Happy Birthday Uncle Roger

wildboom

Coming up with a tribute to someone who means a lot to you, how might one do that? I guess it depends on your talents. If you’re musical, like Jon, perhaps you could write a song or perform a cover of a song that is meaningful to that relationship. If you have adorable children, like Clifton, perhaps you could get away with having them do something cute. If you’re me, you could either do 70 pullups for each year this special person has graced the planet, or you could stay inside and write down some of your favorite memories. I think I’ll share some memories.

There are many places to start, but I think I’ll start with what is more of a confession than a story. I can’t remember exactly how old I was, probably around 6 or 7, when a package showed up out of the blue with Jon and my names on it. The return address was Uncle Roger. Inside were two brand new Swiss Army knives. After the initial safety brief by my dad, I remember wandering around outside carving sticks, throwing it at trees to see if I could get it to stick into them. I also remember having it open in the living room doing who knows what with it when I tragically cut my finger. I remember using the underside of the couch cushions to stop the blood. Pretty much the biggest rule my dad emphasized about this knife was not cutting myself. However, this was still the same day the package arrived. Jon was probably at a more suitable age for owning a knife, but none-the-less I will always remember that Swiss Army knife as my first knife thanks to Uncle Roger. The Swiss Army knife that I carry today still reminds me of Uncle Roger and that first knife.

Another early memory was one of my winter stays with Aunt Chris and Uncle Roger. I’m not sure if it was an unusually large snowfall or that’s just how it seemed to a young kid, but it was the ideal snow for some sledding. Lucky for me Uncle Roger took me to the stairs, all 100 or so, that lead down to the river. I remember flying down the stairs over and over each time compacting the snow more to make the ride a little faster than the one before. It was on one of those fast rides that I came barreling at Uncle Roger a little faster than he expected. He did a quick jumping jack and with his legs still, apart he reached in between his legs just in time to reach the last bit of fabric on my puffy winter coat before I took a joy ride down the remaining stairs and likely into the tree at the bottom of the hill.

When I was a little older Aunt Chris and Uncle Roger took Jon and me on a trip to Chicago. I can’t remember exactly what year it was but I think it was 2005 or 2006. In any case, the iPhone had not yet been released. Uncle Roger was rocking, the now vintage, Palm Pilot Treo. Not sure why he would let a 10-year-old play with it as much as he did, but he did. He let me try all sorts of modifications and new applications (the days before they were simply known as apps). By the end of the trip, his phone could play YouTube before YouTube had even developed and app and it could also stream live TV. The only problem was the calendar and phone no longer worked…

My last memory is of Clifton, Jon, Uncle Roger, and me playing golf in Caseville. I can’t remember my age, but I wasn’t interested enough to do anything other than putt when we were on the green. So, there I was sitting in the cart watching while Uncle Roger patiently gave some sage wisdom to Clifton about teeing off. Jon, the golf prodigy that he was, had already driven the ball down the fairway. I was half paying attention until I heard them yell “FORE!” and at that moment a ball Clifton had somehow hit backward went whizzing past the cart I was sitting in.

I could have done 70 pullups and called it good, but I don’t think that really would have told the full story of my appreciation and love for Uncle Roger. Honestly, there are probably 70 more stories that might get me closer. Reminiscing on those stories and thinking over the 23 years I have known Uncle Roger during his 70-year life so far has filled me with nothing but happy memories. I can confidently say I wouldn’t be quite the adventurous, independent, and happy positive man that I am today if it wasn’t for my Uncle Roger’s encouragement and time spent with me. We’ve had so many good memories together and I look forward too many more. Unfortunately, because of COVID-19, it looks like this birthday won’t be spent with the whole family, but my hope is that it is still a memorable one. Love you Uncle Roger and happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Uncle Roger

2020 “Be on the Road”

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If you don’t know me that well then you might not know that I like cheesy quotes. As we have started this new year and this new decade there is one in particular that has been on my mind. It goes like this:

“If you don’t know where you are going any road will get you there.”

I like that saying so much because I often feel like I have no idea where I’m going in life and there might not be a direction that speaks to me. Sometimes there is, but most often there isn’t and that’s okay. It’s not even that I need a destination and even if you do have one that’s not really the point. The point is to be on the road.

Another cliche saying talks about life as a journey and not a destination. It’s also been said as “The road is better than the inn.” They mean the same thing. In both, you can’t enjoy the journey unless you’re on the road. So even if you have no direction. You have to get on the road and you have to move forward. It doesn’t matter what road. It doesn’t matter if you take two steps forward and one step back. It doesn’t matter if you take one step a month. You just have to make sure you are moving forward.

