{"id":13509,"date":"2021-08-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=13509"},"modified":"2021-10-15T01:06:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T09:06:26","slug":"im-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/19\/im-33\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m 33"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s my birthday. Every year I share a birthday post with some personal reflections. Since this is now the fifteenth year I\u2019ve been doing this, I won\u2019t break tradition.<\/p>\n

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The idea I\u2019ve kept returning to this year is one of consolidation.<\/p>\n

Some of this is simply the changes imposed by parenthood. As I wrote previously<\/a>, becoming a parent involves both a change in constraints and a shift in values. You have less time, but you also want different things than you did when you were single.<\/p>\n

The past year, I\u2019ve worked to cut back. Some of those cuts, like getting off social media<\/a>, were probably for the best. I don\u2019t miss Twitter drama or browsing random Reddit memes.<\/p>\n

Other cuts were tougher. I stopped practicing the languages I learned in my Year Without English<\/a>. For years after my trip, I kept up semi-regular iTalki conversations to keep them sharp. But maintaining fluency is trickier than I had anticipated. Not just because of decay, but the difficulty of keeping them separate.<\/p>\n

I still feel some guilt about this pause in practice. But I\u2019ve reconciled myself to more focused practice efforts when the need arises, rather than trying to keep them perpetually sharp. I still listen to and read Chinese, and I get Macedonian listening practice by way of my wife and her family. But I\u2019ve accepted that maintaining my Spanish, Korean, Portuguese and French is not a focus for now, and they will need some brushing up if I\u2019m going to use them at the levels I had previously reached.<\/p>\n

In a similar light, I\u2019ve found my hobbies and activities have gotten more focused as well. I\u2019m trimming down to a few essential pursuits, rather than the sprawling interests I previously maintained.<\/p>\n

While it would be easy to claim this is simply a lack of time, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case. The truth is, this move toward consolidation is one I have been contemplating for a long time.<\/p>\n

Getting the Most Out of Life\u2019s \u201cSeasons\u201d<\/h2>\n
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