August 17, 2024

2 months in Thailand…

If you want to read the entire story of my adventures this summer - clink this link to read edition #3.

Just like throwing a football slower allows you to be more accurate, moving slower in life allows you to be more precise with how your future manifests.

I’ve always been someone who moves through life fast. Growing up, playing three or four different sports a year and training extra in the off-seasons. In college, studying psychology and economics while playing high-level football. And recently, transitioning from college kid to autonomous entrepreneur while traveling.

The truth is, I haven’t ever slowed down. The concept is still pretty foreign to me. But this summer, I’ve intentionally stepped back from doing, planning, and building to learn to detach my life enjoyment from chasing results to being able to genuinely enjoy the present moment.

To many people, this sounds strange. But to high-achievers, this is our normal state of being. We’re always consumed with making progress. Using the present moment to build towards for the future.

Now, this isn’t bad. It’s actually necessary to some extent. It’s wise to have an open-ended vision for your future around principles you value, like health, wealth, relationships, and inner peace, and then live in the present moment in a way that allows for that future to manifest.

But many like myself, if we’re being honest, spend most of the present moment thinking about the future or past, and don’t spend much time

This is why I stepped away from work and the creator economy to embark on these travels this summer. I wanted to learn to slow down and simply be, and operate from a And this past month, I finally got the chance to…

Between Chapters

It seems every time I write one of these travel blogs, I’m 30,000 feet in the air, leaving one chapter of life and entering another. While most people hate the tedious in-between moments while traveling, I’ve grown to love them. An 8-hour flight or 4-hour train ride turns into an opportunity to reflect on my journey and digest the lessons I’ve learned. And a lot has happened since my last blog. More on that in a second.

Right now, I’m on a flight overlooking the tropical landscape of northern Malaysia, on my way back to Thailand to visit the southern islands after leaving the country to reset my visa and visit a good friend and mentor Leigh St. John from twitter for a few days.

Just a few days ago I drove a motorcycle 3 hours from Pai through the mountains and jungle to Chiang Mai while belting Lil Uzi Vert and Juice Wrld at the top of my lungs. 16 year-old me would’ve believed the last part about the rap music, but never the first about the motorbike. A month ago I’d never ridden a bike. A year ago I would’ve been terrified at the thought. Sometimes it still blows my mind I was playing college football just over 2 years ago. Now I’m taking cross-country rode trips across the world alone.

But despite how unexpected my path has been over the past few years, I wouldn’t change anything. The feeling of pure freedom I experience on a daily basis, especially from an experience like motorbiking through the mountains, is an absolute blessing.

This cross-country adventure was just the final chapter in the story of my last month of living in Thailand. The last month has been “a movie.” And like all great movies, there were ups and downs, turns and twists, unexpected meetings, heroes and villains, surprising side characters, crushes and romance, and many, many magical moments.

But one theme holds true above all: The less of a plan I had, the more magical the experience became. Let’s dive in…

A Change of Plans

When I left for Chiang Mai from Chicago with a one-way ticket eight weeks ago, I thought I was going to be backpacking across all of Southeast Asia and writing a book. I figured I’d hit Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, and maybe even India over the course of 3 months traveling, all while writing my first book and coming back to the US ready to publish.

The truth was I had no idea what was going to happen. And per usual, life had other plans.

Just when I thought I’d be moving around for three straight months, I ended up staying in one place for six weeks. Just when I thought I was going to spend my working hours writing a book, I ended up volunteering for in-person work at a hostel (and breaking my computer and phone so I actually couldn’t write, even if I wanted to). And just when I thought I was going to spend all my free time reading, meditating, and doing yoga to deepen my spirituality, I ended up completely letting loose, partying, dancing, raving, and having the time of my life (which was the “spiritual” experience my soul actually needed).

Basically, nothing went to plan. But this is what made the experience was so magical.

Stuck in a Pai Hole

Despite my intentions to backpack and travel for the summer, I ended up getting stuck in a town called Pai.

