Most Recent
An Interview with a Real Life Yesman
This is an interview with my great friend, Alex Chmiel, who began earning the nickname, "Yesman" two years ago when we met WWOOFing on a farm in Hawaii. Since, he's continued earning his nickname saying Yes to things from winning concert tickets from radio stations, to spontaneous hot air balloon rides, to college graduation speeches. He's about to set out on a five and a half month walk across the United States from Mexican to Canadian border through the mountains, so I was ecstatic for the opportunity to interview him about his relationship with the word Yes before he drops off the grid for a while.
In Memory of an Astronaut
I met Steve “Boomer” Santistevan because, like him, my life was saved by the staff of Phoenix Children's Hospital. I had an infection of the fluid surrounding my brain and spine, causing a brain-damaging stroke. Boomer had a brain tumor that was supposed to be the end of him. Yet, there we were—still breathing and more alive than ever before. We were the embodiment of the best possible outcomes of our afflictions. I woke up from a coma and made a full recovery. Boomer defied death, miraculously navigating the narrowest path of survival through dozens of brain surgeries.
Hanging onto the fringes of life and peering over the edge changed us. For us both, life was no longer a struggle, but a gift. We knew there was no such thing as the "daily grind." Every day was a miracle. And anyone who might disagree just didn't understand.
We also found purpose in giving back to the non-profit children's hospital that saved our lives. I chose to ride a bicycle across the United States as a fundraiser. Boomer ran marathons, walked, and participated yearly in the Ignite Hope Candlelight Walk at the hospital, a moving experience I regret not sharing with him.
“How Did I Get Here?” Moments
An old Toyota pickup that was roughly converted into a dump truck cruised a Hawaiian highway with dense jungle on both sides. In the back of the dump truck was a giant pile of bananas. Atop that pile of bananas were three guys. I was one of them.
The absurdity of the situation baffled me as I sat, precariously perched atop a pile of fruit at such high speeds. I looked at my buddy, Alex, with near disbelief. “Dude!” I yelled through the wind, “Do you realize we’re in Hawaii riding down the highway in the back of a dump truck full of bananas right now?”
We laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation as we attempted to juggle bananas, throwing them forward into the 65mph blast of wind that would push them back towards you to catch as you tossed the next. Chuckling, I incredulously wondered aloud, “How did I get here?”
The Most Beautiful Sunrise of My Life
A certain energy was in the air. It was one of those rare mornings when you wake up conscious of your surroundings and what you're about to do because it's the day.
My sister and I rolled up our sleeping bags, broke down the tent, and packed everything with a hushed fever and deliberateness. After failing to do so almost exactly two years previous due to an unprecedented August snowstorm, we once again found ourselves at Guitar Lake, preparing to make our second attempt at the 14,505ft Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the continental United States.
It was 2:15am. Four of us stood around trying to maintain a degree of stoicism toward the effort that lay ahead, distracted and awed by the stars above. Well above the treeline, our surroundings consisted of rock and dirt, giving us an unobstructed view of the Milky Way that spanned across the entire night sky. The air felt like one would imagine space to feel if it were hospitable—cold, crisp, still. My hands were crammed into a pair of used, crusty wool socks for warmth. Unable to use my thumbs, I awkwardly attempted uncomfortable grip variations of my trekking poles.
10 Rules for Insanely Cheap Travel
I've spent a majority of the past two years traveling and honed some serious ultra-cheap traveling skills. I've bicycled across the United States, lived like a local in Mexico, worked as a deckhand on a cruise ship, and had many other adventures on a shoestring budget.
I am not rich, nor do I have passive income. I just picked up skills, strategies, and a host of resources along the way that make traveling insanely cheap. I suppose you could call me a “travel hacker.” A quick example: I spent two and a half months on the Big Island of Hawaii last summer for $669 (including airfare) without budgeting or “penny pinching.”
Here are 10 rules I attempt to follow that produce some insanely inexpensive trips:
Breathtaking Moments and Our Incessant Need to Capture Them
I took this photograph last week overlooking Horseshoe Bend. The view was absolutely stunning, but I must admit, I feel like a bit of a fraud flaunting it.
You see, though it may look like I trekked a dozen miles to reach such an epic view or that I was standing alone pondering life's deeper questions along the cliff's edge, that's simply not the case. The image might make me look like quite the explorer or at least a bit more adventurous, but the truth is I was surrounded by hundreds of people simultaneously taking the exact same picture.
The parking lot for Horseshoe Bend is literally right next to the highway. It's a mere 10-minute stroll to the cliff's edge that thousands of people make every day.
Since the advent of social media, we've all developed this desire to capture and share our most epic moments. We share these images to make our lives appear more interesting and to receive validation. Validation is a great feeling, and anyone who uses Facebook, Instagram, or any other form of social media has undeniably felt this urge.
How to Stop Time From Accelerating And Turn A Hundred Years Into A Thousand
The older we get, the faster time seems to go. Like driving at a cliff with the pedal stuck to the floor, time feels like it's constantly accelerating. As we continue to age, this feeling of time speeding up can be quite unsettling, to say the least.
Recently, I decided to dig deeper into our perception of time and read Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception. The book is a review of time-based scientific research, drawing conclusions on how to "warp" time in your favor. It was all quite fascinating, but what interested me most was this phenomenon of time speeding up as we age.
Here's how it works:
Why You Should Stop Watching So Much TV and Be More Like Bruce Dickinson
A couple weeks ago, my younger sister was telling me about her weekend at the yearly Arizona Student Council Convention. One thing particularly stuck out for me from our conversation. A guest speaker at the convention brought up the vast difference between the amount of time we spend learning and the amount of time we spend watching TV:
In the United States, the average person spends 1.6 years learning and 9.3 years watching TV.
I found this absolutely shocking. So I did a bit of research and checked the math... If you count the total amount of time spent in school as learning and use actual government research that found we spend 2.8 hours per day watching TV - it's totally true.
School: 6 hours x 180 days x 13 years = 14,040 hours = 1.6 years
TV: 2.8 hours x 365 days x 80 years = 81,760 hours = 9.3 years
The Art of Failure
We'd been walking for three weeks.
Over mountain passes, through streams, and across vast tundra, only rocks and dirt in sight, too high up for plants to grow.
Well over 200 miles into our journey we saw it – Mount Whitney – triumphantly jutting skyward up to 14,505ft in elevation. The highest point in the contiguous United States and ultimate goal of our trek. Upon coming into view, we must have gaped at the site for twenty minutes, we were going to stand atop the summit.