about this blogger

Don’t you just hate being a walking cliché?

I sure do.  But whether you embrace it or run from it, you’ll end up in the same place, stinking the same cliché stench.  And what of your old friend Mr. Wells?  Quite frankly, the guy reeks.

My name is Ben, and I am an existentially anxious 24 year old [update: and counting], likely in the throws of a quarter-life crisis, bemoaning the prospect of committing to a career.  I am realizing- perhaps signaling my official entry into adulthood- that the life we always imagined we’d live rarely materializes.  Compounding this realization is a somewhat obsessive thought pattern that dwells frequently on the finite nature of life.

With toilet paper my shiny liberal arts diploma in hand, I enrolled in graduate school to quit my foolin and get some learnin.  I went to law school telling myself I didn’t want to be a lawyer.  What I really wanted to be was an entrepreneur, and I had heard that a law degree couldn’t hurt.  Then reality set in.  Sure I can start a business, but  I’ve yet to stumble upon any entrepreneurial stroke of genius and I’ve got loans to pay.  So it looks like I’ll have to compromise and get a real job, at least for a while.

 Next thing you know, you’re knee-deep in a midlife crisis.

And I wonder just how many people before me fell into the same trap- I’ll go down this road, but only for a little while.  Next thing you know, you’re knee-deep in a midlife crisis.  I am terrified of this.  I feel the weight of my existence in every decision I make, and it’s a weight I can’t seem to shake.  I suppose this is just the big-boy briches I struggle to wear.  Peter Pan, I can relate.

I hear people profess, “find a passion and you’ll never work a day in your life.”  Yeah great, thanks bro.  “Find gold and you’ll never be poor.”  Tell me how to find the gold.  Tell me how to strike the oil.  Tell me how to find my passion.  And believe me, I’ve already searched on google.

I’ve read all sorts of anecdotes and words of wisdom from those who have been there and done that.  The consensus seems to be that you’ll find your passion through engagement.  Get out, explore the world, and and soak it in.  Live life and passion emerges organically.  Thing is, I just don’t know if this is a good enough answer for me.  I don’t want to drift forever.  I want a map and destination.  Or at the least, a compass and direction.

My dad used to own a outrigger canoe building business and my uncle started a business that made bicycle trailers.  My dad was passionate about the ocean and my uncle loved bikes.  Makes sense, right?  I always thought that this was the coolest thing ever.  To be able to hold that which you have created and share it with the world, to solve some problem or make an improvement.  I wake up each day wanting to be an entrepreneur.