As a swing dancer, entering this new, “Roaring Twenties” age makes me want to Lindy Hop. I doubt this will be a decade known for dancing moves and economic boom, but it’s best to soak in the optimism now before too much happens

Editors Note: deeply amused I wrote this on January 2nd 2020

Despite my sometimes dour dark punk attitude, hope does spring in this heart eternal, and every day/week/year is one to look forward to!

Because we have a fascination with ten-series based numbers, this year feels BIGGER. So the self-reflection must be proportional! And because this is The Internet ™️, this will be a self-reflection of ten years! Which a lot has happened in ten years of The Internet ™️ and Benjamin Kramer! And because who knows what’s going to happen to Bad Tech Companies (cough cough Facebook Instagram Twitter cough cough), it’s important to diversify how to platform a bit

Also, this is the first and last time I’m going to say: if there was ever a year to download all of your information off of those platforms as back ups, this is the year for it. That’s the one prediction I’m making for 2020. Do with that as you will

Here’s a pick of some pictures that to me were indicative of what was going on in my life then:

2010, Dorm Lip Sync contest, yes I carried my team with my daisy dukes and bikinis on top. I was a hot mess flunking classes and navigating the messiness of adolescent emotions

Why yes this was my first time exploring not being a quiet wallflower however did you guess — Why yes this was my first time exploring *not* being a quiet wallflower however did you guess

2011, back when I cared more about ski racing, and the streets were nice enough to slide around on! That was the last year before I focused more on bike racing

Still sad my big sister moved out west for better skiing and winters in New England started becoming more variable

2012, you know how I keep talking about my twenty cousins WELL HERE THEY ARE. The afro is STILL MAGNIFICENT

We all now reside in San Francisco, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Colorado, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Belgium!

2013, graduation trip of hiking the Catskills. It was a really nice week to not think about doing more school

Career Updates, Left to Right: Built bridges, operated lasers, wrote e-mails, managed research laboratories, managed engineers

2014, my last year in school and no idea what to do, so naturally I moved into the local townie shithole and went for a 140 mile bike ride by myself to figure things out

Ironically enough I sold Estelle to a friend that now lives by Nubble!

2015, just started my first job and celebrated a year of job hunting with one last hurrah at the beach by school. Despite it being close by, I haven’t been back since

The heat that day was OPPRESSIVE. There’s a trend of these pictures occurring in the cold and that’s not exactly a coincidence

2016, the college buddies road trip to Yosemite where nobody died in ski or plane or cold accidents. We tried pretty hard, think that’s the last time we tried to fly by the seat of our pants

While in Yosemite we subsided mostly off of tuna fish instant potatoes and olive oil

2017, the weird year I moved myself and too many bikes into a four hundred square foot mill apartment and thought hanging up a Smart TV to mirror my computer was the best way to save space

Sometimes when I forget I own more bikes and a speaker system I dream about moving back to Cypress Street

2018, honestly these were the two most important pictures of the entire year for me. Changed jobs and co-directed two bike races, but what I care most about then was being there for these two moments

First and last time I thought reading small print for a speech was a good idea. Because I care this much about this kind of thing, here’s what I wrote (and delivered close to verbatim while not squint reading, still so proud that this made people cr… — First and last time I thought reading small print for a speech was a good idea. Because I care this much about this kind of thing, here’s what I wrote (and delivered close to verbatim while not squint reading, still so proud that this made people cry):
Three thousand seven hundred and sixty eight. That’s how many days it’s been since we met, Ben. Hell of a long time knowing each other. Quick debrief for everyone, we met in at the Advanced Studies Program at St Paul’s in two thousand and eight, had the same class together, and were college roommates freshman year. Just one year. It was about all we could stand. We’re very different, and didn’t make for the best roommates. Ben loves telling people you could see a literal line down the middle of the room where he kept everything clean and I … didn’t
Completely different personalities, yet you’re my best friend, and you’ve been rocking these ten years. If you look around this room, you can see friends and family from everywhere that have come to celebrate you and Cassie. From, what it sounds like, every town of New England, from Pennsylvania, Florida, California— this can’t be stressed enough, that the quality of your character is incomparable, that we all want to be here for you today. We’ve crossed oceans of time to make to here, today. Same goes for you, Cassie! Can we all toast to that real quick? Don’t drink yet, but we can all quick toast to everyone crossing oceans of time to be here now
I am a strong believer in, “you are what you eat.” It means, you are the summation of your actions. What you choose to read, what you choose to listen to, who you decide to fill your life with. Everyone here, for Ben and Cassie you’re all great people. Ben and Cassie, I hope you appreciate manifestation of your character made visible in front of you— all of the people you’ve chosen to have here, today
You’re very wise, Ben. You give a lot of fantastic advice, you’ve got a good, no, great, head on your shoulders, and your heart never wavers. You already know this, I bet you do, and I want to say it for the room: Your wonderful make up of you, gets credit from having Cassie in your life. Think about how long you’ve been together. In that time, you’ve placed Cassie in the utmost importance in your life, and it shows. She’s burnished your soul with such light, it’s almost visible. Walking around today, it’s like you got a halo on. It looks great on you This speech is really for Cassie here. It’s my roundabout way of saying, “Thank you, for having Ben in your life, and adding to its quality.” There’s not enough drink or fortitude in the world to toast enough to you, but let’s raise one, everyone

See if you look into the light you can squint you eyes and not cry about moments gone and to come

2019, has probably been the best year, in so many ways, the best one to date. Not for empirical or measurable reasons. Because I said so. You can take my word for it

Can it get better? Probably. Can’t force a good thing though, so we gotta keep on keeping on. Always a lot more incoming: Let’s see if I can document it a bit more