What was it like growing up?
Well, it was a little rough. I think that growing up is awkward for everybody, but we grew up in a very, very small town called Huntsville, Utah. If anybody passed gas in that town, everybody else knew about it. It was a very tight-knit community, but we actually weren’t really part of the community. Huntsville was a predominantly Mormon community, and were not a part of the Mormon church. We were raised outside of the church, and so we didn’t attend their functions. In school, I was a little bit of an outcast and I was always looking for acceptance. At home, my dad was really involved with my younger brother. They did a lot of things together. And my mom was involved with my older brother. I was the middle child, so I felt a little left out, and was often left to my own devices. What else was I going to do other than get in trouble? And I did my fair share of that.
Growing up in the country with lots of open space and nothing to do taught me how to be creative. It taught me how to find something to do at any point in time, and how to really make life a game because life can either be a playground or a prison, regardless of our circumstances. This is actually something that is very heavily mirrored in the Indonesian philosophy of I wasn’t laughing, I’d be crying. Life is very difficult over there. So what do you do?
What can you do to keep yourself pushing forward and enjoying life? It all begins with a choice.
The first choice: do you want life to be a prison or do you want it to be a playground? If it’s going to be a playground, now what? Look around you.
What is available? What can I do? What can I look for? What can catch my attention?
Next, start getting in that current, and let your attention flow in one direction until you find the next thing, and then you find the next thing, and then you find the next thing. It’s amazing how some of the greatest memories I have in my life are from adventures that started off in one direction, and then quickly turned right or left, and absolutely did not end up where I meant to go in the beginning. As we approach life, I always try to keep in mind that it’s always an adventure. I want life to be a playground, not a prison. As we unlock ourselves, our bodies, and our consciousness, this is one of the greatest things that I could ever pass on.
Every person that I know that is in their later years and still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed is absolutely learning new stuff everyday. Playing every day. They are living just like they are a child. Their bodies may have aged, but their hearts are still young. And I’m taking lessons from those that are older than me, wiser than me, and setting the right example. That’s where I want to be when I’m old and gray. Bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and still having fun.
Growing up was quite interesting. And I’ll be honest with you, I’m still doing it.