[Originally written JULY 28, 2014 ]
I was a punk kid, with a big truck, nice dirt bike and a series of bad choices. I seem to find ways to cause trouble every where I went. For instance, I misunderstood the meaning of “Driving Record” like it was a game or something. 20+ tickets is an odd thing to be proud of. I wasn’t a bad kid, I just did what I wanted, when I wanted. Mostly because I have different view on life. I never want to be another statistic. It’s not that I want to be different, I just wan’t to be me. And being me just makes me different.
Don’t get me wrong, I have always been very ambitious. I just choose to excel in uncommon areas. When I was 17 years old I found my first passion – real-estate investing. I got caught up in a seminar in Salt Lake that gave the run-down on how to get involved. I found out I love evaluating properties and crunching numbers. I thought for sure I was going to do this the rest of my life. I started way young, so I had that edge going for me. In 2008, at 18 years old, my brother and I teamed up and bought a small apartment complex in Logan, Utah. In 2011, I bought my first house. I was moving my way up the chain, but this wasn’t what I loved, and I knew it.
Then, the inevitable happened; my inner nerd begun to emerge.
Today, I spend every day programming. I will have Clone Wars or anything superhero related playing in the background (It helps me think). I went from punk-boy-that-needs-his-butt-kicked to full-nerd in a matter of weeks.
Programming had quickly consumed all of my hobbies. I was a hard-core dune rat, hard-core gym rat, and put all of my money in to things I didn’t need (Yes, that is a hobby). It didn’t take long to put on 45 pounds, and loose my GQ tan.
Luckily, I landed a beautiful wife before this happened. I am not sure anyone could put up with me. She calls me out on my bull-shit, but always has my back. I try to pick fights with her (to spice it up a bit), but she is way to relaxed and laid-back to care. She is the type of girl who will sit through my episode of How it’s Made, refill my water, or leave me alone when I am lost in code. She is the only reason I get off the computer to do something in the physical world. Yeah, she rocks my world.
“I love her like a shark loves blood.”
“My wife is cooler than yours.”
Honestly, I am not sure how to live this new lifestyle. Like I said previously, I am not fit anymore. It is hard to make up for the calories I don’t burn sitting at a desk. My last job was manual labor and every day was very active. Now, I walk up a set of stairs and get light headed. I will skip a meeting if I can’t scoot to it on my office chair. It is pathetic, I know. The longer I wait to get back to the gym, the more exhausting it will be.
In short, I get made fun of by how much I struggle learning my new lifestyle, so I figured I would document this. For your entertainment, and so my offspring can make fun of me too.
Stay tuned.