25 years ago today I arrived here in Florida, 1,000 miles from the only home I ever knew, not knowing a soul, never having lived on my own, to start a new job and a new adventure at the age of 23 (almost 24).

Three days from now will mark what would have been my grandfather’s 100th birthday (we lost him in 2014 a couple of months shy of turning 89).

50 years ago today the Vietnam War officially ended.

And we have also recently reached the 100 day mark of the current administration.

All are fitting opportunities and reasons for reflection and taking stock.

If there’s one truth that I’ve learned in the last 17+ years as a parent, it is that the days go by slowly but the years go by fast.

On April 30th, 2000 I arrived in Florida self identifying as a liberal to moderate Republican…fiscally conservative but socially liberal.

Our country was in the process of FINALLY generating budget surpluses that I was hopeful would be used to pay down the national debt, which at the time was a comparatively paltry $5.7 trillion compared to today’s $36.7 trillion.

A lot can change in 25 years, but a lot can also stay the same.

The apartment complex I moved into 25 years ago today still looks the same (I rode past it on my motorcycle this morning).

The office building I went to work at on May 1st, 2000 is still there and even though the company that occupies it is different, it still looks the same from the outside.

And on a national basis, our politics has continued to be divisive and negative and hyperpartisan.

But in those 25 years look at all that has changed.

My only 4 relatives who lived in Florida at the time have all passed on.

In less than 4 years I would build my first house in a neighboring county and change my party affiliation to “no party affiliation” on a whim, out of disgust of two party politics, and begin a 22+ year journey of political homelessness and nonpartisan activism.

Today far more Americans self-identify as independents like me.

In those 25 years I’ve gone from being a workaholic climbing the corporate ladder with no social life to a full time stay at home dad for almost 18 of those years.

Over those 25 years I went from having been to 28 states to having seen all 50 of them with my wife and daughter.

If I could go back in time and talk to the almost 24 year old me, about what lay ahead in the next 25 years, specifically for our country, I wonder what he would think of things like:

the disputed 2000 election only 6 months away,

September 11th,

the surpluses being squandered on tax cuts and the debt continuing to explode,

America finally electing its first black President,

How close we came to universal health care in 2010,

the continued hyperpartisan wars and politics of personal destruction,

Trump making a following for himself by questioning the birth status of President Obama, then America somehow choosing him to be POTUS instead of a super qualified first female one,

the dissension and discord in our population and rejection of science and medicine during COVID leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths and illnesses (including my grandmother),

the multiple impeachment trials and America choosing Trump a second time to hold the highest office in the land instead of a super qualified first female one for the second time,

and the utter destruction he has been and will be causing during this term.

What, if any, life choices would 23 year old me make differently based on knowing what would happen over the following 25 years?

Would I still have changed to no party affiliation? Or would I have stayed a registered Republican and fought from the inside of the party to save the party of Lincoln from itself? Or would I have changed to a Democrat?

Would I have gotten more involved in politics to try and help be the change I wanted to see in the world, or would I have checked out and just lived my life?

If you had told me 25 years ago that the America I knew was going to be in severe threat of losing its top spot in the world, losing its prestige, and that my personal involvement would help to prevent that from happening, I would have moved heaven and earth to help prevent that from happening.

How do I know that?

Because if you had told me 25 years ago today I’d only have my grandpa for another 14 years, even though I did see him and spend time with him between 2000 and 2014, I would have spent a lot more of it with him.

I often think of what he would say about how our country has turned out these last years since he passed away, and I know he’d be profoundly disappointed and disgusted.

As a World War 2 veteran he would say that his generation didn’t fight and die for democracy, free speech, and human rights abroad just to see it abandoned here at home.

As I begin my next 25 years, which will take me to the age of 73 (hopefully), I am even more determined to do my part to help fix our country, to make it the best that it can be, for future generations.

Success is not guaranteed, but at least I’ll get caught trying.

My grandparents on our wedding day in 2006.