!B for Big Changes
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agk's phlog 
23 Apr 2021 @ 1446
 --- 
written on x61 at the truck stop
while waiting for the print shop
to finish printing my wedding bulletins
 --- 

Going to a highly-selective college in my late 30s
was a big change. I was tired and frustrated about
slaving at work I didn't like for wages that didn't 
pay the bills. I thought I was mostly done growing 
as a person and mostly just needed a credential so 
I could ascend to the next rung of the working-
class ladder.

I didn't get the credential. I got big changes 
instead. Before my first semester began I met the 
woman I'm now marrying and having a child with, 
five years later. I stopped accepting demanding 
volunteer positions far away that interfered with 
my ability to dependably do good work in school and 
my job. School built my stamina for doing heavy 
workloads for longer spans of time than I'd ever 
done. I learned through failure and stubbornness to 
work effectively with supervisors.

I graduated in the middle of the pandemic year. I'm
celebrating my third year working at a hospital 
where I initially did clinicals. The wedding is in 
five days. Our parents and girlfriends will be there 
to hug us both. Our first daughter will be born in 
two months. I planned on a credential. I got instead 
a good life.

At our wedding Evy will read to me from Song of Songs:

> Leave your high mountain hideaway.
>    Abandon your wilderness seclusion
> Where you keep company with lions
>    and panthers guard your safety.
> You’ve captured my heart, dear friend.
>    You looked at me, and I fell in love.

It's a big change to live a simple, satisfying life, 
keeping company with family and coworkers not lions 
and panthers. I'm here for it.