Yes, you read that correctly. My goldfish, named Jasper, is four years old. Four years and a couple of months, to be exact. My friend won him for me sophomore year of high school when we went to a carnival that comes to my town every Halloween. The night I got him, he was in a tiny plastic bag of freezing cold water crammed into a bucket with a bunch of other fish. When I brought him home, I didn't even have a fish tank to put him in or food to feed him. My mom, slightly disgruntled by the fact that I had just brought a living animal in the house, scoured up a big bowl and gave me some French bread to feed him. (Word of advice, don't feed goldfish French bread.) The next morning, we bought a real tank and colorful rocks and a filter and some real fish food, with special vitamins that help retain the gold color. Jasper was all set.

Jasper sits on top of my dresser, facing my bed. I think he's happy up there. He doesn't have much, you know. He has a pretty cool plastic plant fixture and a nice view out of my window. He gets fed once a day and his tank is cleaned once a month. It's a simple life, but it's enough for him. It's constant, and he likes that. We don't always have to be changing, to be doing something. We don't need anything more than plants and pretty views.

Jasper is a very resilient fish. I'm not really sure how it happened, but right now he only has his two rear fins. Something must have happened when I went off to college, because when I left I distinctly recall him having all of his limbs, including the front fins and the fin on top over his spine. I'm not really sure how he swims, actually, with just those two back fins, but he finds his way.

I guess the important thing to take from that is that even when you start small, you can end up big. Even when you don't know where you are, someone picks you up and takes you home. Even when you think you're not going to make it through the night because you are in negative degree water and someone just forced-fed you French bread, you do. Even when you lose the majority of your fins, you just keep swimming.