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Email Jeremy Statton

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I had been going through what I felt at the time was a gut wrenching, demoralizing personal religious experience. I was discovering that not everything I had been told or believed to be true, was in fact true. It felt like my world was falling apart. And it hurt.

In the healing process I read a book in which the author had experienced something similar. And he wrote a book about it. I felt like he knew me. His words were so beautiful to my ears and to my heart, I wanted to be like him.

As I researched him more, I decided I not only wanted to be like him, I wanted to live like him. The book that helped me so much sold more than one million copies. It was a best seller. And he lived the kind life a best-selling author lives.

He was famous. He lived life by his own rules. He woke up every morning when he wanted to wake up. He went to bed when he wanted. His job consisted of sharing his thoughts and talking about what he wrote. At the end of his speeches, people would stand and applaud.

Who wouldn’t want to live life this way?

I was frustrated with my life and I saw someone with what I believed to be a better, easier one than mine. I started writing because I wanted to be famous. I started writing because I wanted to sell a lot of books. I started writing because I wanted freedom to live life the way I wanted to live.

And this is why I am quitting.

What didn’t happen

When I started writing, my initial goal was to write a book. I sat down and tried to pen a few chapters, but it was much harder than I anticipated. I quickly grew frustrated.

I had also started reading a blog in which the person took what turned out to be a popular blog and turned it into a popular book. If he could do it, then so could I. My new idea was to start a blog, write on a regular basis, and then eventually the blog would turn into the book I dreamed about.

That was four years ago in November.

I was dreaming big, and my dream was that one day people would be sitting around coffee shops all over the country discussing how amazing my book was, and more importantly how amazing I am.

But none of that happened. And I am grateful it didn’t. Because it isn’t a better story.

By many standards, you could say my blog venture has been a success. As of this morning there are 1,485 people who subscribe to what I write. Since starting this specific blog on January 1, 2012, I have had 135,000 people visit my website from 203 different countries, almost every country in the world.

The numbers aren’t startling. I wouldn’t call them viral, but for those of you who have ever written a blog, you understand that this is no small thing.

What did happen

At some point my writing transitioned from writing about my personal experience to that of writing about living a better story. Because of writing I was beginning to choose a different life for myself. And through everything new that I was experiencing, I was beginning to see that there was a better way to live than what most of us settle for.

I didn’t just believe it but I started actually living it. It started with mission trips. And then eventually adoption.

Despite my early resistance, my wife and I decided to adopt a child.

One turned into two.

And then despite two incredibly hard years of life with 6 kids, two turned into 3.

Four biological kids turned into seven kids total. A white minivan turned into a 12 passenger megavan. A private school, suburban life, turned into public schools and English language classes and hospital visits and surgery and even cancer.

I haven’t even told you everything. Some of the story can’t be told. Some of it is too hard. There are parts of it you can’t understand.

What must happen

Over time I have discovered that there is only one thing that truly matters in life. And that is love.

Not the kind of love we dream about. Not the kind where somebody else makes us feel special. Not the kind where we lay in our lover’s arms, forever happy. Not the kind where somebody else is perfect, and because of their perfection we want them.

But the kind of love where we lose everything for the good of another person. The kind of love where we let go of ourselves and what we want and our dreams and desires. The kind of love where we fall to the background. The kind of love where we experience rejection and keep loving. The kind of love that leads to the kind of life none of us want to live.

One of the reasons my blog has been “successful” is that I have been disciplined about writing regularly. If nothing else, I am good at making myself get up early and good about making self-imposed deadlines. And it turns out giving people something new to read 2-3 times a week works. (For those of you who still think building a platform is a worthwhile endeavor, add this to one of your key ingredients.)

But my story has taken over. There is more than I can do. And what I am doing I don’t do well.

As I have said repeatedly, my hands are so full, that most of what need to be done has spilled over the edge of my cupped hands and onto the floor around my feet.

And in order to be and do what I really want to do, I have to let go.

Nobody noticed

The last several months have been hard. And I have been tired. Plus I added an exercise routine to my busy life. And inevitably my writing has not been regular. Gradually I have backed off. Gradually I have let go of getting up early. Gradually I have stopped showing up.

I didn’t plan this, it just happened. And I am glad it did because I have learned something important. It is okay to stop.

Seth Godin always tells us about the value of becoming indispensable. And his litmus test as to whether or not you have achieved indispensability is what happens when you don’t show up.

