My Thoughts On Turning 21 & Perspectives On Life Thus Far

When I was a little kid, in first or second grade, I remember thinking how enormous middle schoolers were. I thought they were practically adults at that age. Then a funny thing happened. I got to eigth grade and everyone in my grade made comments about just how little the incoming sixth graders were that year. The thing was, though, they weren’t getting smaller, we were getting bigger. By my senior year of high school, the incoming freshmen looked like a bunch of little shrimp.

Isn’t it funny how our perception of things changes over time? We always think we’re done growing, but don’t realize until later just how much farther we had to go until later on and we see the just how small we were, both figuratively and literally. Today, July 1, 2009, is one of those days. I turned 21. I’m just gonna sit for a second and let that sink in.

I think this day far surpasses both my eighth grade and senior year experiences, because this time, I’m not looking back on grade school. I’m measuring a turning point in my life.

If I thought middle schoolers were big when I was eight or nine, you better believe someone who was 21 seemed like they had been on the earth forever. The older I get though, the more I realize just how quickly time passes. I know I’m still very young, but with this birthday, even though I’ve been 20 for a year, I feel more like a “twenty-something” a less of a teenager. I think my transition from being a teen to being an adult took place over this past year, and I have mixed feelings about that.

I know I spend too much time doing business-related things and doing things like networking that adults much older than myself typically participate in, but the fact is I’m passionate about the business I’ve started and making it succeed. I just don’t know sometimes if I should just focus more on being a college student and having fun and less on the type of business stuff that I’ll no doubt have the rest of my life to do. It’s a delicate balance and I’m still trying to find it.

Working for yourself from home does have its advantages, though. One day a friend called me up when I was in the middle of a website and asked if I wanted to go to the river. Not having any boss to ask but myself, I jumped in my car and headed down to Belle Isle. I guess I just wish I was more spontaneous like this more often. When you’ve already got the snowball effect of several elements of a growing business, though, it’s tough to stop it or even slow it down.

I had an interesting thought the other day while talking with Edna, an 83-year-old that I’ve become good friends with up at Daily Grind. She comes in every day. She’s as spry and sharp as can be and still enjoys life to the fullest. She’s also willing to learn new things. I’m showing her how to use her laptop and check her email in the picture (credit: Bill Bangham).

I thought she would feel as if her life had been a long journey, but was surprised to find out just how quickly she thought it had passed. I think her perspective is what gave me my new outlook on the value of time. In what she thought was a short life of 83 years of her life so far (which still feels like lightyears away to me, being that I’m in my early twenties) she’s done a lot and I can tell she feels like she’s lived a good life thus far.

I only hope that I can be the same way and have a life I can look back on at her age and smile at all I’ve done. I’m still young and have more dreams and plans than I can shake a stick it. It’s time to achieve them while still remembering to live up my youth while I’m still young. This year’s gonna be a year of finding the balance. Right now, though, it’s time to celebrate!

First RVA Social Media Club (SMCRVA) Meeting

I went to the first RVA Social Media Club (SMCRVA) last night at Morton’s Steakhouse downtown. I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but as soon as I walked in the door, I knew I had just entered the best business networking event in Richmond. I had the opportunity to put a lot of names with faces from people I follow on Twitter (maybe a more appropriate name for the organization would be “Richmond Twitter Club!”), as well as catch up with some old friends. It was an all-around great night, albeit a bit overwhelming with around 150 people in the room to meet. I think the first night was a great success and is just the beginning of big things to come from this organization. The networking opportunities are awesome. It really makes Richmond feel like one big family of friends.

I’m really amazed at what’s happened to Twitter over the past year or so. Back when I first got my account, well over a year ago, it was a novelty service. No one I knew was really on it, but that was the coolest thing about it. I got to know so many interesting people in Richmond and around the world, and even had “tweetups” (Twitter terminology for “meetups”) with some of the nice folks I met on the service. Now, though, everyone is on Twitter. Businesses are beginning to realize what great benefits social media has and they’re all jumping on the bandwagon. Twitter is just one big social experiment if you ask me, opening the doors to a new way to exchange news, ideas, support and business information in under 140 characters. Richmond is becoming a lot more close-knit because of it, and that’s a really cool thing in this day in age where everyone’s always on the go.