Pai is a little mountain village in the north of Thailand, about 3 hours north of Chiang Mai. It’s a hippie, free, spiritual, and esoteric developing town. There’s no fast food chains. No malls. No real industrialization (other than 7-11). But, there’s lot of great people, beautiful coffee shops and tea houses, a vibrant and connected community, and incredible parties.

Travelers refer to staying in Pai for longer than a week as getting stuck in a “Pai hole.” Before I arrived, I’d met a handful of people mention this Pai hole, and they spoke about it in a negativite tone. Getting stuck there seemed “bad.” There was more places to see! More to rush to go do! They didn’t want to become “real hippies.”

I assumed I’d stay for maybe a week or two. I ended my last blog saying, “I think I’ll stay in Pai a bit longer,” and that the new hostel I was moving to was going to give me a chance to completely stop doing. That’s exactly what happened. Once I arrived here, I felt I was finally giving my soul a chance to land.

How I Got Stuck

My first 5 days in Pai, I stayed at a party hostel. It wasn’t my scene. Lots of 18-22 year old British lads on holiday and hitting the booze hard. Nothing against it. Just not for me. So I moved to a new hostel for another 5 days called Atlas Valley and fell in love.

The hostel was completely outdoors. There was free yoga every morning overlooking beautiful rice fields and scenic mountains. This giant yoga chalet also became a space for other activities, creative exercise, and flow arts. There was ice baths and breathwork on the deck under the sun every day at 2pm. People were constantly creating art, playing sports, playing music, reading, having deep conversations, and, not to be neglected, smoking a lot of weed. The hostel wasn’t advertised this way, but from my perspective, this place is a spiritual healing center disguised as a youth hostel.

After being here for a few days, I felt my soul healing on a level I hadn’t experienced before. In my last blog, I mentioned the feeling of existential fatugue I’d accumulated over my life of being an obsessive high-achiever. For the first time in years, maybe since I was 16, this constant fatigue began to fade. And it’s because I allowed myself to stop doing. Completely.

I stopped setting alarms. I stopped planning my days. I removed Google Calendar from my phone. I begin to see it as an experiment to see what my days would look like if I finally gave up trying to control anything.

I woke up when my body woke me up. I went to sleep when I felt tired. I ate what my body was telling me I needed when I got hungry. I made up my own workouts lifting rocks, doing pushups, and playing around with flow toys barefoot under the sun, but only when I wanted to and was high energy. I smoked weed and drank beers when I was in an environment and around people where it felt right.

I can remember on the fourth or fifth day, I was laying in a hammock on a random Thursday at 3pm with nothing to do, and for the first time since I can remember, being completely at peace with that. A feeling of pure lightness and bliss came over me. There was no where to be. Nothing to do. Nothing to worry about. I truly felt I needed nothing outside of myself on a spiritual level. A thought then came to mind along the lines of “Huh. Maybe I should stay here for awhile and compleltely let my spirit land.”

And in divine timing, life preseneted me with a new oppurtunity to bring this idea into reality.

My Secret Fantasy

In the first few days of staying at Atlas Valley, I met a guy who was very similar to me - entrepreneurial, ambitious, a former athlete, loves sports, but is also spiritually inclined and on a journey of exploration and self-discovery. His name is Peleg, and he’s from Israel. We began hanging out and going out, and spending a lot of time together in the hostel. After a few days, he proposed the idea that we should both volunteer at the hostel for a month.

Up to this point in the travels, I’d been surrendering to everything life was presenting me. But with this proposal, my first reaction was resistance. My ego was still wrapped up in the idea and identity that I’m a creator and internet entrepreneur.

I have an audience and the skillset to make money online. I didn’t need to volunteer at a hostel. I was supposed to spend this trip backpacking, writing a book, and exploring the East. But the more I sat with it, the more it started to make sense.

Over the past six months, I’ve had a secret fantasy:

To work a simple job as a barista or a bartender where no one knew my name and no one cared about whether I had an audience. Especially myself. I’d daydreamed about doing this as a test to my ego to see if I could let go of the online game and creator identity and be happy doing something “normal.” Now, life was presenting me with the opportunity to do just that.

