Well we all tend to hand out advice right and left and also tend to never listen to our own advice. The last 5 years have been quite the age of growth which is odd to say as a 57 year old man. I am on my third life within my one lifetime. The strange thing about it is I am now more comfortable with my life than I have ever been before.
Life number one was rough and it is amazing that I am even alive and functioning. It was full of bad decisions and not planning out a single detail of my personal life in any shape form or fashion. My calling was trouble and should have literally been dead at least seven major times. I have the scars both physically and emotionally and no doubt on the mental side. I got to travel and see the world and learned a lot of lessons, most of them the hard way. It gave me a well to draw from as an actor and writer. I saw things that still give me nightmares to this very day. It ran from my teenage years till my mid 20s. I was a lost cause for most of it.
Life number two was a complete shock. I was not planning to stay in the States and actually planned a life on a beautiful sloop that I had picked out. I was going to charter out to 3 couples at a time and allow them to pretend to be crew and take them from island to island in the South Pacific. I was in the states because of family and went back to school. Had way too much fun and spent way too much money and so I did not have enough money to go back to Australia. So I wound up with a teaching certification because of a woman I was dating at the time, a chance to teach and do some coaching came up in the Rio Grande Valley. Why not never been there, besides I can do a year and the have enough money to travel again. Then one day this tall beautiful Hispanic lady showed up into my life and changed me forever. We got married and had two wonderful sons. 30 years later we are still together and I am winding down on a teaching career. No doubt she saved my life from the path I was heading.
Now all of this brings me to Life number three. With over 25 years of teaching under my belt and done with coaching I started writing and acting. I have been told multiple times that you cannot make changes in your life without taking the risk and jumping off that cliff. So I have decided that next year will be my last year as a teacher (barring something very unusual), I will begin to work as an actor/writer full time. I have no clue where it will lead or what may follow but I am the happiest I have ever been in my life with the exception of falling in love with my wife and having the two wonderful sons we have had together. So for all those out there who wonder what they should do, I can only tell you that you cannot fly if you do not jump, you cannot gain the reward if there is no risk and most of all take your own advice.