I stopped showing up to this website, and nobody has noticed. Not my friends. Not my family. Not my internet acquaintances. Not my subscribers.

And I’m okay with that. in fact it has helped me come full circle with my own journey. It has helped me come to terms with my original reasons to even start writing.  I wanted something stupid, and thank God I didn’t get it. Because it wasn’t worth getting.

And let’s be honest. How many of you have actually changed your story because of something you have read here?

What is next?

I have some really big, really fun, really important things developing my life. My own story is still being told. And I am excited. I am amazed by the opportunities I have in front of me.

I have my family. I have my wife and 7 kids. I have 3 teenage boys who are growing into adults. College is right around the corner.

And I have learned more about love by simply living this life than I ever would have by writing about or reading about.

I have one final suggestion for you.

Stop living your life through what you read or what is happening on Facebook or Instagram. Stop talking about being brave and pretending that moving to a city 3 hours away is an act of courage. Stop limiting your life to what you already know.

Go out there and live. Do something that scares you to death. Travel. Meet new people. Explore the world. Explore life. Question everything.

Find a purpose that matters more than your own life. Give everything you can to others. Let go of all the things you are trying to protect.

Life a life of love.

Thank you.

The morning of departure, there is always excitment in the air. Everybody wants to go. Everybody is ready to begin. Everybody can anticipate what will happen once they arrive.

Last minute items are shoved into luggage already too full. Each suitcase is placed in the car only to be taken out and repositioned in an effort to find a way to make everything fit. The back of the van becomes a jigsaw puzzle. There are infinite possibilites of how to try to piece the different pieces of luggage together, but only one real solution.

Every climbs into the car, goldfish in hand. Seat belts are fastened. Movies are started. And the journey begins.

photo by Jessica Lucia (creative commons license)

Of course we all know what happens soon, right? Children eventually become bored. Movies are not as entertaining the second time around. The car starts getting hot and people start getting on each others nerves.

It seems that in the middle of the trip, everybody forgets the excitement they started with.

The hardest part of a long road trip isn’t packing suitcases or loading the car or convincing everyone to get in the car. And it certainly isn’t the desire to be at the desination. The hardest part of any long journey is the middle..

What happens when the road gets a little rough to navigate and it is full of potholes? We want to quit.

What happens when we are tired and hungry and almost out of gas? We want to give up.

What happens when we make a wrong turn and realize we are lost? We become frightened and wish we had stayed at home.

What happens when we run out of goldifsh?

Our biggest problem is not having enough desire at the beginning of the journey. Our biggest problem is not setting out on a journey worth embarking on.

The hardest part of our story is choosing to persist once that journey becomes difficult.

This is the type of question Ed Catmull, one of the founders of Pixar, asks in his book titled Creativity, Inc. (affiliate link). The book is part memoir telling the stories behind one of the most creative companies of our time. But the book is also part challenge to become exceptional.

Or in my words, to live not just a better, but an exceptional story.

A Pixar-esque Story

Every movie made by Pixar accomplishes what you expect out of an animated film, the entertainment of children. But the movies also do more. They help adults to discover the child within by showing what is truly important in life.

They tell stories that touch our hearts. They create characters that all of us identify with. They touch on what it means to be human. And they tell incredibly creative stories.

How do they do it?

While anyone would be jealous of the kinds of stories the people of Pixar tell both on the screen and through their company, few attain this level of accomplishment. In his book Catmull reveals some of the secrets behind their success. Based on the quality of the products they create, you might guess they use magic.

Pixar makes exceptional look easy, but the truth is both simple and difficult.

To Understand

One key component on the path to exceptional is the willingness to be honest with yourself. You have to be ready to examine who you are and what you do. You have to understand why you choose the things you do. You have to understand your weaknesses.

Catmull has this to say about this process of self-understanding.

Companies, like individuals, do not become exceptional by believing they are exceptional but by understanding the ways in which they aren’t exceptional.

Pixar tells incredible stories, and has become an exceptional company, because they have developed ways to see themselves. They have developed a culture of candidness. They have developed ways to unearth what would typically stay hidden.

And then they choose to change those parts of themselves for the better.

Your beliefs about yourself, or your hopes and dreams for what you want to become, do not change you. What changes you is what you choose to do.

