I was sitting here after eating with my grandparents and my favorite bar-b-que restaruant in town on officially my last day of work for Gaskins (hopefully) and began recapping of the year of 2005. What a year it was, and what a year it did for me. I'm always trying to look back at things and try to find the meaning or the lesson in my experiences because I do believe everything happens for a reason and most of the time we don't see the reason right when it happened. It always seems a whole lot easier if I step back a few months, give it to God and then look back on it later. The lessons always astound me, always.

So I was looking back on 2005 and the funny thing is that its always the odd years that seem to be worse, so I had to compare this year with the best year of my life: 2004. 2005 was pretty good, but it did have some heavy competition, I mean the Joey Moore you guys know today was discovered in 2004. So the question was did 2005 redefine who Joey is? Did he dare everyday into making something out of what most might see as nothing? Did he push himself and test himself during those 365 days? Well, after sitting at work today with nothing to do except work the clock for extra time, I decided this is what 2005 will mean to me when I look back on it for the rest of my life:

2005 was a year that will never be forgotten and will always hold a special place in my heart. It made me closer to someone at Ole Miss taht will probably be standing next to me when I get married, it made me put myself out there again in "dating" way, it made me realize that I was still acceptable to hurt and defeat in the "dating" world, it pushed my travels to knew places, i made it to Mardi Gras, i was able to cross 4 more states off my list along with some life goals along the way, i got to do spring break "my way" and take off to florida for a few days, it showed me rejection, it showed me love, i found heartache and i found peace, it scared me to death and then brought me back to the Lord, it opened doors in my relationship with my mom and my older brother, it brought my family together for a few days, i danced a little more and even shed a little more tears, it brought me closer to some friends and others were pushed away, i defined who "Joey" is, i defined who "the Kid" is, I fell in love and am still falling, i grew up a little more and got a few more gray hairs, i helped my grandparents put together a hurricane ridden house, i shed some tears when others didn't make it, i drank more beer and some wild nights, i almost flunked myself out school, i doubted my life dreams and whether i could do it or not, then pushed myself and accomplished my goals....

i hugged a little tighter on my goodbyes, made my grandfather laugh a little more, it made an old relationship into The Relationship, it took ten years of dreams and made it into reality, i traveled more but rode less coasters, i saw Mickey and Disneyland turn 50 and myself turn 21, i refound the love of my life, i refound who i was when i was ten, i gained back some innocence that i had lost some time ago, and lost some along the way, and for the most part i found the "Joey" that i'm probably going to be for the rest of my life: the beliefs, the love, and the life.

Although most of these things don't mean something to everyone, they mean the world to me. And if you want the short and condensed version that most Americans crave for these days it really can be summed up in one clean, grammatically incorrect statement: 2005 will be remembered as the year of Mardi Gras, The Love of my Life, Katrina, The Injury, The Apartment, and The Night....