Endurance of the elements will teach you a lot about your own fortitude. Lessons about your biological physicality, paired up with with realizations about limitations of your own tempered psychology… all at once, they become painfully yet so quickly obvious. Nothing will break both points to you as brutally (and in tandem) as suddenly being thrust into sub-zero weather… fresh out of 110º Southern California. Either way, it was his only choice life-wise. In the back of his mind, David Hojak hated it.

Granted, David Hojak is a Green Bay Packers fan.

He did his best to enjoy the difference in climate between where he was from… and where he’d relocated to. Despite struggling intermittently health-wise alongside carrying on-and-off insurance, he took a job out there with a pay-card company. His goal: find us relocated ASAP. I had to get the hell out of this area. The realization came the first time I felt an actual temperature in the negative twenties.

I called a man I’d done business with in the past. We talked, I expressed to him that I was about to freeze to death where I was, and he empathized. He advanced me the money necessary to take on a full-time role in his company… which involved relocation. Within a week of the advancement, we’d bought a truck, crammed it full & took off. We were headed west, towards much warmer weather. What Google told us would be a three-day drive, took just over two… giving us plenty of time to sight-see & learn the local surrounding city upon arrival.

(At first I actually anticipated it happily.)

After only about a year, the woman I’d moved there with felt most comfortable marrying me. Having been younger, though still the “provider,” I reluctantly obliged… yet once that ring slid onto her finger, so much changed. She retracted into our bedroom effortlessly & laid on our bed for days at a time… only occasionally vertically positioning herself to have fun with her Xbox. She didn’t even change the cat’s litter box. Throughout the course of our relationship, she’d have a cigarette on the patio, or join me for a smoked bowl. Her ultimate contribution was minimal, as I found myself supporting her more often than not. It was as though she was somehow sneaking food orders home without me knowing. All she ever made sounds for were the absence of food or Marijuana.

I spent as much time enjoying the sands of Vegas as I could. About a year and a half into the job, my health caused my boss to let me go. One day, well after that job, while commuting to another, the “Feels Like” temperature read 131º…. then two days after that, a car accident forced me to leave Vegas… minus my first-wife, who’d suddenly disappeared prior. I took maybe 1/1000th of my belongings. Of everything I’d brought with me & earned as I stayed… all my life’s souvenirs & hand-me-downs from generations of relatives, some purchased electronics, collectibles I eventually lost… it all came down to a variety of boxes I brought. Sadly, things after my immediate departure from Vegas invited the loss of my most sentimental items. Some were heirlooms.

Not every opportunity is one to rush towards. Some will urge more strategic thinking. Even though “they” can seem to appeal as though the winning play is to run “their” race, be wary. An organization’s own self-interests, even in business, are always first and foremost in every contract you sign. Fine print redefines everything. Minimizing their own liabilities and vulnerabilities is a prioritized undertaking. It comes with every employee they sign on, and everyone is “subject to their terms.” For as much effort as you dedicate to your role, as much goes into critiquing your performance. Subconsciously, you’re being slave-driven within the confines of the “terms of a contract,” or “employment agreement.” Fun stuff, eh?

Do your best to educate yourself, seek & find a way to make yourself worth something to society…… then get out there and show the world what you’ve got. People with ambition and creative originality are rare these days. You’re not always going align so quickly with the mind that yours meets & ultimately agrees with the most. Often, these discoveries take evaluations. Always be aware of how capable you are of making your best contributions, wherever you are, whenever you’re there.

To see some of the best places we will, some of us will endure the worst. Not everyone you know is born into wealth. Sometimes, getting there requires earning it. We live in a modernized world where so little is actually given to so few. Those that surround you are hanging on, if even desperately, to everything they have. Society works in this era to simply guard and secure what they’ve rightfully earned. Nothing is guaranteed. Even less is promised. We are truly in an era where every man is fending for himself, regardless of impedance. No one these days has time for “handicaps,” and everyone assumes impunity. Whether citizen or country, these people seem feral as they stare & dream of life beyond their own land.

Dreams & ambitions have suddenly become nightmares & panic. Modernized culture’s thought process has overtaken logical, considerate thinking… and it’s heartbreaking. Knowing one had opportunities to stave off the worst… that can be a personal experience that makes you never want to love again.



“The sense of anger I had when I was younger is something I thought would never go away. Over time, it’s something you get almost bored with.”

~Chris Cornell