Until I Crash

In 2013, I bought $10K of Apple stock. This was my entire savings at the time. I doubled my money and thought I was rich. Then I blew it all on a pilot's license, mostly because I had no idea what I wanted to do at the end of college. More importantly, I had no idea how to manage any money. $20,000 is a lot to a kid in his early 20s.

My initial thought was to go to Navy Officer Candidate School where I would become a fighter pilot, but having terrible eyesight, this was not possible. No Top Gun for me.

Today, flying is expensive, and since I can only fly small planes not near clouds that have a ceiling around 12,000 ft, the Rocky Mountains aren't exactly the best place to casually relearn how to fly.

But alas, the itch to fly has always remained.

In middle school, I loved making short films, but it wasn't cool in high school, so I didn't pursue it. Apparently, the saying goes: As an adult, if you don't know what you love, you should think back to what you enjoyed during grade school. This is such good advice.

If you don't know what you enjoy, think back to grade school.

I didn't take that advice for a long time. Fast forward to post-college. I was working in finance. It wasn't my forte, and I wasn't certain what I wanted to do. So when I turned 26, I quit my job to travel the world for a year and a half: living out of hostels, sleeping on random people's floors, and getting by on a shoestring. Or so they say.

I loved it.

I documented that trip in a little video.

But as time passed, I forgot about it. I'm 38 now, and that trip was 12 years ago. Then a month ago, a reminder from Google Photos brought me back to this video. I watched it again. It was emotional. I felt like I was missing something.

So I bought a drone, retail therapy at its best.

My intention is to film:

• the mountains I walk up
• the streams I cross
• the meadows I sit in
• the animals I see (at a safe and respectable distance)
• the sunsets and sunrises I enjoy

This is mostly for me.

There are two things here: flying and documenting my life. Storytelling.

So, having said that, here is my first video.