"I had one of the best moments of my life tonight! I went golfing with Fota to Sand Hollow and it was incredible! We played 9 holes on the front of the Championship Course and it was great, but we played the back after (well 2 holes) and the 11th hole was so incredibly beautiful. It was a par 3 facing West - the sun was setting, the weather was perfect, there was no wind - no sound - it was the most peaceful feeling and moment I have ever experienced - it was a perfect moment in time. I hit a beautiful tee shot about 10 feet from the hole. It felt so relaxed and smooth. Fota had to one up me and hit a shot 9 feet from the hole haha. It was amazing. There are no words in my limited vocabulary to describe this moment, aside from the fact that I didn't want anything else in life - for that moment in time. I was perfectly content, so comfortably happy and so peacefully relaxed. It was a perfectly perfect moment that I will never forget. I am fortunate enough to have traveled around the world and see amazing things and eat at fancy restaurants - and all that goes with it - but it is interesting to note that one of the best moments of my blessed life was experienced on the 11th hole at sunset with my best friend, overlooking beautiful Southern Utah, barefoot on the grass, and a little hungry haha. I will always be grateful for this night and for Fota being with me. Oh, and there was a free firework show after! It's a good life."
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go to Vancouver for work. I had never been to Vancouver before, but had always wanted to go. It is so beautiful - I think it is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. As I was driving my rental car to the hotel, I saw a forest on the side of the road with a pullover. I decided to just walk around and take some pictures, since the afternoon was free. I started walking on one of the trails and it kind of took my breath away. It was so lush and green. I was taking pictures, but it was too pretty almost to take pictures. The pictures weren't doing this place justice.
About 15 minutes into the trail, I saw an old man walking a dog and they had stopped to take a break. I approached the old man and said, "Excuse me, does this trail lead anywhere awesome?" He looked at me and said, "You don't think this is awesome?" kind of sarcastically, but also to teach me a lesson it seemed. I felt like an idiot and like a total ingrate. I thought about it the entire weekend and the last few weeks. I really feel like I have been living my life like that a lot lately. I have had so many awesome experiences and gone to so many amazing places, but I don't think I have fully appreciated them. I always look for the next big thing or the next trip or what I am doing tomorrow. So, I am going to try and appreciate each day and each experience more. That might sound cliche and common sense, but I am grateful to learn it.
Throwin’ down some real ish now. I just got back from a business trip to South
Korea. South Korea holds a special place
in my heart, because I spent a year and a half there at perhaps the most
crucial point in my life. I was debating
whether to join the National Guard or study abroad and teach English. As destiny had it, I received a scholarship
to Korea and the rest is history. During
my time, I never could have imagined the world that opened up to me. I met some of the best people from all over
the world and I am still friends with them today.
I kind of felt like Marius from “Les Miserables”, minus the
Kermit the Frog vibrato, when he sings “Empty Chairs and Empty Tables”. Not nearly as sad or depressing, nobody I
know has passed away or been killed, but I experienced a sliver of his pain ha
ha. I don’t know why I am laughing.
In a nutshell, this isn’t meant to be some life changing
post, but it was a great realization to appreciate the people in your
life.
I look back at perhaps the best
summer of my life. I was 23 and I moved
home for the summer with my 2 younger brothers.
I had a small Chevy s10 that had like 200,000 miles on it and no
money. My brothers, Sam and Jon were
poorer than I was and we drove around Logan like we owned the place. We didn’t do anything particularly awesome,
but our Winger and cinefour nights were pretty bad-a. I had a blast being with them, not because we
were in an awesome place or did tons of awesome things. I was with the best people and we had a heck
of a time.
I am sure we can all reflect times in our lives that were
amazing and realize, aside from the people, they weren’t or wouldn’t be as
great. So, appreciate your loved
ones. Something I learned last summer
that I kind of forgot lately was that people are the most important part of
life. Without people, we are nothing and
we have nothing. I truly believe that if
we love, appreciate and take care of the people in our lives now, that it doesn’t
really matter what happens after this life.
That is the most important thing we can do.
I had a hard time sleeping last night. Yesterday was one of the best days of my life. I sat in bed thinking about how amazing my day was and why I was feeling the way that I did and I relived the events of the day in my head. To the outside eye, my day looked like this:
I woke up at 5:30am, showered and got ready to do an open house for work at the College of Southern Idaho. I met up with a representative from the Air Force, named Sheldon at Utah State University at 6:00am and we drove up to Idaho together. The drive was through the ugliest part of Idaho and I was super tired. I was bobbing my head for most of the trip, trying to stay awake. We arrived earlier than expected and went to Maverick to get breakfast. I bought a Krispe Kream donut that wasn't very good, chocolate milk, and a breakfast sandwich. The open house went well, nothing special. We met a lot of nice people and I made some great connections in the international office - relevant to my job at USU. We ate lunch at this Mexican restaurant and drove home. I purchased a 5 hour energy and figured that $4 was a fair price to stay awake and stay alive ha ha. I dropped off Sheldon and dropped off some items in my office and drove home from USU with my brother Mike. When I got home, I finished my taxes, figured out how to program my car remote, made my famous cake shakes for my roommates and played pool against my brother and went 1-7 ha ha.
