Nothing could be more cliche than having your family play the song, “My Way,” at your funeral.
However, if your gravestone read, “I traveled the road most traveled, and I was bored to death,” now that would be something worth exploring.
Both “my way” and “bored to death” describe my life. These days, I go into an office every day, and then I come home and I’m cranky until bedtime. Most mornings I have a wave of creativity that is usually gone by the time my coffee kicks in. If the all-father Odin paid me a visit, he’d be like, “you’re boring.”
I wasn’t always this ordinary. In my early 20’s, I lived in about 12 different locations in 6 different cities all over the country. I cleaned camp toilets, tended bar, leased apartments, sold roses in nightclubs, worked temp jobs, and even worked at a ski resort and at a record label.
I finally got my first real job in a commercial real estate company, doing data entry, administrative work and answering phones. I didn’t know it at the time, but that job, that would be my life. That’s because every single job I got after that was essentially the same job.
My significant other and I travel a lot, and sometimes when we see ramshackle, boarded up hotel or a busted downtown business front, one of us will shout out, “we should buy that place, and that could be our life!”
I often dream about “starting over” and doing something new, but really, it’s not the vocation, it’s the avocation that makes you “you.” It’s what you do when you’re not at work. Exercise? Watch TV? Write? Work on a hobby? Have a side business? That really is your life.
There are a few things that make me really happy. For one, I love it out west. I love the mountains, the hiking, and the big, open sky. I also love being creative, and writing.
I also love unique adventures. For instance, last Friday night, I was out with a group of friends exploring a Friday night artwalk. One building was having rooftop event, and while the swarms of hipsters took the elevators, we actually ran up 18 flights of stairs to get to the roof. Doing things “differently” makes it an adventure.
At one point, I did things my way, but I couldn’t make a decent living at it, so I hoboed the corporate train, and it became my life. Many folks I know are doing interesting things with their spare time. But we all seem to need some a day job to keep us afloat. Very few folks I know can live on dreams alone. I traveled the road most traveled, and I’m bored to death. Plus, I’m stuck in traffic. A lot. This is my life.