Well, another year has come and gone, and with it's end, a lot has changed for me. Just a few days ago I graduated from college, bringing to a close almost 17 years of schooling, and now I'm on the brink of what quite literally is the rest of my life. This is such a profound change in direction and operation that it's hard for me to really wrap my head around. It's frightening and exciting, joyous and depressing. With that in mind, there are a few things I'm hoping to see happen in 2004...

1)Get a job...
Now that I'm done with school, I need to get a full time job. My degree in Info Sci & Tech & minor in IT Telecommunications should help me in this arena. I'm hoping to land a job outside of my hometown however, as I've been here for over 20 years now and I'd really like a change.

2)Become completely financially independent...
My parents only pay a fraction of my costs at this point, but I would like to have it so they don't have to pay any. This is very much a personal pride issue for me. Getting a job away from State College will help that

3)Become more social...
I'm a geek, I don't try to hide that, but one of the associated problems is that I'm fairly anti-social. I really want to work away from that, I want to be more at ease around large groups of people, have an easier time striking up conversation.

4)Meet a nice girl...
This goes with point 3. I've had my share of romantic disasters in the past few years, and I would like to be able to enjoy a relationship where one of us isn't being completely insane and controlling (I've thankfully overcome this behavior, sadly previous partners hadn't)

5)Start to figure out what I'm doing with my life...
I need a solid direction and purpose in life right now, this is probably the single most important thing I need to achieve this year.

Those are my 5 goals for 2004, whether or not I'll reach them remains to be seen... but one can hope, right?