We must rip out all the epilogues in the books that we've read

My sister finished with college last week, making her, to my knowledge, the first Martin ever to graduate with a super random second major in a foreign language. Cathi and I are descendents of a long line of teachers and dentists, so the "first ever college grad" position was likely filled by a relative with at least one, if not more, great-'s in his title. I already know that I'm not the first Martin to get an English degree, so right now I'm just pulling for the title of first Martin to supplement her English degree with an endless stream of blogging.

Cathi's graduating has also made me think about the fact that, for all the benefits of not being an orphan, having family ties makes it a lot harder to figure out post-graduation plans. Hitchhiking to San Francisco to start up my Life as a Real Live Adult seems like a way less appealing idea when I realize that the times that I see my family would be restricted to the days the average Catholic goes to Mass. Part of the problem has to be living in the midwest, where any city outside Chicago or some of its larger burbs mimics the Children of the Corn set, so any exciting change of scenery requires a mecca of at least 400 miles. If we lived on the east coast, on the other hand, it's pretty likely that there'd be several pretty, historic, largeish cities in reasonable driving or train distance from my hometown, all of which I'd consider acceptable relocations. Then again, if I had grown up on the east coast, my already minorly characteristic anal retentiveness would probably be a full-on sweatervested Freudian disorder.

I have heard the statistic that 50% of adults live within 40 miles of where they were born, though, which tells me that my urge to live in not-Naperville is likely to be overruled by my urge to be not-familyless. But I know that when my parents first moved here they didn't anticipate eventually living in the Hollister capital of the world, so despite growing up here, my upbringing leads me to think there might be other towns that would better suit my personality and might make a move worthwhile. Or, of course, I might just be lying to myself, and will inevitably find it impossible to part from any town that Bam Margera finds good enough to plant roots.