So much can happen in six years. With our nationwide 24/7 mentality, we lose sight of how much can happen in that amount of time. Our attention spans are now stretched so thin that most people barely remember what happened six weeks ago - go on, try to recall the headline that most captured our attention then.

I myself lost sight of everything that has happened in the last six years. So many things slip by; the focus of our attention for the moment, whistling away on the wind of a thousand dawns.

Six years ago, the World Trade Center was still standing. New York was not gripped in the midst of local squabbles and an inability to lure businesses back downtown - the World Trade Center was looming larger than life, a monument to the achievements of modern engineering.

Six years ago, the Star Wars saga was still two movies away from complete. People were hotly debating the merits of The Phantom Menace still, and calling for Jar Jar Binks' death (how so many of you have grown up in the last six years!)

Six years ago, who had heard of blogging?

Six years ago I was a willing participant in a bad relationship, smoking up to two packs of Parliament Lights every day and leading a generally unhealthy and unstable lifestyle. I lived in a decent apartment, but well beyond my means.

Six years ago, I had just started training with my brother at his own martial arts school. I helped him design the logo and now I run his Web site.

Since then, the towers fell. I lost a relationship and an apartment at the same time I first got laid off by a company that was closing its doors. I moved in with my father to recover from that triple whammy.

Then I got a new job, a new apartment and a new lease on life. I then met my future wife, saw several friends get married, one of whom has had a kid, and seen my oldest friend go from lifelong bachelor to engaged man.

My brother got married, and my nephew was recently born.

I got engaged, moved to Virginia, bought my first house, got laid off by another company that was closing its doors. I got married, got a new job and then got promoted six months later. My father moved out of our family house and to his own place in Florida. I ran my first marathon.

The US has gone to war, twice.

And this last weekend I got my black belt. I started training six years ago,
and I kept training. I trained through the downs and the ups and made time when it seemed there was none. I was supported by a wonderful fiance who became a wife and guided by a terrific teacher, my own Obi-Wan, who happens to be my brother.

It's not that I want to trumpet an accomplishment. I don't want to toot my own horn. I really don't. But I was reminded of how long it took me to get my belt and thought of how much had changed in that time.

And next week, my wife will be induced and we will welcome our first child to the world. If the world seems to have changed this much these last six years, I now can only imagine how much the world will seem to change in the next six.

What wonders will the future hold?