Everything I’ve written in the previous five posts should bring you up to date on what’s happened since April 2004. Before I dive into my future plans, I thought I’d share some things I’ve learned and how these will probably shape my future thinking.

WARNING: MAJOR SAP ALERT!!!

More than anything else, this time has showed me the value of social relationships. I went from having an okay social life living in Cincinnati up to having an incredible social life in Auckland in 2004, and then having absolutely nothing of the sort when moving to Phoenix. I foresaw this when moving there, but I vastly underestimated how much I would actually miss all of the people in my life. After living there for a while, and having some family and friends around, I started to enjoy myself more, but things never really “clicked.” I used to have more of a live-to-work mentality, always assumed I would follow the business/entrepreneurial path as soon as possible, and I took my relationships somewhat for granted. I’m definitely still interested in business, but I want to take advantage of my youth a while longer, see what’s out there in a more holistic way, and eventually choose my path(s) having a greater understanding of�the professional and social implications. So instead of live-to-work, I now see things as A) work to get by, B) find something you really enjoy, and C) make lots of money from it (if possible.) Only three steps - how hard could it be?

I’ve also continued to learn that I have a large, and sometimes eerie, propensity for dramatic change in my life. I say eerie because if I’m still like this in twenty years it’s a little spooky, yet exciting, imagining where I’ll end up and where I’ll have been. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I started thinking about moving away from both Auckland and Phoenix after about a year. Even though I’ve criticized both places, I think my own quirks are motivating my changes just as much as the cities’ quirks. In the future, until I feel this character trait of mine has changed (or I find something really worth staying in one place for), I’ll try to take an especially proactive approach to places I live, projects I start, and people I meet realising that I probably have a defined time frame before I start thinking about what’s next.

Have you ever researched a really big and hairy topic, and the more you read, the more you realise you don’t know? That’s a feeling that I constantly have to deal with, except on a more fundamental level of where I am in life. I’ve been very lucky to have many great experiences, but a side effect of that is constantly wanting more. I want to experience everything, in every place, at every time, with everyone. Not such a bad problem to have, I suppose. Nevertheless, I wonder if I’m actually hurting myself by opting for the generalist approach and not choosing a specific path. I think for now I’m going to stay on the windy road, but I’m going to keep asking myself that question at every turn. After all, the world is so big, and I’d be kidding myself by saying I’ve done anything more than scratch the surface of what’s out there to experience. I still feel that it’s profoundly important for me to gain a solid understanding of global cultures and contexts. Just as it would be odd for an adult to not be generally familiar with the major regions of his country in today’s world, I believe it will be increasingly odd for people not to be familiar with major regions of the globe in the future. I’m sure people will always find me odd, but I hope it’s not for that reason.

I cannot stress this enough: everyone’s shit stinks! Clich�, crude, but oh so true. I can think of a handful of people whose opinions I used to take as gospel. While I still greatly value, and greatly rely upon, the opinions of these people and others, I’ve finally come to the obvious conclusion that their shit stinks just as much as mine and everyone else’s. I’ll leave it at that.

And finally, I’d like to stress how awesome my parents are - something I always continue to learn and appreciate. They’ve been totally supportive of everything I’ve done and I’m very thankful for that. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be my own parent, and honestly, it scares the crap out of me thinking about it. If I ever do decide to be a parent though, I have a great example to work from.

So I hope that wasn’t too much sap for you. I promise that if you stick around for my next post that I’ll talk about much more exciting stuff.

This is the sixth of nine posts recapping events between April 2004 and November 2006. Click here for the overview.