The Hardest Part

Catmull’s statement is obvious, isn’t it? You fix what is broken. You add what is missing. You change what does not work. What is not so obvious is how to see the ways in which our stories are less than exceptional.

The less than better parts of your storu are hard to see. There are aspects of your life you would just assume not see. Parts that are embarrassing. Or parts that your subconscious does not want you to know about. Parts that you think you have all figured out when you do not.

Parts that you would love to keep hidden from everyone else. Parts that you would love to keep hidden from you.

The first step in transforming your story is being able to see what needs to change.

How Do We Learn to See Ourselves?

Seeing yourself is incredibly difficult. You are so accustomed to yourself it is hard for you to understand that there could be a better way. You are so used to what you do, you imagine it is the only way to do it.

Need help learning to see what is less than exceptional about your story? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Assume that you do not know everything.

Be humble. Be willing to Look at everything with fresh eyes, and start over.

2. Question everything.

Dissect your story. Take it apart piece by piece. Don’t just question the things you don’t like. But everything. Make the assumption that every part of your story could be better. And find out how.

3. Assume others do things better than you.

Be willing to learn. Be willing to ask questions and interact with somebody else. The more somebodies the better.

4. Try something new.

Go to a different country. Eat different food. Visit a different church. Read a book that don’t want to read. Challenge yourself with ideas that are different from your own.

Changing habits is hard. I was used to eating foods that were high in calories. And my waistline was beginning to show it. I knew something needed to change.

Eventually I developed the habit of eating vegetables. Making this one small decision every day changed everything for me. It made me feel better. It helped me to lose weight and then once it was lost to control it. It helped me to make other better choices about my life like exercise.

And now my life is on a different path.

Why should you care about what I eat? I don’t think you should. The point isn’t to talk about my path, but to help you change yours.

In this process of developing better habits, I learned five important lessons about how to make lifestyle change work.

photo by Henrik Johansson (creative commons license)

1. Say yes to something better.

My first two goals in changing my eating habits were to eat fewer foods high in calories and to eat smaller portions. Like most dieters, I failed miserably. Every effort to stop ended in frustration and guilt.

Eventually I was able to quit eating the bad foods only by replacing them with good foods. I focused not on saying no but more on saying yes to something different. I focused on saying yes to something better. At first it was hard, but eventually I started liking the new habit.

Once I saw the results of my better choices, saying yes to vegetables became easier and easier.

2. Write down your choices.

To help me keep track of how I was doing, I recorded everything I ate. I used an app called DailyBurn Tracker. All I had to do was type in the type of food and the app did all of the hard work for me.

Every New Year countless people sit down and right down their goals and resolutions. They write down the choices they want to make instead of the choices they do make. While goals can help you know which direction to head in, they do not give you an indication of where you are today.

Writing down your choices forces you to own them, whether good or bad. Knowing this, you will think twice before making undesired choices. Record keeping also helps you to see what you are doing which can help you to determine what you might need to change.

3. Measure outcomes.

With my weight loss there was one simple tool I used to keep track of how I was doing. I weighed myself. And I did it constantly. Almost every day. I still do in fact.

Writing down your choices helps you to see your habits. Having some way to measure outcomes helps you to see if these habits are adding up to what you want them to.

Find some way to keep track of your progress. Measure it frequently. Keep track of how you are doing. Measuring outcomes helps you to know if you are in fact headed down the right road. And once you start to see results, the positive outcomes will encourage you to keep going.

4. Reward yourself.

Before making this change in my life, I would always eat too much whenever we went out to eat. The dinner would end and I would feel guilty about my choices.

When I started counting calories I would purposefully leave room in my daily calorie allowance for eating out. I would eat a little bit less at lunch the day of or the day after. I could eat anything I wanted and my total calorie count would still be okay. Going out to eat transitioned from a guilty pleasure to a reward.

I enjoyed going out to eat more than I did before developing better habits. By having some way to reward yourself, you can make it more fun. The more fun you have, the more likely your habit will stick.

5. Good habits beget good habits.

I didn’t anticipate all of the side effects of developing one simple good habit. Yes, I wanted to lose weight and feel better. Yes, I wanted to enjoy eating more and lose the feelings of guilt.

But in my development of the better habit of eating vegetables, I did not anticipate that it would be easier to develop other good habits.

