I haven’t written a blog in a while because I haven’t felt I had anything worth sharing. Until today. Mindy and I are in Santa Cruz for a few days to pack up some items we left at her brother’s house in Aptos to be delivered by a moving company to our new home on Emerald Isle, NC.
I have lived in Santa Cruz for almost 45 years. Moved here straight out of college at U of F (Gator). Got married, raised three great kids, and surfed my brains out. It was a great ride. But here is the thing, and I think Mindy will agree, I never felt like I really belonged within the community. I never really connected with the whole surf scene in Santa Cruz, although I did develop a few very close good friends who I still surf with today. I commuted to work every day somewhere in Silicon Valley, where I had a bang-up career that paid great and allowed me to sneak in surf sessions during the week in the am. It was a great setup, but again, I never really felt like I belonged in the technology field. It was interesting work, but I don’t have an engineering degree or background and never felt really connected to the true tech mavericks in the valley.
As mentioned above, I must not have felt very connected to Florida, where I spent my high school and college years, because I moved on the first chance I had. The big motivator was surfing better waves in California.
Before that, I grew up as a little tike in Atlanta. Reflecting on it now, my young years with family in Atlanta (0 – 13) was when I felt I belonged. In a family and a community as a little kid.
Mindy changed my screen saver to this picture a few days ago. I just got out of the water surfing in Costa Rica with Mindy right on the beach at sunset. That’s when I realized that I have the strongest bond in a one-in-a-million community: My wife. Mindy is home. My kids are my home. My dad is my home. Surfing is my home. They are spread out all over the planet, but I’m totally connected to all of them. This is where I belong. It doesn’t matter what I’m doing or where I am, as long as I have my family in my life and my exceptional wife by my side.
I belong.