, we had one of the worst ice storms to hit North Georgia ever, and I was stuck in Athens at JanFest! Because of a massive oak tree falling down, we missed nearly a week of school, and we huddled around the giant fireplace in the ranch-style house off of Abernathy Road. Later that year, Dad left FBC Sandy Springs, and the day after I graduated from North Springs, we moved to Mableton. That summer, Dad and I found a 1982 Buick Electra for me to drive. Who would have thought that this car was sensible? Apparently I did. I ended up driving it until 2002 when gas went to $1.30/gal....I left in August to attend Shorter College (oops on that one, right?) and completed my first semester of college by essentially losing the Hope scholarship with 2 Cs, 1 D, and 1 B. Oh well, right? My grades have gotten better since then! :D

2001 - Decided that Shorter was not the place to be for me, and I transferred to West Georgia. It ended up being a better fit for me at the time, and I got re-involved in Marching Band. I also got to be in a couple of choirs and attained a small music scholarship. That summer, I went to my last Youth Music Camp. (Too bad that they don't have those down in Norman Park anymore, right?) That Fall, I was in my first major stage production at West Georgia, Ten by Four (ten one-act plays written by four different authors). I almost got a scholarship for theater, but the company that was providing it decided not to offer to any of the actors that year at West Georgia. I'm sure I would've been the next Matthew McConaughey, except that I would actually have talent. :P (j/k!) I also decided that I was going to be a history major this year. How did I make it through?!

2002 - More band, more chorus. Got a 1992 Mercury Tracer this year. I hated that car. It had a spark plug that would never work quite right, even if you replaced the wire and plug itself. I worked at the Chinese restaurant for a while as a delivery boy, then worked at Zubeyda's 'Italian' dining (more like mostly alcoholic underage college boy bar), then at a chicken place. (The last two places are out of business, and the other is barely hanging on last time I went by.) Needless to say, I stayed busy again, and began to think that I should work in a good restaurant for once. Too bad that wouldn't happen for another two years!

2003 - Got in my first wreck! Got rear-ended by a girl who was not paying close attention, so there went the Tracer. Dad appeased me and got me my only Mercedes. Oh, good times, pretty car! :D I also worked part-time as a music minister at Rocky Mount Baptist Church in Carrollton. Who would have thought that this would end up being important later on? I think that this was the first time that Dad and I got to work professionally together at a church.

2004 - The major thing to happen this year was that I broke my hands over a stupid girl. Not a day goes by do I not regret that decision, but I realize that it was part of the growing process. Too bad I never thought that it would cause so much pain through the rest of my life; I try to translate this into good whenever I can.

2005- After all of the turmoil of 2004, I ended up working as a singer for Carrollton Presbyterian Church in the Fall and through the following Spring. It restored my love of God and Christ. The people there just loved on me, and gave me back a spirit of hope that I had lost.
I also ended up working at Arby's this year. It was an amazing place to work, even if it was fast food. I had a boss who actually cared for the workers, and we had great camaraderie outside of work as well. I had my Mercedes crack its engine this year, and got to drive the old stand-by, the 1995 Dodge Spirit. The strangest thing happened during November. The light switch began to short out while I was driving it, and finally burned partially out after work. I didn't have a phone number of anyone who could come and get me (since it was close to Thanksgiving break), and so I walked from Arby's to my apartment, about four miles away. This wasn't too bad, except that it was about 29 degree, spitting snow, and I had my nasty work clothes on. Thankfully enough, I was in an apartment where I could take a nice, long hot bath after I got in, and was able to fix the car well enough to drive it for another year (more on that in a minute).
One other thing that happened this year was that I did not participate in symphonic band. I decided to fulfill an old promise to the Opera teacher at West Georgia and I participated as a singer in The Mikado that Spring. It was a lot of fun to be back on stage, and I got the best reviews in the local Carrollton paper.

2006 - I finally decided that I was going to go to culinary school and not finish my bachelor's degree at this time. I worked until June of this year at the church and at Arby's, and moved into Mom and Dad's home in Blue Ridge. After getting fired from the job that I took after one day (after resigning a few weeks early to take this one), I found myself hunting for a job. I landed at Dairy Queen as an assistant manager. I ended up training in Kansas City and then Tampa for this job. Sounds good, right? Not so much. I ended up working 100+ hours a week until I finally couldn't take any more. I lasted from July until November of that year. No fun, but learned a lot. I ended up taking some weeks off and got a job at Taco Bell in early December.
In December, I filled in for the music minister at FBC Blue Ridge, and after the service, I had two of the youth girls come up to me and tell me that they had the *perfect* person for me to take out on a date. This person was Tasha. We wrote one another through MySpace for about half a week, and I asked her out to go to Chinese food in Jasper on that Friday night. We ended up staying at Chinese until the place closed, talking about TONS of stuff. Then we went looking at Christmas lights, and generally enjoyed being together. We ended up going on another date the next week, and then Tasha took me to her school's Christmas party two weeks after our first date. I knew that it was going to be something special, but I had no idea HOW special.

2007 - This was when things began to fall into place for me! In February, I proposed to Tasha, and we originally set a date of September for our wedding; we realized a few weeks later that this was going to be impossible for both of us since we wanted to take a true honeymoon after it, and moved the date up to July 21st. This sped everything up considerably! I moved from working at Taco Bell (after finding out that the manager and her husband were stealing vast amounts of money from the place), and went to work for Checker's hamburgers. I stayed there until about two weeks before the wedding. I also was urged by Tasha to go back and finish my bachelor's degree, and I agreed with her. I made preparations to attend Kennesaw State University in the Fall, and ultimately did.
On July 21st, Tasha became my wife, and we spent the next 6 days up in Gatlinburg at the Park Vista hotel on our honeymoon. We came back and spent two days in Blue Ridge at our parents houses, and then moved to Cartersville, GA. Tasha began working at Allatoona Elementary School in the first week of August, and I began to attend KSU a week later.
At the very end of 2007, I began working for the Office of Development as a student assistant. This was the first time that I had worked in an office, and was invaluable towards helping me learn how to be a good office worker, but how to run an efficient office as well.
As for vehicles, we got two new (!!) cars this year. I got my Hyundai Accent after purchasing a Mazda Millenia that blew smoke like crazy. We later traded Tasha's Honda CR-V in when gas got up to $4/gal. We thought that it was there to stay. Oh well! Tasha has her Sonata, so it's good. :)

2008 - Tasha and I decided that we wanted to buy a house, and we accomplished that in March of this year. We moved to 19 1st Street, Emerson, GA, and have been living there ever since. I continued to take classes and work at the Office of Development.

2009 - I finally completed my degree!! :D :D :D Apparently, miracles never cease. During the previous summer, I had done a large work in KSU's archives for my senior seminar, and was asked to do a research project about civil rights in Cobb County. I consider this the crowning achievement of my academic career, knowing that I have a paper that is preserved in the archives.
During the summer, I found out that I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. I was working for Bank of America at the time as a bill collector, and unfortunately used all of my sick days and vacation days. Due to this, I had to resign my position after only a month and a half, but this did work to an end. I finally realized my true calling in life and have become a Liberty University Seminary student, working towards a degree in Christian Leadership. I finished my first semester on December 18th. Tasha also went back to school at Lincoln Memorial University off-campus to work on her specialist degree.

2010 - So far, it looks like Tasha and I both with be graduating with our degrees, and we hope that we will have an addition to the family soon, either through natural means or through adoption. We are praying that God will lead us through this year and that we will be receptive to what he has in store for us!

What a decade, and how far we've all come! More later! :D