Once you begin to see results sand enjoy the benefits of your good choices you will inevitably find other ways in your life to develop better habits. You might stop watching TV and read more. You might even read poetry. You might find yourself exercising more. You might find yourself buying less stuff and start saving money.

One good habit will lead to others.

Have you learned any secrets in the development of good habits?

For the last couple months, I’ve been in the process of moving. Not just from one house to another, but from Tennessee to Ohio. I’ve come across boxes and boxes of things I’ve saved from my childhood. Baseball cards, comic books, video games, books, journals, action figures, and a million other trinkets.

The last night in Nashville a friend dropped by to say good-bye.

“So you have your entire life packed in a U-haul?” she said.

photo by The Muuj (creative commons license)

My stomach sank.

I wanted to argue with her and be offended by the question. But I couldn’t. She was right to an extent.

I thought to myself, “Is my real goal in life to accumulate more stuff?”

Emotional Attachments

Clutter represents a lack of decision making. Excess baggage does too.

If you’ve ever watched the TV show Hoarders, you will often see that those who hoard have an emotional attachment to the things they keep.

In the past I have not been great at making decisions. I over-analyze and play out all of the scenarios in my head. I play the “what if” game and just hang on to things I know I don’t need.

The baseball cards I have kept over the years are just my own version of Holden Caulfield’s ducks in Central Park from The Catcher in the Rye (affiliate link.) I want to keep a piece of my childhood, my innocence.

The Choice

I’m sure each of us is “hoarding” something in one way or another. We are emotional beings and we want to cling to the past to predict the future—or at least keep the future as familiar as possible.

Change scares us because of the uncertainty, but change can’t be controlled. Every day we know one phone call can change everything. Nothing in life is guaranteed.

Do we let this paralyze us or do we live—actually live—life?

Each day is an opportunity to choose.

If I had told anyone I was concerned about my weight, they would have laughed at me. By most standards I was still considered “okay.” The problem was not so much my weight at the time, but more the direction I was headed. Gradually, little by little, I was losing muscle and gaining fat.

I knew that if something didn’t change my developing problem would continue to grow. Literally.

And if I didn’t change something soon I would eventually find myself in a place I didn’t want to be. a place that would be much harder to recover from.

So I decided to make a change.

photo by Rob Ireton (creative commons license)

Try, Try Again

And I failed miserably.

At first I decided I would eat less. I would cut my proportions at meal time in half. But meal after meal, I found myself going back for seconds. And I also decided to skip dessert. Guess what happened. Meal after meal I found myself going for dessert.

Meal after meal, I failed.

Sitting there with a stuffed stomach I would be overwhelmed with guilt. Despite my best intentions, nothing was changing. I kept making the same bad decisions over and over.

I was stuck in my bad habits.

A New, Good Habit

Eventually I found something that did work for me. My wife mentioned that she wanted to start a low carb diet. I offered to do it with her wanting her to see me as the loving, supporting type of husband. I never told her the truth that I was really desperate to find a way to lose weight.

At first the low carb diet was impossibly hard. I was used to carb heavy foods, such as bread, filling my stomach at every meal. I would finish eating and I would never feel full.

A turning point came, however, when I discovered vegetables.

In the past I resisted fad diets because I thought it would be hard for me to stick to it at work. I eat at the cafeteria every day and most of the foods there are not necessarily designed for those who are counting their carb intakes. Except for the vegetables.

I starting reading food labels and found out that I could eat all of the broccoli and carrots and cauliflower and squash and zucchini I wanted. I would have them fill an entire plate full of every vegetable that was offered each day. And I would eat as many vegetables as I could stand.

Intially the sheer volume of food helped me to feel satisfied. Eventually, however, I learned that I liked the vegetables. I learned that they not only can taste good, but they made me feel better.

Later, after losing a significant amount of weight, I stopped the low-carb diet, but I kept eating the vegetables. I like how they tasted. I liked how they made me feel. I liked how they were low in calories.

I learned I liked vegetables. And a new, good habit was born.

Change Your Path with Good Habits

Where we end up in life is decided by the road we take. The path we are on is decided by the choices we make. Sometimes that path is decided by the big decisions, like whom to marry or what to study or which job to take.

Most of the time, though, our path is determined by the small decisions we make on a daily basis. These small decisions are made out of habit. Good habits help you go where you want to be. Bad habits take you somewhere you don’t.

And bad habits can be hard to quit.