The amazing thing about this day is that is was nothing special. I was super happy and it was great! Maybe to the outside eye, my day was normal or even sucked, but this is how I saw and experience it:
I woke up at 5:30am. I was nervous to meet Sheldon, because he's is in the Air Force and I didn't want to drive all day with a strict soldier - we would have nothing in common. When I met him, he was wearing a New England Patriots beanie and coat- we were best buddies. We talked about sports, life, religion, and traveling. He was great! Although the drive was not necessarily pretty, the sun was coming up and it made the few snow capped mountains look gorgeous. Breakfast at Maverick was not ideal, but the fact that I could eat any type of a sandwich with my braces was a big step for me! The staff at the Open House was fantastic and everyone at CSI was super friendly. My connections in the international office were super helpful and supportive of my recruiting efforts to USU. Lunch was at one of the best Mexican restaurants I have ever been to for the price. When I returned home, I reunited with my brother and he had a great day, which was nice to hear. I came home, finished my taxes, programmed a car remote that I have been messing with for about a week, made my famous cake shakes with a new ingredient - but the original is better, and finally beat my brother at pool after losing 7 times in a row ha ha. Persistence paid off, just like Tom Brady being down by 10 in the 4th quarter - best super bowl ever ha ha ha. My brother scratched on the unlikeliest of shots and I was laughing so hard. The 1 win was all I needed.
That's it . . . that's my amazing day! (You are probably thinking . . . "This guy's life sucks!")
Not too long ago, a friend of mine asked me about the best days of my life. I didn't have to think about it too long before answering . . . St. Andrews, Scotland . . . traveling in East Asia . . . fishing in Alaska . . . spending a day at a resort in Mazatlan. I know I have had a blessed life, for which I am grateful, but I felt bad thinking that all of the best days of my life were far away, doing pretty cool things that I will probably do once in my life. She told me some of her best days . . . they were just average days (in my opinion) with her family. But, she cherished the simple things. I thought that night . . . the best days of this girl's life were the average, ordinary days we all live . . . everyday.
I thought about this all week and it is not like I was intentionally planning on having a "best day" yesterday, it just happened. I attribute it to my perspective. When I was a missionary in Toronto, Canada, I had the pleasure of learning from one of the best men I've ever met. His name is Brad Mahoney and he taught me that life is full of miracles, but the real miracle is being able to recognize the miracles. This perspective changed my mission and my life, until I lost sight of it when I returned home. I fortunately regained this perspective this week and the result was incredible!
It reminds me from a scene from my favorite movie, "About Time". The main character has the ability to travel back in time any day in his life and this is what he realizes at the end:
When I started writing, I had no intention of making this sentimental, but I guess it is a sentimental topic. How amazing life could be if you had this perspective everyday, enjoying each moment - good and bad, learning from experiences, and being grateful for the journey.
Kind of changing topic, but kind of not . . .
Last Fall, I visited a friend in New York. We had some great talks about life and she said that a lot of her friends are jealous of her life in the "Big Apple", because all they see are the amazing posts on Instagram and Facebook. They don't see the day-to-day events, feeling uncomfortable on the subway, the inconveniences of not having a car, the unsettling feeling that you are on your own in one of the biggest cities in the world. Social media tends to do us a disservice, because it is creating a false life that we portray to others. (As I use social media to explain this point ha ha). But, I am guilty of this too. I tend to only post things when I am traveling or doing something that is awesome. I NEVER POST ABOUT THE ORDINARY DAY, but I should. Think if we all posted about the ordinary day. There would be less comparing, less hating our lives, less depression. Looking back, the worst times in my life are when I have compared myself to others. I have learned the hard way recently that the people that I thought had the best lives, were struggling the most. Everyone puts on a front, and sometimes you need to, but let's stop comparing our lives and let's make it easier on each other.
I felt super bad when I was in England last fall. One of my friends on Facebook messaged me and said something like, "I am so jealous of your life man. What do you do for a living? You seem to be traveling all the time." Anyone who knows me personally knows I don't have any money, I traveled a few times last year, but that was an unusual year. I have a fun job at USU, but I don't make that much, my family is huge and super poor too ha ha, but I am happy with where I am at. I felt bad that I portrayed a life I don't have.
So, the point of all of this or a few points to learn: each day can be amazing if we have the right perspective. We don't have to spend tons of money and travel to the other side of the world to have "The Best Day". There is always something to be experienced, learned, and enjoyed. APPRECIATE THE EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY days you have and lets stop comparing our lives to someone's vacation.
This same time last year, I felt kind of lost or stuck. It was probably one of the few times, maybe the only time that I was frustrated with my life. I had experienced some cool things, but felt like I wasn't where I should be at my age. I decided to go to the temple (temples are the most sacred buildings for LDS people - usually a place I can ponder and think clearly) and I remember praying for direction in my life. At the time, I was praying about where to live, where to work and felt like I was on my own. While I was praying/pondering, I really felt a voice in my head or a feeling in my heart that I needed to 1. Be grateful for my life and 2. Serve others.
I went home and those 2 things (service and gratitude) consumed all of my thoughts. I started saying prayers of gratitude and not asking God for anything, but just being grateful for him and I focused on the good things in my life. If bad things happened, I still thanked God for them and tried to learn from them to become better. I started to be involved more in service and was always looking for ways to help out. I can tell you that those two things (service and gratitude) changed my life. I had an incredible year in 2014 and everything worked out way better than I could have imagined. After a few months, I found myself not asking for anything at all in my prayers, because I couldn't believe life was so good and I was truly grateful for everything. It seems that whenever things are tough for me in my life, it is because I am selfish and comparing myself to others. If I remember to be grateful for what I have and to serve others, I feel that I am not only happier, but I really feel like life is better in every aspect. This is a pattern I always need to remember. I can't be successful in my life if I don't do things for others. People will always be the best part of life, so let's take care of each other and be grateful for the process that we call life.
