Life is Unremarkable

And extraordinary at the same time.

When I was 20 I thought I’d be married by 25, have a college degree, a job I liked and maybe a kid or two. Maybe a cool car. A nice house. I thought every weekend would be exciting, most nights would be enjoyable and the rest of my existence would be filled with parties. I saw life as a series of big events, a steady stream of highs, a timeline of notable occasions.

It’s not like that at all.

It’s mostly filled with questioning, trying, failing, waking, working, day-to-day activities, vacuuming, dishes, doing the laundry, sleeping and perpetual motion. For most people life is unremarkable at best.

Growing up I had a lot of questions and not many answers. I didn’t know people who did anything that I wanted to do when I grew up and I didn’t meet anyone who could suggest a career path until I was 25. So after high school I floundered. I worked at a car dealership, an Olive Garden, for a construction crew, at a bar named Chuck’s, for a landscaping company, at a golf course, as a camp counselor, convenience store clerk, a coach, a sales dude, a cold-caller for a mortgage guy, a campground helper person, I volunteered, I was a front desk fella at a gym (“Hi! Card please. Thanks! Enjoy sweating.) and I tutored some kids at a local school.

Then I finally figured out I wanted to be a ad copywriter so I took out a massive loan, went to advertising school, created a portfolio of work and got a job in Indianapolis. It was one…