The secret to stopping bad habits is to develop good habits to replace them.

You need to stop trying to stop. And you need to practice choosing what you want to choose.

Instead of quitting something, try doing something new. If it is a good habit, if it makes you feel better, eventually you will lose interest in the old, bad habit. Over time you will naturally find yourself choosing the good one more and more.

And one day you will find that you have become the person you want to be.

The path itself is uneven, scattered with rocks and stones and tree roots. In some places it is covered with leaves and branches making the correct path impossible to see. The bridge that once crossed the rushing river is now rotted and unstable. In some areas the bridge is incomplete.

The path is empty and lonely. It feels like nobody has walked down it in a long time. Some approach, but once they see it, they move on. The few who venture out onto the uncertain trail often turn around.

photo by Centurion (creative commons license)

A Good Thing

Most of the time  when I tell someone I have adopted three special needs kids from China, they respond positively. A smile will spread across their face. Most people tell me how amazing my wife must be (which happens to true). Some even tell me they wish there were more people who would do such a thing in the world.

Rarely does someone respond negatively.

My experience has been that everyone seems to agree that adoption is good. We all know that for children to be helpless, poor, and abandoned is not right. It is not the way life is supposed to be.

Kids are supposed to have parents and families. They are supposed to have their medical needs adequately addressed. All little ones, no matter race or gender or physical need or religion, deserve love.

And when we see children go from alone and helpless to being part of a family, it resonates with us. We know it to be good in the deepest part of our being. And when we hear the stories of others, like my friend Amber, it warms our souls.

Which leads to an important, logical question. If so many people believe adoption to be a good thing then why are there so many orphans?

If everyone knows that helping children is good, then why do so few choose to do it?

The Simple Answer

The question leads to a bigger one. Why do we not choose to do what we know to be good? Why do we choose to ignore? Why do we choose to be indifferent?

Whether the issue is adoption or helping the mother considering abortion or helping the homeless or getting clean water to those who are without or getting medicine to those with HIV, why do we not choose to be a part of the solution?

There are different ways to answer. Sometimes we say we don’t have the money or time. Sometimes we say we don’t have the resources. Sometimes we say we need to do other things first, like get married or save up money or become established with a good job.

And these reasons may be true. And they may be good reasons to wait or to do something else.

I believe there is a simpler, deeper answer. The reason more people don’t do these good things is because it is so hard to do.

Everybody Wants the Good Life

Why is it so easy for Apple and Samsung to sell new phones? Why is it so easy to convince people to buy new cars? Why is it so easy for the Super Bowl to sell every ticket at a ridiculous price?

Because these things are fun. We enjoy them. The only price we pay is our money, and we immediately get something in return.

The roads we tend to choose are easy. They are wide. They feel safe. And everybody else is on them.

Love is the Narrow Path

We are surrounded by need and suffering and poverty and hurt. We see it all around us, but we don’t stop and help. We don’t give more of our time. We don’t give more of our money. We don’t enter into the suffering with those who are unable to escape it.

We don’t choose the path of love because it is hard.

Any good work that needs to be done, orphan care or otherwise, is this way.

No wonder there are still so many orphans. No wonder there are so many who are sick and poor. No wonder there are so many who are lonely. The road to help them is long and hard and narrow.

To love will cost us something. To love will open ourselves to the risk of being hurt. To love will mean giving up things we do not like to give up.

To love means to die to ourselves.

Why?

Why have you chosen not to do the hard work of love?

Is it because you don’t have enough money? Or is it because you don’t want to spend your money on somebody else?

Is it because you don’t have enough time? Or is it because you don’t want to give up all your time to somebody else?

Is it because you think it is prudent to avoid the work? Or is it because you are afraid of what it might cost you?

While it a subject that you don’t enjoy thinking about, it can be critical to living a better story.

That subject is the ending of your story.

The problem is that if you do not know where you want to go, then you will never make the hard choices you need to make in order to get there.

Knowing where you want to end up, helps you choose how to get there.

photo by Brian Koprowski (creative commons license)

Too often decisions are made without much thought beyond how the outcome affects today or tomorrow or next year.

Too often decisions are made primarily with feeling or desire, and not enough with the intention of a well-lived story.

Too often decisions are made based on what we want now and not what we want later.

Bad Stories Happen to Good People

Do you know someone who is in the middle of a story that nobody would want? They never wanted their life to head in that direction, but somehow it did. They never meant to end up where they are, but now it feels next to impossible to get out.

