A New Year Begins

 This will be the second article of the next chapter, but I am actually writing it at the end of 2025 just after Christmas.  I wanted to just give a couple of parting observations of the close of 2025 that I had not planned on doing, but there are just a few things I needed to talk about as they affect the course of the coming year.  This will also be remarkably candid, more so than other posts I have made, so bear with me. 

2025 was, for lack of a better description, a mixed year for me.  A lot of good things, but also challenges.  It was by no means the worst year I have ever experienced, but it also was certainly not the best either.  A lot of decisions hang in the balance as the new year dawns because there is much going on even as I write this. For one, I have essentially decided to not limit my prospects to Baltimore, as in all honesty I hate living in this city with a passion.  I mentioned before that often this city - a city that is ironically an integral part of my own early history - is like a foreign country to me.  It is not even the same place it was in 1975, when I last lived here and went to kindergarten less than 2 miles from where I am sitting.  Further, it also acts like a different entity from the rest of the state of Maryland too - one only has to travel just outside the city boundaries and a difference is noticeable.  I have lived in Maryland now 9 years - as a state, I have always liked it despite some liberal politics and high cost of living.  However, I had lived in western Maryland, which has a lot more in common with my home state of West Virginia than it does the inner-city streets of Baltimore.  Hagerstown, where until approximately 14 months ago I had lived for 8 years, was comfortable to me, and even traveling over there now I feel like I belong there.  I don't feel like that in inner-city Baltimore in all honesty.   Also, where I work at, a private nominally Catholic high school, has frankly been getting to me and I am starting to put feelers out for other options.  As that unfolds, I will talk more, but for now it is just something "in the works," and I have yet to see what happens - that is in God's hands.   But, there are some other things to mention as well. 

One major issue I am having now is looking into a new home, as in all honesty the place I am living in now is not ideal.  I was not particularly happy with moving here in the first place, but at the time I had no choice.   However, over the past year I have gained both the income and the credit rating to start looking into a possibility of home ownership, and I have already looked into some things already but nothing materialized yet.  However, after talking with Barbara and a couple of other close friends, I began to realize that my options are not necessarily limited to here - I have a doctorate now, as well as two years of teaching high school, under my belt, so I have in essence increased marketability.  I also realized I am not limited to just teaching in schools either - I already have the credentials I need to be a Faith Formation Coordinator for a parish, and started looking into that as well.  Our trip to DC a couple of weeks ago, when I had my Templar ceremony at the Basilica, also sparked interest in a few things as well.  DC is, by all standards, as big of a city as Baltimore if not even bigger.  I know DC well also, and have worked there as well as doing a lot of business down there.  DC, although not perfect, is not Baltimore - its status as the nation's capital has made it a self-conscious city that wants to keep up its appearance, both reputationally and physically.  That is a huge reason why President Trump did a major cleanup on the city earlier in the year too.  Many of us were hoping he would Federalize the troops in Baltimore too but that hasn't transpired yet.  Baltimore does need a lot of reform, and the fact that decades of a corrupt political establishment which has bled the city dry necessitates reform.  A reform in the crime rate, the political establishment, and the aesthetic of the city - it is all vital.  But, will anyone listen?   Let's explore that further.

If you walk on almost any street in inner Baltimore, some things become painfully evident.  Trash strews the streets, ugly graffiti defaces property, and there are blocks after blocks of abandoned boarded-up rowhouses that would be best put out of their misery by demolishing them.  It is also not uncommon to see huge rats crossing streets in broad daylight as well - that was disturbing when I saw them on occasion.  Now, I am no stranger to inner-city life - after all, I lived in downtown St. Petersburg, FL, for over 5 years in a high-rise apartment building, and although St. Pete had its own issues then (including racially-motivated riots only blocks from where we used to live there, as well as a murder occurring at a convenience store just across the street from our building), they paled in comparison with what I have seen in Baltimore.  Also, in recent years, St. Pete has actually been revitalizing its downtown, and the last I saw of there it looked better.   I also spent a year of my childhood living on the west side of Baltimore, and back then it was a different city - the neighborhood we lived in was largely made up of families with roots in western Maryland and West Virginia, including many households of my own family.  Also, there were vibrant ethnic communities all over the city - from a prolific Jewish community just north of JHU's Charles Village campus, to a large Polish community in Fells Point, a vibrant Little Italy near the harbor, and actual Greeks in Greektown.  The Black community at that time in Baltimore was different too - it had a vibrant cultural atmosphere then, and was generally low-crime and not politicized.  Many older Blacks I talked to in the city in the past year noted this, and the city is actually as foreign to them now as it is to me - they are not happy with the trajectory of the city.  "Old Baltimore" was indeed a much different place from this odd atmosphere the 21st-century version of the city has.   And, recent demographics I have seen shows that Baltimore has been bleeding population.  Whenever someone proposes a revitalization of the different communities adjacent to downtown, they are accused by the leftist powers-that-be of being "racist" and promoting something called "gentrification."  Apparently, leftists love decay and filth, and it makes sense - the ultimate objective of a totalitarian ideology is the subjugation and depression of the masses it wants to control, only enticing votes from them with the occasional proverbial carrot held out to them in the form of some benefit.  Baltimore has a legacy of this failed leftist corruption, and why people keep voting these crooks into power here escapes logic.  You would think that most people would begin to have the realization dawn on them that nothing changes and the same talking-head bureaucrats keep getting voted into power, and the next cycle of corruption starts over again.  Stupidity and complacency are powerful narcotics, and the powers-that-be are the ultimate pushers of these dangerous intoxicants.  It is why a huge segment of the population of this city never learns anything, and the same old, same old, keeps going on, only getting worse.  It is in other cities as well, but in Baltimore for some reason it seems like it's built into the fabric of the city.  I went down that rabbit hole to make my own points about decisions I am facing.

The current house we live in now - an old rowhouse built in 1920 which is in desperate need of some structural refurbishment - was only meant as a temporary residence until I found something better.  That realization was in existence from the first day I moved into this place, October 23, 2024.  It is not my ideal neighborhood, and since living here we have been at the mercy of porch pirates and other nonsense - I call the porch pirates "black buzzards" because nine chances out of ten they are Blacks who want to steal from others and don't care what they steal or how.  I actually caught one of them a few months back circling around erratically in the street just outside our front door - he looked like he was also on some drug too, and was just milling about coincidentally at the same time the mail carrier was making rounds, so the connection was not hard to make.  I have a low tolerance for riff-raff like that, and it's yet another reason why I am looking to get out of this neighborhood soon.  Whether it is moving to one of the more amenable suburban neighborhoods outside the city, or far away to another more comfortable place, there are two things that need to happen:

1.  I have the credit for it, but I need to secure a mortgage that would preferably be 1% down maximum/

2.  An employment opportunity that would facilitate a move - the stability of a place is contingent upon the right income. 

This means I am contemplating staying at my current place of employment, and after some serious prayer I have decided that if God wants me to stay in that position, doors will inevitably open up.  If not, then God will open a door somewhere else for a much better opportunity for me.  I am OK either way, just as long as we get out of the inner city and I can feel safe in a place I can confidently call home.  Ideally, I would love to go back to western Maryland, or even West Virginia, as that is my comfort zone and I feel connected there.  But, only time and God's will determines that.  2026 will be essentially navigated for me with these ideals in mind, and we will see where it all goes. 

As the closing days of 2025 rapidly race toward 2026, I send everyone my best New Year's greetings, and pray the best for you all.  So, will see you next year!