Today I’m a little nostalgic as it marks 10 years from the day I arrived home from my mission on November 7, 1997. It’s amazing how many of the little details I remember from that day… from the ride to the airport that morning in Rochester, New York… to the feeling I had as my plane was about ready to touch down in Salt Lake City… I even remember the exact smell of my house as I walked through the front door for the first time in 2 years.
11-7-97 has had even more significance as I look back at my life in retrospect. It’s as if that was the very point in my life where my aspirations were at an all-time high and my responsibilities were at an all-time low. On 11-7-97 my life was simple, the slate was blank, and the road ahead seemed straight and easy to follow…. yet that very road took some unexpected twists and turns along the way (starting just hours later) and the journey through my 20’s turned out very different from what I had envisioned. Truthfully I’ve spent much of the past 10 years wishing I could go back to that very day and do things a bit differently.
I definetly have a different perspective on life than I did 10 years ago… and hopefully I’ve become a better person. If you ask me now… I wouldn’t go back and do things differently… because the journey got me to where I am today. I love my wife, my kids, my career, and generally most things about my life here in 2007.
So what’s my theory? Well… it’s more of a hypothetical… Suppose a silver DeLorean were to pull up today… and Dr. Emmett Brown were to open the door and offer to deliver a special NOTE TO MYSELF for 11-7-97… Here are the things I would probably scribble down as advice for myself 10 years ago….
– Be more PATIENT and listen a little bit harder
– Beware of women whose names aren’t LAURA Creer or Cindy Crawford
– Invest in your EDUCATION and Study hard
– Go long on GOOGLE
– Eat less Chubby Hubby Ice Cream and Peanut Butter M&Ms
– Become a PATRIOTS fan
– TRAVEL more… a lot more
– Take more PICTURES and smile more
– Don’t rear end a Lexus when pulling out from an Albertsons Parking Lot
– Purchase some Apple stock at the same time you purchase your ipod
– Learn from the past but look forward to the FUTURE