Michigan Monologue

I’m starting to realize that many of the things I hold dear in life are the very things I neglected along the way. Since I’ve been away, I’ve been trying to figure out what truly makes me happy. I know I haven’t been, recently. I’ve been telling myself that work makes me happy — and it does, on some level. There’s a real joy I get from accomplishing hard things.

But I lost a lot along the way, and being on vacation has made me realize it. Some of the foundational things in my life were pushed to the wayside. At the beginning of the year, I changed the architecture of my life. I stopped reading, working out, and giving myself grace to have fun. It’s okay to celebrate the wins in your life every once in a while. I know this isn’t a new concept, and yet I still struggle with the voice in my head. I’m working on it.

Being around a slower pace of life has shown me the value of slowing down. I think we’re all rats in the race of life. Some of us become bigger, some of us want it more, and some of us don’t want it at all. And that’s totally fine — do you. I’ve realized that I do want it, but not all of it. I want to pursue this conquest of life. I get a deep sense of fulfillment from figuring out the process. I want to test my limits. Without that test, life would feel boring to me.

And part of that process is the people you meet along the way. I understand you’re going to run into bad actors. But among the rough, there are diamonds — people who genuinely want you to win, who care about your growth. I’ve treated a lot of people like enemies when they did nothing wrong. That’s hurt me more than I realized. I’ve lost people who truly wanted the best for me.

Here’s the thing: I can be abrasive. But beneath that, I think there’s a real desire to see people win. I want to build a crew. A team that wins together.

It feels like I’ve been living under a kind of “Do It Alone” fallacy. It's a work in progress, and I’m sure others have talked about it before. There’s a common idea that for someone to win, someone else has to lose. That might be true in a closed system. But it doesn’t really apply to daily life. We interact with people every day, and we’re social creatures — we enjoy connecting with each other. Here’s the secret: we can all win. What I mean is, people who naturally want to better themselves tend to band together.

Yes, it’s scary to be ostracized from the herd. That often comes with hate. But don’t worry about the people who hate. At the end of the day, it’s jealousy. They’re jealous you’re chasing your dreams while they sit back and watch — realizing they never attempted theirs.

This realization really hit me when I went to an open mic night. I’ve always wanted to try stand-up, and I think this was the perfect training ground for it. There were maybe three people there. I made a deal with one of them — this girl who wanted to perform. I said, “If you sing, I’ll get up and sing too.” She sang Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter, and then it was my turn. I got up and sang.

It was nerve-racking. My cadence was off, my voice cracked, and I was full of anxiety. But in that moment, I realized something powerful: nobody cared. In fact, they were more impressed that I just got up there. That experience showed me the importance of pursuing what I care about. One of those things is building community. What’s the point of it all if you reach the end and have no one to share it with?

Later, I spoke to that girl. She wants to keep singing, and I encouraged her to post simple covers on Instagram — or whatever she feels comfortable with.

The thing about the city is, it imbues you with this sense of go. It’s like a bullet train — fast-moving, where speed defies gravity. But the problem is, it doesn’t give you time to appreciate the view. I still believe working hard is essential. You can’t accomplish your dreams without it. But I’ve learned to reframe hard work. It’s okay to stop and take in the view. Without the “view”, there would be no journey. And those stories are the gems that eventually get set into the crown.

Half a year has already flown by, and as I sit here reflecting, I realize I’ve collected some really amazing stories. I started the year with my family in Michigan, then flew to Phoenix for work that same month. February came, and I was on a plane again — this time to Las Vegas for a work event. It was eye-opening. Seeing all these tech people let loose — it was freeing.

I didn’t travel again until now. As I write this, I’m back in Michigan. Scattered between all those moments was hard work. I worked every weekend. And even during those weekends, I found time to chill on rooftops with DJs, take meetings with Merrill, and evaluate a laundromat deal. There are more stories, of course — but these are just the highlights.

I’m not sharing this to boast — I’m sharing to inspire. To encourage people to chase their passions, because at the end of the day, that’s what matters. The haters are going to do their thing. No one’s going to root for you as hard as you will. So get out there and collect those gems.