So, I decided to surrender to the idea, asked the managers and owners of the hostel if they were looking for help, and just like that, Peleg and I were the newest members of the family.

Volunteering at Atlas Valley

The Nitty-Gritty of Volunteering

Coincidentally, about 15 minutes after joining the team, the crew was having their weekly “family dinner.” Peleg and I joined the dinner, and for the first time since playing college football, I felt that strnage feeling of being a newbie and outsider joining a new group. And just after dinner, life presented me with the exact oppurtunity I was subconsciouly looking for. Washing dishes. Beautiful. Just what I needed.

I’ve always hated tedious tasks. Chores. Laundry. Dishes. If you imagine a spectrum with the words “visionary” and “integrator” on either side, I swing far to the visionary side. Big-picture thinking has never been a problem for me. Seeing into the future is my zone of genius. But maintaining patience in day-to-day, repetitive tasks? I can’t be bothered. Just ask my mom.

Over the course of the month of volunteering, the biggest lesson I learned was patience and acceptance. At the onset of a boring task, like cleaning 50 yoga mats or writing the weekly schedule on the chalkboard, my ego would flare up. “I’m wasting my time.” “Why did I sign up for this?” “I’m quitting at the end of this week.” But through this discomfort, I was able to see the ego, complete what I needed to despite my lack of personal preferences, and even find ways to make the boring work playful with music, dance, and creativity.

But okay, enough about washing dishes and cleaning yoga mats. Though these were important experiences, they weren’t particulary exciting. And a lottt of exciting things happened over the course of the month.

An Abundance of Learning

The most magical part about Atlas Valley was the ability of the place to get you back into a childlike state of learning, playfulness, and curiosity.

Over the course of a month, without conscious intent and purely an open state of curiosity, I accidentally spun fire in front of 50 people, facilitated ice baths, breathwork sessions, and meditation circles, took photos for a fire-spinning circus, and toured travelers around Pai.

None of this was planned. But funny enough, these experiences that life presented to me were the learning experiences I needed to take the next step from solely serving people on the internet to serving people in person with retreats. More details on that soon.

Most importantly, I learned to adopt a beginner’s mind again. To repeatedly step out of the comfort zone. To move forward despite fear. And as I did so, I was able to encourage other travelers who were just getting there to do the same.

Play Therapy

When I was a kid, like most kids, I could play all day. I could play sports outside for 6 hours straight, then go play video games online with friends for another 6 hours. My entire life was play, and thinking back to those times, it was so joyous and exciting. I can imagine you feel the same.

But when we become “adults,” we forget to play. Life gets serious. We have bills to pay. A job to get to. Real responsibilities. Things to worry about. A life that was once playful and wondrous becomes weary and dreadful.

This transition to becoming a serious adult crept up on me over the past 5 years. Football, which used to be purely fun and playful, become a full-time job and something I needed to be incredibly successful at, or else why was I playing? Writing, which started off as intrinsic passion and creativity, become a burden and a means to an end. Life in general had gone from playful to serious, a joy to a burden.

But this past month helped me rediscover my love for play and the truth that life can be one giant playful act.

For the past month, we played non-stop at the hostel. Basketball. Soccer. Cops and robbers. Tag. Duck duck goose. Hide and seek. Painting on each other. Dance. Raves. Acro-yoga. Ecstatic dance.

As silly as some of this sounds for adults to be doing, the sheer joy and love for life I and everyone around me felt was such a powerful reminder of how important it is for all humans to play, every day, no matter how old you are or how serious your life is. Seeing the transformation in some travelers energies from simply playing cops and robbers was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of.

One of my intentions for going home and for the rest of my life is to never lose this playful attitude. I’m going to play basketball, NBA2K, go to raves, learn to DJ, and treat my work as creative play, no matter how against “self-improvement” advice some of this is. And when I inevitably fall out of alignment, the first question I’ll ask myself is ~ “Am I playing enough?”

Psytrance Music

Going off this theme of play, I also discovered the power of music, dance, and movement for self-expression and internal freedom.

