Well tonight at 9:35 p.m. (and not a second earlier) I will enter into the infamous old man’s club, as I enter my third decade of life. I want to use this post to reflect on some of my memories both good and bad over the last 30 years, so enjoy a little bit of my life….

• I remember that first evening at St. Joseph Hospital in Augusta, GA. It was cold, I really wish they would make hospitals a little warmer for new babies, however, that could not take away from being the best looking baby born that night December 16, 1980. I remember the doctors saying out of all 25 babies born that night, I was also the best behaved, and I looked the most like Jesus. They were so kind!
• I spent most of my childhood with a chipped tooth. In most of the pictures where I am smiling as a child you can see it. It really didn’t bother me, it was kind of like a badge of honor. I was kind of sad the day it fell out.
• I used to not be able to pronounce the “R” sound. I would say it like a “W” – My fourth grade speech therapist threatened to cut the little thing under my tongue. I learned to say the “R” sound.
• I was convinced for a LONG time, like up until last year, that Santa Clause was real, because a dad dressed up and sat out on his porch at the corner house on Heard Ave. peering into his child’s bedroom. Wait…I hope it was the child’s dad.
• I used to love going to the Mall and eating at “Corn Dog”  and getting an Orange Julius. Those were great times.
• There is a seafood restaurant in Augusta called T’s. I liked going there because I thought “Mr. T” owned it.
• I loved watching Knight Rider, the A-Team, the Fall Guy, Air Wolf, CHiPs, The Justice League, Transformers, their poor man knock-offs the Gobots, and I loved Saturday Cartoons along with USA’s Cartoon Express.
• I love(d) Superman.
• I am Superman.
• I collected all of the Justice League Characters.
• I wasn’t allowed to watch the Smurfs growing up. My dad was a very strict for a while, until we took him to a Third Day concert.
• I grew up in some very legalistic, fundamental churches.
• I am still in therapy.
• Honestly: I am thankful for the Christian heritage and foundation that God has given me. I am thankful for every Church and Christian who has invested in my life. I believe that it’s through those churches and people that I have found God for who I know him to be today. I love what Acts 17:27 says, “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us.” I believe He placed me where I could find him best.
• I used to love going to my Granny’s house on Friday nights. Most of our family would be there. We grew up together and all of us are very close. We dressed up and performed songs for our family, we played together in the play room, and it was awesome when Granny would open “K-Mart” (the back room where she kept the toys she found on clearance) to give us a special toy. My cousins always put me up to asking Granny to open K-Mart, even after my dad told me in the car, “Don’t ask for anything!” So, Granny would open K-Mart, give us a toy, and then I got to stand in the corner. I think my Cousins owe me.
• My Granny died one early Saturday morning after one of our visits on Saturday night. I miss her.
• I love(d) going to my Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Covington, GA. I’d go up for week’s at a time and I would help my Grandparents work and Grandma would take us shopping at Sears. They took me on a tour of parts of the U.S. from Georgia to Florida to Illinois to New York City, and then another trip to Cherokee and Santa Land. Those were good times!
• I am thankful for great parents who raised me in a Christian home. For a mom who stayed at home to raise my brother and sisters. She was doing backyard Bible clubs with my family and cousins before they were cool. I am thankful for a dad who at many times worked multiple jobs to make it possible for my mom to stay at home with us and to do Backyard Bible clubs.
• We used to have a Sky City right behind our house, so we would walk to it during the day. I would ALWAYS get a free coke out of the coke machine. My cousins would even go bang on the machine before me to try and get one first. It didn’t work. It only worked for me. It was crazy! My family was poor, so me and my sister and all of my cousins (8 total kids) would cram into this little machine that played a quick cartoon for .25 cents.
• I was a Coke-a-holic. I hate drinking water, so all I used to drink was Coke.
• My parents tried to limit my intake of Coke.
• It didn’t work. I was 50 pounds overweight three years ago, mainly because of Coke.
• I lost 53 pounds and went from 193 lbs to 140 lbs, I am now around 145.
• I knocked myself out in Middle School. I was running and tripped and landed with a curb up my ribs. My girlfriend (not to be confused with the love of my life mentioned next) cried, she thought I was dead!
• In 6th grade I met the love of my life. She didn’t know it yet. In fact I had to persuade her to be my girlfriend with a box of chocolates.
• I broke up with her a couple of weeks later because my best friend dumped her best friend.
• She practically begged me to take her back when I was in 12th grade. We’ve been together ever since.
• I have the most beautiful, stubborn, kind, hardheaded, patient, hardworking, frustrating, and loving wife. I have been honored to be married to her for a third of my life (10 years for the math challenged).
• She won’t leave me alone and I can’t tell her no, so God has blessed us with three amazing children, Gavin, Tristan, and Hailey.
• I attend the greatest church in the world, New Passion Church. We have one of the greatest looking pastors in the world! We are on the brink of seeing God do amazing things through our church. I can’t wait to be a part of it!
• It would be a mockery of God to not acknowledge that I am truly a blessed man. God has done great things in my first 30 years, I cannot wait to see what he does in the next 30 years.
• If you are reading this and you know me. Thank you for being a part of my first 30 years! My memory may fade and I may not know you after today (you know us old people) but I am grateful for you.
• In honor of my birthday, you can help make memories for people in Africa that do not have clean water. A donation of any amount towards my birthday campaign will help provide clean water for many people who may not live to see 30 without it!
• http://mycharitywater.org/nickcarnes

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