Memories are closer to stories we tell ourselves than to photographs. Once you remember something, you’re prone to change it. A detail here, a color there. Over the years, these memories can be remembered very differently.
And so I write this for when you come back to this particular memory: you would do it again. You’d wake up, pick a snack and ride a train to the next city, lie down for a few hours and go to the concert—for 4 days straight. You’d wait for a 3am bus at a closed gas station in the Norwegian cold. You’d fly for 26 hour straight and collapse back home.
Today, a trip better than this one feels out of reach, but who am I to say? I’m still riding the high. Get some rest, live your life and see if you can top it. For now, I drink to old dreams fulfilled and new memories to hold on to ☕️.
Porque eres tú, mi sol,
La fe con que vivo,
La potencia de mi voz,
Los pies con que camino,
Eres tú, amor,
Mis ganas de reír,
El adiós que no sabré decir,
Porque nunca podré vivir
Sin ti
💞
Every Friday after high school, I’d come by to the local arcade and play for hours. I’d arrive at 4pm, after eating and changing from school and just play until they closed at 10pm. Sometimes they’d close and leave a few of us an extra 30 minutes. It made me feel special.
Friends would come and go during the afternoon while I played Pump it Up (a dancing game similar to Dance Dance Revolution) until my t-shirt was damp with sweat. I was skinny af, as you may imagine.
They closed down a few years ago, a sure sign that the times had changed. I visited with Amy, my daughter, and reminisced about all the happiness and friendships that grew from this place.
I hope she is as lucky as I was, to find a place where she was accepted and where she can discover who she is; just like I did at my local arcade.
It’s very difficult to know where things are going. Many years ago, I got a job as a senior developer for a fully remote company. They liked my work so much that I became more of a jack of all trades, helping with product strategy.
To coordinate for the upcoming year, we had a retreat at beautiful Cancún. It was a disaster. I was too stubborn to recognize that I was not a good fit for the company, and I only realized during a huge fight with some coworkers.
I left the company shortly after.
I was devastated, but after leaving the company, I landed a job that helped me acquire my mortgage so we finally bought a house. After that, I landed my dream job at 37signals.
Sometimes the good times aren’t so good and the bad times aren’t so bad. You don’t really know until time passes. All we can do is give it our all and hope for the best.
Today was World Read Aloud Day and I was invited by Amy’s Pre-K teachers to read a book to her class. This was a surprise to her, as the activity is usually called Mystery Reader.
I chose to read Red Shoes by Karen English. A beautiful story about a girl that finds a pair of dazzling red shoes. I read to them, hugged Amy and left her to enjoy the rest of her day.
I was ecstatic to be chosen and it’s such a beautiful experience to share with my daughter. It’s a precious memory now 💖
I bought my first motorcycle 10 years ago. I don’t remember exactly why I wanted one, but I remember how underwhelming it felt the first time I rode one. I was going slow, I didn’t know about counter steering and I was afraid of accelerating.
After a few rides, I discovered the raw emotion only a motorcycle can provide. It makes you feel alive. It fills a void in my life. There really is no substitute to an open road, headphones and a roaring bike.
I miss it often.