The ROC: Love In Its Purest Form

I had an opportunity to visit the Richmond Outreach Center (better known as “The ROC”) this past weekend. One of my friends had been invited to come check it out, so I went along. Up until last fall, I had visited several different churches since leaving my original church. This wasn’t one of those kinds of “scouting out” visits. I’ve found my church home at Redemption Hill. This was more of a place I had always heard about and just wanted to visit.

I went to the Saturday night service. They call it “Six O’Clock ROC.” I’d say that summarizes it pretty well. When I got to The ROC, congregation members were lining the sidewalk on both sides, shaking everyone’s hands as they entered the building. When I walked in to the huge, packed-out auditorium, I was almost overwhelmed. I don’t think I’ve ever been to as big a church as this one.

As the music started, I could tell there was something different about this place. Now I used to go to a very contemporary church, but this place definitely takes it a step beyond that. The first song was “Dig In” by Lenny Kravitz. It had modified spiritual lyrics. The band rocked it out. It was awesome. As the service went on, there was more rock, rap, and some southern gospel sprinkled in. I could tell these people were fired up!

But what I really started to notice as the sermon began was just how loving this church community is. Here I sat in a big auditorium filled with people from every different race, nationality, and walk of life, and yet none of it amounted to a grain of salt. This was a church community that was blind to all those labels we tend to put on people, whether conscious or subconcious.

Now granted this was my first time visiting, it would only be fair to say I should come a few more times before I draw any conclusions. But in that same respect, I feel like this isn’t a place where that kind of investigation would be required because it really is that transparent. This congregation treats everyone as their brothers and sisters in Christ, and that, my friends, is quite simply love in its purest form. I gotta admit it, the whole thing made me a little teary-eyed during the service. It was just overwhelming.

The impact this church is making blew my mind. The founder of the church, Pastor G., said there were over 950 people saved over the past two weeks before my visit. That’s incredible. I think the reason for those large numbers is because of just how much the church community steps out and goes where most people wouldn’t think of going. They work with local and state police to get kids off the streets and go into the projects and work with families to make a difference. They’re just sharing love of Christ. That’s the only way to put it.

I have a wonderful family of friends at Redemption Hill and feel that God has called me to that church. I’ll write more soon about just how much that place has touched my life. It’s definitely where I’m staying. But I’m definitely going to visit The ROC now and then to experience the wonderful work God is doing in Richmond through this group of people! They have church on Saturday nights anyway.

New Home Demolition: Our “Throw-Away” Society

This is an absolutely disgusting example of how much of a “throw-away” society America has become. It’s one thing to tear down an old, non-historic house that’s beyond repair, but this is just a blatant waste. According to the video description, the house you’re about to see being demolished was torn down because the new owners didn’t like the house itself, only the lot. It can’t be more than 10-15 years old and it’s a gorgeous house that must be close to, if not more than, a million dollars. Once again, it’s one thing if you’re talking about a multi-million dollar oceanfront lot, but this one just appears to be in the middle of a typical neighborhood.

I hope the owners are ashamed of the wastefulness of their demolition project. It just further solidifies my opinion that we don’t value anything anymore. Just throw it away and get another one. Maybe that’s why we’re in such a mess ecomonically speaking right now, or why we’re in the midst of climate change. We always seem to think there’s endless resources out there. But I digress. It’s ridiculous nothing in this entire house was saved or reused. I’ve seen much older houses that were being demolished have almost everything stripped out of them first to be reused or recycled. Nothing in this house appears to have been salvaged. Shameful. Watch the video below. I’m sure you’ll agree in some way or another.

Sledding At Bryan Park – March 2009 Snowstorm

I can’t remember how long it’s been since we got as much snow as we got this past weekend… and in March at that! The Short Pump area got about 9.5 inches. What better to do on a day like that than go sledding? I drove down to the city to Bryan Park for the first time ever (I know, I’ve only lived in Richmond my whole life) with a group of friends and had a blast. The video’s pretty entertaining, especially my friend Shushaun freaking out about us narrowly avoiding hitting a big tree!

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