The other morning I woke up hungover.

Don't judge. Not fair. Just because you don't openly admit that you may have drank too much at a good friend's birthday party the night before and woke up feeling like you lived a full scene from Fight Club doesn't mean you can judge.

Anyway, lately... well... lately I have been feeling immature waking up feeling this way. Not that I wake up often feeling this way, but when I do it's like what my mom used to say about why she doesn't drink: Why have to waste a next day feeling like you have the flu when it was you that chose to make yourself feel that way?

I always called her lame when she'd say that. "Lame, Mom doesn't like to party." Lame. But the more I think about it and the older I get and the times I add up waking up feeling that way I feel...well, I get embarrassed about it.

And what sticks in my mind is the word my mom always emphasized on: Choices.

Lately, I have been having to make quite a few choices with my life. We do this everyday, really. What do I want for lunch? Where should I meet friends tonight? What movie should I put on my Netflix? But, for some reason lately, I feel like my choices are bigger. I have opportunities and new found perspectives and challenges that I've never ever had before.

And it is the most exciting feeling I've ever had in my life.

It's like this: OK, about two years ago I was going through what I dubbed "My Quarter-Life Crisis." Some may remember this. Fresh out of college, I knew what I didn't want to do, but that left a slew of things to do. It was terrifying. It seemed daunting. It seemed like I was going to forever feel this sense of lost.

"Byron, what would make you happy the rest of your life?" My grandma once asked me while she stirred a gravy on the stove.

When I told her I didn't know yet she said something like (because she loved me): "What! By your age I had three kids already. I knew what I had to do! You should pick something and stick with it!"

But not everyone feels this way. Some people, like, have their destiny all in order. Like a road map that was given to them when they popped out. Some people in life have this path. My brother is one of those. People like my brother or even some of my very close friends always impress me with their direction. With their choices.

Then I found this movie:

While lying curled up in bed attempting to consume as much water as possible, I watched the entire preview about "shifting" and finally got it. Seriously. I finally got it.

A plan.

I'd like to think it was inspired by this film, though it's not really what the film is about. It reminded me of my priorities. It showed me that change can cause effect. It reminded me that my choices make an impact on everything. Everything is truly everything.

The next day I journaled my five-year-plan. I had NEVER done that before. To me, a five- year-plan was more terrifying than adding up my school loan debt and figuring out how long I had left to pay it off. But, after I watched this clip, the five-year-plan was exciting... because it included exciting things that WILL change me... and will make changes to others. Those changes will hopefully cause mass changes. Changes I would have never seen before when I was in my "Quarter Life Crisis Mode". Changes that include traveling, teaching, and going back to school.

Maybe it was the hangover. Maybe it was how life had been in the last few months. Or maybe it was this movie, but that moment I had when I finished watching this clip changed me. I finally felt like the choices I need to make are going to shift me in the right direction. Not that I was going the wrong way before, but like how engines need a gear shift to get more "umph" for a great big hill... maybe I need a shift to get more "umph" for my great life.

I am going to shift my life to make it happen and that's going to involve a lot less hangovers-- from alcohol and other "toxins" in every day life.