I’m 5 today! And you know what that means — It means I get to go to school with the bigger blogger kids now! According to development experts, these are the:

10 Key Traits of a Five Year Old

1. Displays improved motor skills: hopping on one foot, using the toilet by himself (!), using a knife and fork at mealtimes (my wife almost never has to cut my dinner into little pieces for me anymore!).
2. Has less separation anxiety: Mostly. Once I was in the beer section when my wife was buying toilet paper and then all of a sudden I couldn’t find her and I got really scared!
3. Has less baby fat: Yes!
4. Wants to please and be liked by his friends: Maybe a little too much?
5. Able to carry on meaningful conversations: “Do you think I’m as awesome as I do?”
6. Agrees to rules most of the time: See #7
7. Shows independence: Yes!
8. Is able to distinguish fantasy from reality, but still enjoys make-believe: I’m a writer. That means I get to be 5 forever!
9. Is learning right from wrong: Working on it.
10. Is making lots of new friends: That’s you!!

Like a five year old, my blog has changed and matured (well, sort of), but it isn’t done growing yet. It’s taught me to balance my instinct to entertain with my God-given desire to communicate truth. It’s taught me to edit, stay on-track, edit (and did I mention edit?), impacting my long-form writing technique (screenplays, novels, memoir) and even my conversational skills: Less “Look, a bird!” More “So you were saying…?”

What will the next five years bring? I don’t know, but I hope I’ll be around to find out. And I hope you will too. 

Thanks for five great years!