Living a Life that You Love
It all begins with an idea.
What does it mean to live a life you love? The answer is different for each one of us and many of us search for the answer our whole lives.
I have lived a Life that I could write so many stories about, my wife (Ashlee) is always telling me I need to write a book. My story, like many, has ups and many downs.
After high school, I attended college, worked many jobs, and at a early age of 22 I was accepted into a skilled trades apprenticeship in Detroit Michigan. A dream job for many, and even for me in the moment, it was just that. I took the apprenticeship extremely serious always working hard, achieving welding accolades, and I made it my personal mission to be sought after on jobs for my skills. The apprenticeship opened many doors for me that I will always be great-full for the people that I met and the friends I keep. The Apprenticeship lead to other construction based avenues and I wore many titles along the way. All of them were financially rewarding and jobs that people work hard to get and harder to keep.
The trades, traveling, and working on the road can be a wicked place for a young man. The devil prays on people who have the slightest weakness, doubts, or fears. He got a hold of me, sank his teeth in, grabbed a hold tight, and tried his best to bring me down. As I was working away from home, and falling victim to his snake bite, my family was living a life without me being present. Even when I was physically at home, mentally I was not. I couldn't turn off the work mode. For some people this lifestyle fits them perfectly and that is great, I am in no way saying anything bad about the careers or the people as it can be very rewarding. For me, financially it was great, but mentally and physically it was killing me. Honestly in the moment I had no clue the grip it had on me and I'm not ashamed to say that eventually like many it took me to a crossroads. I knew in my heart that this business was not where I was meant to spend my time and it was definitely not where my soul needed to be.
Life is precious. We get one ride on this beautiful planet and one day I got the courage to step off of the skilled trade bus and onto a bus that many are afraid to buy a ticket for. A ticket to the ride where you are the bus driver on a road that is filled with questions, doubt, optimism, hope, excitement, fear, and passion. A passion to make a life for my family that some may say is old fashion. It's simple really, love God, love family, and work hard.
To top this new ride off I decided to be the bus driver on a Taxidermy bus lol. Many people think of Taxidermy as a taboo or wierd hobby, and my fear of what other people would think of me stepping back from a career kept me from pursuing this desire.
But as you grow older, mature, and try to gain some wisdom, sometimes you realize things.
stop letting the voice in your head determine your choices/actions
People all have their own internal struggles that they deal with and honestly they don't think about your life as much as you think they do. For real, lets face it, although in your own mind you hyper analize what others “might think” or “what they might say”. I do fully believe now that in reality, these people that we worry about thier thoughts actually have their own worries, doubts, obstacles, and they definitely don't put one smidgen of as much time into thinking about our “what if situations” like we let our own inner voices tell us.
If they do criticize or poke fun, don't let it stop you.
If doing something makes you happy, it does not matter if people think your crazy. And at this point if weird is what I am than I am perfectly content with being weird lol.
The feeling I get when I am in my shop with my wife and two sons at my side. The feeling I get when I do my best to honor the animal who paid the sacrifice for us hunters to eat and have an absolute blast chasing after.
God has created the most unthinkable amazing place we call earth. There will be a day that I get to rejoice with him (how amazing will that hug feel!) and tell him how beautiful this place is and how I did my best job to respect and love the animals he blessed us with.
Until then you will find me trying to live a life that I love. At the age of 42 I feel like I am now kinda maybe somehow possibly starting to figure this thing we call life on earth out lol. Well, maybe not figuring it out but I can say without hesitation that I am figuring out what makes me happy.
Loving God and giving thanks. Over the past few years I have really developed love for giving him thanks. The fact that somehow I was picked to get put on this earth is a miracle in itself. If you can tune out the news media and all of the BS from the political storm that never seems to end and just honestly look around this place is pretty cool. If you start to look for the good in places you will find it. It’s all around us. When I am in the shop working, I routinely find myself deep in thought on how in the heck I got so lucky to be doing what I love to do. I give thanks to him.
Being who I want to be and not what I think I should be in terms of the mainstream. In a world that can be so quick to try and cancel anyone who actually has their own opinion.
I may not have always lived this way but I will swear to each day forward that I will do my best to be a good Taxidermist, better person, loving father, and greatful to the man upstairs for all he provides, because living this life, is a life I love.