There were times in my life where I thought I had it all figured out, but life is full of surprises. At the end of my undergrad at CMU, it was down to the last two for a graduate assistantship that would have paid for my entire master’s degree. I thought this was the plan. I was confident the assistantship was mine, but they gave it to the other person. The destination that I had been moving towards quickly became far less concrete. I had to think about whether it was something I really wanted to do. If it was free sure I’d do it, but when I was forced to slow down and think about it I definitely wasn’t confident enough to pay for it out of my own pocket.

Instead, I decided I would take the time to travel. It was the perfect time in my life where I didn’t have anything tying me down. I had a new direction. Part of that direction was pursuing Muay Thai fighting in Thailand. I always loved sports and this was my opportunity to pursue a sport seriously and without the restraints of a full-time job and the more expensive cost of living, I would have had in America. Then I got knocked out in a training round and bounced my head off the concrete suffering a concussion. That derailed my plans and made me really consider the dangers of the sport I was pursuing. It didn’t stop me from stepping into the ring and having one fight, but it probably stopped me from devoting a lot of time and energy to a sport with pretty severe long term consequences. Again the direction changed. This time I focused solely on traveling. I ended up having an amazing trip that spanned 7 months, 34 countries, and 4 continents. I saw so much. I learned so much and that made me really appreciative of what we have in America.

Those experiences abroad made me acutely aware of all the blessings we have and how I had taken many of them for granted. The power of an American passport, the power of being a native English speaker, the power of the American dollar and the ability to make a decent wage, and so many other things were on full display when I was traveling. The United States has given me so many opportunities and as a result, I wanted to do my part and serve. As soon as I got back I joined the Army National Guard. I made so many great friends through training and the Army has opened up so many opportunities for me.

If my original plan of grad school had worked out as I had planned I would have missed out on so many memories and experiences I can’t imagine living without. Instead, I stayed on the road and kept moving forward even if it was a different road than I started on. Now I’m one class away from my master’s degree except this time the Army is paying for it.

Now, as I move forward now into a new decade I have some plans, but in a lot of ways, I still don’t feel like I know where I’m going. But as I learned from the previous decade plans are prone to failure and destinations are always changing, but one thing is for sure. If you stay on the road and keep moving forward you will be surprised where the road takes you.

Big Personal Impacts in the Last Decade

  1. Started high school
  2. Started first real job at Dairy Queen
  3. Started wrestling
  4. Graduated high school
  5. Started college at Central Michigan University
  6. Started working in the college athletic department
  7. First solo trip to Nicaragua at age 19
  8. Bought my first house in the hood of Saginaw to rent out
  9. Graduated from CMU
  10. Bought a one-way plane ticket to Vietnam
  11. Trained Muay Thai and had a semi-pro fight
  12. Traveled the Transiberian Railroad
  13. Saw the Great Wall, Lake Baikal, Auschwitz, Berlin Wall, Eifell Tower, Mona Lisa, the Rock of Gibraltar, and other cool stuff
  14. Slept in the Sahara desert
  15. Sailed a crossed the Atlantic ocean from the coast of Africa to the Carribean (Canary islands to Antigua)
  16. Bought a house to live in, with friends, in Saginaw
  17. Joined the Army National Guard and got commissioned as an officer
  18. Army training and the friends I made
  19. Started training jiu jitsu
  20. Started my Master’s degree

Those are just some of the things that I accomplished in the last decade. I’m excited to see where the road takes me in the 2020s. God bless!

2020 “Be on the Road”

Summer’s Gone

wildboom

I have not done as good of a job at updating the blog as I would have liked, but I have an excuse and it’s school. I’m taking 18 graduate-level credits this semester and it is pretty draining. I am working towards my Master of Science in Administration with a leadership concentration. I only have so much mental bandwidth and unfortunately is goes to school instead of fun, creative thoughts that I might post here.

I have had some creative thoughts and ideas that I wanted to touch on here, but I really haven’t had time to really expand on them. If I do have some free time I try to spend it with family or friends and that’s what I’ve been doing.

All things considered, I’ve had a good summer! I had two weeks of annual training and then two and a half weeks of a warfighter exercise so I did lose about a month of summer to Army training. But I learned so much through those experiences and I made some good relationships. Aside from Army training and classes I made a couple of camping trips with friends and family and made it to a couple of weddings. Pretty recently I went tailgating in Wisconsin for their game against Central Michigan University and then this past weekend (10/12/2019) I went to Central Michigan’s homecoming and had a lot of fun with old college friends. Below is a mash-up of my summer photo highlights:

  • Saginaw Abandoned Train Station
  • Family Camping Trip in Ohio
  • Empire Bluff Trail
  • Camping near Sleeping Bear Dunes
  • Army Training
  • Not a great fisherman
  • Wedding
  • Party on McCarty gang
  • Abandoned house in Saginaw
  • Tailgating in Wisconsin
  • CMU Homecoming
  • Family Camping
  • Brothers

School has been going well and I actually had a really interesting emotional intelligence class during the summer. That class was actually valuable and I think I learned some stuff. For the most part, though I’ve been jumping through the hoops and not absorbing too much. I am a firm believer in Pareto’s principle which says that 80% of the result comes from 20% of the effort. An 80% is passing so if I can get away with 20% effort in the classes you better believe I’ll do it. Most of the classes are a waste of time anyway. If I want to be a better leader I would be reading biographies of great leaders and I would spend more mental bandwidth trying to lead as an officer in the Army National Guard. Instead, that mental bandwidth is going to classwork. As much as I complain about it I am excited that I’ve been given the opportunity to get a free master’s degree. Maybe someday it will get me where I want to go.

In lieu of my lack of creative thoughts, here is an assignment I did for a diversity class. I interviewed my Brazilian coworker Denis:

Diversity Interview

For the personal interview paper assignment, I chose to interview my coworker – Denis. Denis works as a welder at the guitar shop where I work. Denis is originally from Brazil where he met an American girl studying abroad. They fell in love and at first, she intended to stay in Brazil. However, Denis’s family encouraged him to follow her back to America where they believed there would be more opportunities for him. Denis doesn’t get to see his family much unless he travels to see them in Brazil. However, at the time of this interview, his parents had just left after visiting and staying with him for a month on their first trip to visit him in the United States.


Q: Growing up what was your perception of the work culture in Brazil? Do you think it was accurate?
A: “My perception of work culture in Brazil was that in order to do well, in whatever job it was, you needed to work hard. Growing up I watched my dad work hard and get ahead based on his work ethic. When I started working, I found that was true – hard workers were rewarded.”

Q: When you came to America what was your perception of the work culture? How has it changed since you’ve been here?
A: “When I came to America, I thought that you needed an education to; 1. Get a job, and 2. succeed. Now I know there are many jobs you can get without having an education but I think in order to really be successful in America, unless you get lucky, an education is necessary.”

Q: What are the biggest differences in work culture between America and Brazil and how do they affect you?
A: “I think the work culture in America is more easy going. People can have flexible schedules or time off depending on their situation. The pressure to work at a fast pace is less in America. Also, there’s not such a thing as a “sick day” in Brazil, unless you have a doctor’s note.”

Q: How did you feel when you worked with people from different cultures?
A: “I think it depends on the person. I’ve worked with Americans who are hard to get along with and I’ve worked with Americans who have become great friends. It really depends on the person, not their culture, I guess.”

Q: What were the benefits that you got from working with people from different cultures?
A: “Learning new working styles and understanding how someone else might approach a project differently from me.”

Q: What were the challenges that you faced with working with people from different cultures?
A: “Adapting to a different work philosophy was hard at first. In the beginning, language was the biggest challenge, obviously. Sometimes people don’t have the patience.”

Q: Have you suffered any discrimination or stereotyping based on your ethnicity?
A: “Yes, like I said before, some people are hard to get along with. If you’re having a bad day it’s easy to take it out on someone different from you. Or someone new to the company. Or someone you don’t respect for whatever reason. But that’s not only an American thing.”
Q: Has a shift in the US political climate ever caused any issues for you or does it cause any anxiety or concern?
A: “Not really. I believe if you came into this country the right way, you shouldn’t feel any anxiety or concern. I’m here legally, paying taxes like any American or other legal immigrant. I don’t use food stamps or government aid. That gives me peace.”

Q: Are there any obstacles that you have had to overcome? How did you overcome them?
A: “The language barrier took some time and practice. Also getting used to American customs – small things like greetings and goodbyes are different than in Brazil.”

Q: What was the hardest thing to adapt to when you moved to the United States?
A: “The climate was hard to adapt to because I came from a tropical country. Driving in the snow was tough at first. Being away from family and friends was hard and it never gets easier.”

Denis has faced discrimination as have many foreigners in America. However, Denis is able to take it in stride and stay focused on working hard and making the most of his opportunities here. He is fortunate to have the support of his American wife not only emotionally, but with a marriage visa. That makes his path to employment much easier than many less fortunate immigrants. Apart from dealing with discrimination and cold Michigan winters adapting to the language and the work culture has been difficult. However, Denis finds being away from friends and family the hardest, which is a good reminder that no matter where you are from there is always common ground and that our core values might actually be more similar than they are different.

…hope you enjoyed my homework more than I did! Hopefully, I can get back in the groove and think more creatively and post more often!

-Sam

Summer’s Gone