Celebrating September

I am naturally one of these people who has a fondness for the past, things that I've done, good times, looking back feeling nostalgic and reminiscing about holidays, occasions, friendships and the way things used to be. It's not actually a trait that I am particularly fond of, it makes me feel older in mind than I should necessarily be. If I'm like this now, what will I be like if I ever make it to a ripe old age?

Nevertheless, now that we have entered the month of September, I can't help think back to this time last year, to my stag party, my wedding day, the feelings that were evoked of finally "coming of age" and now, even further back, the ten year anniversary of my first boys holiday to Malia and even further still, the twentieth anniversary of starting secondary school, which coincides nicely with my first child starting school next week for the very first time.

Another one of those traits which I dislike about myself is thinking too deeply about things. Rather than saving it all for when I've drunk too much and wallowing in the bottom of an empty glass I tend to do it quite regularly, in quiet times, sitting on the train coming home from work, or more recently when I'm out running (I told you exercise was bad for you). But thinking about this post as I was running this morning and the content for looking at all things that have happened in September, I remembered something that should have, but never did - my birth.

I was due towards the end of September but being the impatient soul that I am, I decided to fight my way out eight weeks early, so was born instead towards the end of July.

It is a question that I have thought about often; how different would things have been had I been arrived on time? Had I been born when I should, I would have been a year lower at school, would have made different friends, might have passed the eleven plus, so might have gone to a different secondary school etc etc etc. All 'what if' questions and maybes, I know, but as I say, what if questions in which I have pondered over in more reflective times. Ultimately none it matters and none of the answers have ever given me cause for regret - how could they?
Instead, September is a month in which, particularly now as the memories of last year are so fresh and that there are always photos now which act as reminders - even the dodgy ones, of the wedding, the surprise honeymoon and at the beginning of the month, the three day stay in Ibiza which fulfilled so many dreams for me and have spent the last twelve months wondering just how the hell I can go back.

Since the first of September, I kept thinking to myself, this time last year I was dressed up in a Tweety Pie outfit flying to Ibiza, this time last year Will and I were at Es Paradis with Foordy and Shove having the "best night ever ™". And so it continued, with the depressing realisation that a year ago I was dressed up in a pink tutu, bikini and fluffy boots as a women with a face caked in make-up walking down the sunset strip and dancing - squashed up with thousands of sweaty clubbers in Amnesia. The little moment I had with myself as the sun went down on the last night of our stay in Ibiza and as I sit and write this we would have been making our way home, ready for me to begin a week filled with nervous excitement at the wedding only seven days away.

Everyone says "your wedding day, it's the best day of your life". I remember speaking to previous couples who had been married and asking them how they enjoyed it and that they would say the same things as the famous saying that everyone says. I would think, "oh that's nice", perhaps patronisingly or condescending, but only because I hadn't experienced it for myself. But looking back, after Stephanie and I had gone back to our room on our wedding night and we were tucking into a midnight buffet that the hotel had arranged for us, talking about the day that had just passed, the excitement of finally finding out where we were going on our honeymoon and that we would be going to Hong Kong in just a few days time. The panic over what to pack and the amount of time we had to do it - and I stopped for just a moment, said to Stephanie, "I couldn't ever relate to people who have been married and said that their wedding day was the best day of their lives, but I can now, that was amazing!" and it was! Whenever I go to a wedding now, I have so much envy for the bride and groom as they are going through what we went through that I want to do it all over again!

It would seem that I'm not the only one with a fondness for anniversary's. The BBC website had an article last week looking back at the Germany vs England game where we beat them in Munich 5-1, which is so still vivid in the mind, despite the graininess and appearance of age in the photographs. It was ten years ago that happened, which meant ten years ago that us boys went to Malia, today in fact marks that particularly anniversary! We were all so fresh faced and young, just like the boys from the film Inbetweeners

Our anniversary next Sunday, the day that Stephanie and I married last year, also marks the tenth anniversary of our arrival back in the country from our Malia trip as mentioned above, but on a global scale, that day will always be significant to the events that happened in New York on the same day, when terrorists struck at the heart of democracy and tried to add fear into everything that we believe in, but ultimately failed. It saddens me that we are, as a global nation still fighting those battles, but are starting to win the war, finally and one day we can look back and say that it was all worth while - but until then we're just looking at the clock and remembering those who were sacrificed.

It's funny how so many things have happened this month, through coincidence or design. That's life I suppose - with plenty more left to go. I just hope that there will be plenty more to celebrate and look back on when all's said and done.