Thought Question #916: When was the last time you did something for the first time?

(borrowed from: http://thoughtquestions.com/archives/3108 with all respect. All art and text there belongs to them.)

I don't think I can remember the last time I did anything big for the first time. I mean, two and a half years ago, I went back to school; it was my first time in gradschool, but it wasn't my first time in college, and if we widen my scope, it was definitely not my first time in school. It was my first time in Pittsburgh, though. That is a huge airport, but not as big as Atlanta.

A month ago, I moved up here on my own. It was a big deal, but I was moving home (defined as where your parents life, since I've never actually lived here before), not really moving out on my own as I'd originally planned. Turns out $2000 is not enough to move alone into a new state with all your stuff and still have enough to get a place to live when you don't have a job or savings or any idea what the cost of living is like*. It was a step toward something new, but I don't feel like it really qualifies as something new since it's not. It's just a shifting of old situations.

Also a month-ish ago, I finished a novel--and maybe that counts. I've written novel-length manuscripts before, but I've never launched into full revisions afterward, and this is a new thing: revising pages. Changing them drastically. Adding and subtracting scenes and making the whole better than the first incarnation of itself.

Yeah, that's it. That's my most recent new thing.

I think, though, that I'll start tracking New Things. I was told years ago (I think by the TV, so take that as you will) that in Japan, there's a saying that every time you try something new, you add five minutes to your life. Whether they actually say that or not, I think it's a good way to look at the world: as a buffet of new things you can try. We're all looking for ways to make our lives better, right? Well, variety does that. Newness and novelty do that.

What is your most recent new thing?

*It's a little higher than living in FL, but I hear the pay rate is better. I think that's why people get stuck in FL--the difference in cost of living and pay rates makes it hard to be able to afford to leave that sunny, bug-riddled sandbar.