These types of stories do not happen over night. They are not the result of one bad decision. They happen as an accumulation of bad decisions. They are the result of choices made, whether intentional or note, over time.

A bad or painful or unwanted story will happen to anyone who does not choose to live a better one.

The Good News

The good news is today is not too late. A step in the right direction now is also a step away from the wrong direction.

In order to make better choices, however, you first have to know where you want to go.

If you choose a story of being fit and healthy, then choosing to exercising becomes easier. And choosing to not eat dessert clearer. And over time, you will get there.

If you set before yourself the goal of being debt-free, then putting a set amount into your savings each month and not buying a new car become the easy choice.

If you decide to live the kind of story where you are a friend to many, then you will more and more choose to reach out to others. To give of your time and money. To give of yourself.

If you choose a story that is about love, selfless, sacrificing, giving love, then everything will change.

No matter the story you want, the best time to start on it is today.

A Few Questions to Consider

1. Do you like the direction you are headed?
2. If you keep going down this road, where will you end up?
3. What will people say about you when you die?
4. What is one thing can you change about your life today to make the ending of your story better?

“Two.”

“Is that enough?” I asked.

“Yes,” my said son.

“Okay,” I said. “Do you need anything else? Did you forget anything?”

“I got it, Dad,” he said.

“Okay. Have a good trip.”

Learning through Experience

A week ago Sunday I dropped my son off at the church where his boy scout troop meets on a weekly basis. We pulled up in the parking lot filled with adolescent boys in tan and green uniforms. He picked up his tote out of the back of my car and carried to a truck waiting for him to load it.

I didn’t ask anymore questions. I wanted to make sure he had everything he needed. I wanted to interfere, but I stopped.

I didn’t know everything he put in the tote. I hoped he packed soap and toothpaste. I hoped he packed a towel. I hoped he packed extra underwear. I hoped he packed everything he needed.

But I didn’t ask anymore questions because if he didn’t, then that might even be better than my telling him what to do.

The lessons we learn best are not the ones we are taught through words, but the ones we are taught through experience.

photo by James Wheeler (creative commons license)

The Key to a Better Story

When choosing the story we want to live we often seek the advice of others. We read books about other people’s stories. We seek the counsel of  people who have gone before us. We search the internet for someone with similar experience.

Research is good. Information can be extremely helpful. Too often we do make mistakes that are avoidable. If someone has advice that can keep us from making a devastating decision, then listen.

But seeking out advice isn’t the difference maker. Knowing what you are doing before jumping in isn’t the key to successfully telling an amazing story.

Whether or not you live a better story depends less on what others think you should do or how much you know and more on you getting out there and doing it.

The Wrong Advice

The same goes with the stories we live. Too often we spend precious time and energy seeking advice. And too often the advice we are given is that we are not ready. Or we don’t know enough. Or we should never try something so ridiculous. Too often we are told the work we seek to do will be too much for us.

And too often we quit before we even begin. We never live the story we need to live. Sometimes it is out of fear. Sometimes it is out of “discretion” from wise counsel.

If somebody else tells us how to live it, then maybe we don’t learn the lesson. Maybe we don’t appreciate how important something is.

And if we learn something the hard way, maybe we learn it even better than if somebody had told us.

From this perspective our mistakes become beneficial. They present an opportunity to grow and learn.

If you can avoid mistakes, then do it. If you can make better choices, I can’t think of a reason you shouldn’t.

But don’t let being ready keep you from starting.

What He Forgot

I want to make sure my son was ready before going on this trip. I wanted to make sure he was completely prepared and that he had all the resources he needed. I wanted to make sure he was safe.

But more than that, I wanted him to go on the trip, ready or not.

I picked him up two days ago. Believe it or not, he was fine. He came back in one piece, one big dirty piece.

He also came back one step closer to becoming an independent, mature adult, which is what I as his dad want for him.

We talked about the new people he met. We talked about earning new merit badges. We talked about his desire to make Eagle Scout. We talked about the kids who go in trouble for bringing their cell phones. We talked about him giving a bag of M&M’s to somebody that looked homeless. We talked about Scuba diving.

He only briefly mentioned once that he wish he had packed another pair of pants. But even that didn’t really matter anymore.

Once he arrived home, the only thing that did matter was the experience.