About Me

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Hi my name is Jeff and I've been trying to figure out what I like and what matters to me.   Really digging into those meaning of life questions :).  And I have found that the answer to life, the universe and everything is ,not, in fact 42.  So there's that.  I think the questioning really started as soon as I started my first "real" job after college, but I'll drift back a little further. Come take a walk with me back in time to the beginning of the 21st century...

So towards the end of high school you are supposed to start planning for "what's next".  I'm sure some people reading this are thinking "Well you should really start early".  Well I didn't!  Anyway.. Probably my junior year I started thinking that "Yeah I guess I'll go to college because that seems like the next step".  I did AP classes but didn't take the tests...  Senior year comes around and then I start thinking. "Ah dang... I need to figure this junk out.  Everyone else is talking about sending out applications and what am I doing??  Let's do this and quit dragging your feet!"  So a few months later i have heartedly decide to apply for a couple of localish schools and honestly don't remember what happened there...  So graduation approaches and I don't have college plans, but I still know that I NEED to go to college because what the hell else am I going to do?  So I applied to a local community college.  They were like "just fill out some paper work and start in the fall".  

That was my first intentional choice as an adult.  I spent a year there and knew that was not enough for me.  So midway through my second year I talked to my counselor then I applied to the local university.  More paper work and 6 months later I was accepted to a legit secondary educational institution.  That was my second intentional choice as an adult.  To be clear, I'm not hating on that community college.  It helped me gain confidence in being ready for college, allowed me to move in with friends, and grow up a little more. In deciding to go to this university I had to decide on a major path, but not declare it until the end of my second year.

I basically took a "what do you want to do when you grow up" aptitude and interest test and it pointed me towards engineering..  That sounded cool and specific enough to point me in a direction. for taking classes.  So the fall semester rolls around and I start my first engineering classes... and they were doozies by comparison..  As I was getting into the thick of it I thought. "I can't keep working full-time while going to engineering school!  I am going to freaking fail!" ( I was working 36hrs a week 4pm-12am.  It seemed like a good idea at the time)  I was able to hold on for the first year fairly well, but I needed something to give.  I found out about a co-op program with the college and started interviewing.  Turns out I was "raising red flags" for all of my initial interviews.  Apparently you aren't supposed to say your previous employer sucks and is a stupid  faced douche bag  who micro manages and has a Napolian complex...or something like that.  I truly appreciated the mock interviews that I did after not getting any co-op offers. 

I finally started getting a couple of offers and picked a co-op at Toyota.  Partially because it sounded cool and partially because I was emotionally scarred from all my previous failed interviews.  That was my third intentional choice as an adult and it was a game changer.  I saved up 6 months of that sweet sweet grocery store manager money then and dove into college (not working) for a semester.  Then I co-op'ed a semester and alternated for the next two years.  About year into co-opping I honestly wanted to quit.  Heat transfer and control systems was killing me.  Talking with friends and doing some real soul searching led me to stay.  What else was I going to do, quit?  That was my fourth intentional choice as an adult.  I finished up with going to school just over 5 years.

I didn't have the best grades but managed a 3.0 in my mechanical engineering major.  Woo! I applied for jobs for months leading up to my graduation and nothing no bites or no call backs from interviews.  Boo!  I had decided that I did NOT want to work for my co-op, but probably could have had a job.  Needless to say I was getting stressed.  I was a flippin' engineer and I worked my ass off at school!  Why didn't anyone seem to give a crap???  Finally I got a call back to be a contractor at a local engineering company.  I took it!  That allowed me to spread out my anxiety for the next year.   I worked as other engineers equals and they offered me a full time position a year later.  Ha ha SUCKERS!! (I felt fortunate to work with some of the smartest people I had ever met)  

I had finally completed the thing I was supposed to do and I was a freaking adult!  I had a salaried professional job BEECHES!  I did IT you jerks (not sure who the jerks were here but EFF them..) INYA FACE!  Then 2008/2009 happened....  Welcome to the big middle finger of the Invisible Hand (or a lot of sneaky little visible hands hiding things in other bigger hands tha became invisible...???)   Then being an adult was more clearly understood... Life was hard and might always be sitting on a knife edge. Just because you went to school and earned a decent paying job didn't mean you were safe.  For some reason growing up; I assumed I went to school, got a job, got married, then life happened (having all the money and doing everything I always wanted to do).  Life happened first.  Layoffs began as voluntary retirements for a year then started to transition to involuntary.  

Oh yeah I also met this cool chic and hollered at her on MySpace, but then she moved to Auburn for some reason.  I was "Aye...you want to do some long distance romancing?"  she was like  "... I guess" 

For the next several years I worked , made friends, and my friends and coworkers reduced with quarterly layoffs.  It was apparently stressful (didn't really know that until I left.  SPOILER ALERT!.  The whole time this is going on I'm still learning. and its still fun.  Life was good aside from the constant threat of layoffs.  Something was always in the back of my mind and it was an itch for more or different. Inertia kept me going in life kept happening.

I got married after my wife got out of school.Obviously some big changes in my life took place because of it.  We both reached a point in the next year to where we were ready to change.  I got a call, went for an interview.  Loved the city and the idea of the place and we moved.

I worked, had fun, and drank soooo much beer for a couple of years.  We decided to have kids.  Then a pandemic happened and another kid happened.  At this point I have everything I ever imagined I would ever have in my life.  I have a solid, well paying job.  I have a smart, fun, and ambitious wife.  I have two kids that changed my world.  I could spend pages on the two little creatures.  I have a home that I honestly never thought I would be in...  I have it all!  

Once I started to see that I started to question.  Why did I do all those things?  Did I do them because I had to or really wanted to.  I came to the conclusion that I chose to be here.  I just realized life wasn't going to tell me what to do next.  There are no next steps or things I should do.  Its just work, live your life, and wait for retirement.

I need more.  I need a plan or next steps.  I don't like just keep on keeping on. Ove rthe last few years I really was just trying to get through the pandemic with a new born and a 2 year old.  I guess I didn't have time or the mental capacity to think beyond that.

So I am here now and I know that I want to grow.  I want to learn new things. I want to take risks and understand myself.  I'm pretty sure this is a normal mid-life thought process.  But "if you haven't seen it its new to you!!!"  I have opted to start a blog, which feels lame, dated, or cliche, but what the hell.

Now that you have walked in my shoes, you maybe have a sense of who I am.  What I went to do is the purpose of this blog.  I love knowlege.  My background is  not really related to where I want to go.

I want to explore ways to make passive income as all these bloggers claim they can do.  I want to learn about the world and things that fascinate me.  I want to learn about myself.  The purpose of this blog is to document my journey and be a part of 'What's next?'   Hopefully anyone reading this will find it either useful, entertaining or both.  Party on Wayne...

I will be building sections as I go so.  If you read something on my personal blog and you no more about the subject matter I'm all ears.  If you want to know progress or updates that haven't posted shoot me an email.