Mountains

  I climbed a mountain yesterday. It was steep, cold, and I fell a hundred times. But I climbed it. 

  Each time I fell, I landed on mud and hit my knees. Of course it hurt each time, but what was I going to do? Just stop and go back down? Then what's the point of trying it? To take a nice picture at the bottom and upload it with #fit #explore? Then go back home and tell people about your awesome weekend and crazy hike?

  That works great if you're a Kardashian and your very way of life depends on your image. So tell me office drone, retail associate, EMT, forklift operator, line cook, business owner, does it? Or are you sitting there wishing you would have climbed that mountain of yours? Are you sitting there tired of telling fake stories, or how you wish you could, or how someday you will? 

  Last year alone, how many excuses did you make NOT to do something? And I'm not talking about traveling the world or starting a business, but just going to the gym once a week, trying that new restaurant down the street, meeting your significant others friends, signing up for a class, taking that hike you've heard about a million times...

  Surely you've heard the old saying, "at the end of your life you'll regret the things you didn't do, more than the things you did do." 

  I spent a lot of time in my 20s saying no. I swear that was my favorite word. And every time I tried to force myself to say yes, I would moan and groan about it so much that when it came time to do the thing, I was miserable about it. So after i turned 25, I tried something, for every 5 no's i gave, I made sure to give one yes. And as an introvert, even that was pushing it. 

  I would cringe at the thought of going to a bar with MY OWN friends, or even worse, a party where there could possibly be the chance of there being people I didn't know. But the more i said yes, the easier it got. The more people I met. The more connections I made, and with those, memories. Before i knew it, I had said yes 10 times to my 50 no's. Then i made it 4 no's to 1 yes, then 3 to 1, and now, it feels like I say 1 no to 5 yes. 

  Look, the point is, don't waste your 20s, your life, because we have one. Now that I'm making up for all my lost time, I'm always wishing I had said yes more. But it's never too late. 

  But of course, I suppose this whole post is pretty cliche, and yea, it definitely is. Because I've read this myself all before, but damn do I wish I would've known how true this was. It's everything. You can spend your life in a dark corner, comfy womfy in your bubble, or you can decide to step out every once in a while, to shut up and go outside, look at the beauty around you and live it.

Sons & Daughters

  There are so many roads to take on the way to whatever you look for in life. Some are clear and beautiful, others are stormy and full of potholes. At 28 years old, I feel I've had a good glimpse of each, but not nearly enough of either and my only wish has always been to be able to go back and tell my younger self, it's okay dude. Choose the one you want, but be committed.

  We're so influenced by outside sources, whether it be our traditional parents, "fun" friends, society, or a million other things, that by the time we reach an age where we're supposed to be married, with kids and a great career, and we're not, we start to wonder where WE went. Where we became lost, where we took a wrong turn? And can we go back to it and take the right one? Well, no. We can't. For many of us, this means winning over a past love. Going back to an ex we have such fond memories of and compare to every new potential partner we meet.

  Now for those special few, this totally works out, and we fall in love all over again and wonder why we ever broke up in the first place...but for a good 99% of us, it just doesn't work. As badly as we want it to, and as amazingly as it works in our head, in reality, it just doesn't. So I beg you, in this new year, don't fall back into wishful thinking and false hopes, don't let your old memories consume you, who you are, no matter who that is; a successful engineer, a construction worker, a coffee barista, or a student trying to claw your way through your own thoughts, because you will get hurt again. 

  Instead, go outside, take a deep breath and look at the world around you. It's quite beautiful when you just shut the hell up and look. Sorry to be so forceful but that's what I had to do with myself. And it's why I created this blog. I'm a normal, fairly intelligent guy, who could've been miles ahead of where I'm at now, but due to potholes in the road that frankly, I created myself, I'm just getting my life running, from scratch, at 28, and I don't care because, that's life. We can run from it, let it run us, or let it carry us into something better. 

  The first step is really to admit to ourselves that we've created the life we're surrounded by. Sure, some things may be out of our control, but so much more, is. You can sigh or roll your eyes, but you know damn well that's true. And it wasn't until then that my life got better. 

  I still have so much more learning to do, and many more mistakes to make and to get over, so I plan to do it one day at a time. Discover new places, food, people. Discover my life at a time where it's turning every which way and I'm still not sure where it's going to land. Come with me if you'd like, but no matter how lost you are, I urge you to wander, into anything and everything. Just like I will.