A few months ago, I wrote a blog called “Why I Started Dancing” talking about how going to raves and taking MDMA helped me break out of my self-conscious shell and get fully into my body. I didn’t know at the time, but this was just the seed of a summer of lots of dance and discovering a new genre of music.

The new genre is psychedelic trance music, also known as “psytrance.” This music matched my energy completely, and brought a level of energy out of me I hadn’t felt in my life. And no, psychedelics are not required to listen to this type of music. Here is one song that was my favorite this summer.

I didn’t know this genre existed until I discovered it at a festival in Pai. I’d never heard it in the US. It’s very big in Israel and India, and as about 50% of Pai is Israeli people, the psytrance scene is strong there.

At one rave, I stayed until sunrise dancing, and it was just me and 20-30 Israeli people. Afterward, five Israelis and I went down and sat in the river, looking out at the mountains and the sunrise. Their English was limited, and so they spoke mainly in Hebrew. But I didn’t care. I felt grateful to just be in their presence and invited to join their group as an outsider who didn’t speak the language. It was one of the first times I’d ever experienced that. Being an outsider. Not speaking the language. But it was beautiful.

This scene was just one example of many that brought me closer to the Israeli people. At another rave, I was surrounded by Israeli people, having the time of my life, and a sense of love came over me for these people. After hearing their stories about being in the military, leaving their home country, and being in the midst of war, and then dancing with them and realizing we are no different, just from different places, I felt a level of empathy for them and the oneness of all of humanity. But the Israeli people especially hold a special place in my heart.

The Magic of Dancing Until Sunrise

There were three or four other times this summer I stayed up dancing until 8am. It’s incredible the second wave of energy and life force you feel when you’ve been dancing for hours, and then you see the sun start to rise. The feeling is pure joy, bliss, and gratitude for the beauty of life. Especially when you’re surrounded by people you love.

One of these parties in particular was especially special. The other volunteers and I went to the party at 11pm and stayed all the way until 7am. In between those hours, the scene was pure magic. Each moment flowed perfectly into the next. I learned a subtle truth about life that night, that life is not to be compartmentalized into different sections, but that it is all one big flow, one big happening, a continuous present moment that’s unfolding just as it’s supposed to, perfectly, without anyone needing to control anything. Ironically, I learned so many lessons and so much about myself from partying this summer, not meditating or doing yoga.

After this party, at 7 a.m., instead of going home, we drove to the Big Buddha in the mountains, climbed to the top, and hung out up there for a few hours. It was one of the most special moments of my life. Summer, Roni, Kezz, and Peleg, I love you all.

Movement Therapy & Ganesh O’Clock

There is a bar in downtown Pai that only plays psytrance music. It’s called Ganesh. A good friend named Jordan I met at the beginning of my time in Pai coined the term “Ganesh O’Clock,” meaning that every night at midnight, it was time to drive to Ganesh and dance for an hour until the bar closed. Ganesh O’Clock became my favorite time of the day.

I loved the music they played there so much I’d go at night by myself just to dance. Every time, it was a test of my personal freedom. Self-conscious thoughts like “why am I here alone” or “what are people going to think of me” would pop in my head. But I would stay anyways, and once I settled into the flow, got out of my head, and into my body, I would have the time of my life. It’s funny, I was working through my mental blocks and places I was not free through dancing at a bar, not therapy or in solitude.

All this dancing helped me solidly one truth in my mind and heart:

Life is a lot more fun when you get over yourself.

Flow Arts and Spinning Fire

Originally, another volunteer (thank you Lillith) showed me the basics of spinning a staff.

I began to gravitate towards spinning pois (small balls on a rope) instead of the staff. As I gained control and muscle memory, it felt similar to the control I had dribbling a basketball. I slowly pushed my comfort zone. First, spinning them alone with music and dance. Then putting fire on them at our weekly fire jam. Then I ended up buying my own, throwing on psytrance music or deep house, and spinning for an hour at a time. I’d found another activity to get me into flow state.

Between spinning poi, dancing, writing, playing basketball, and having deep conversations, this past month became a continuous flow experience. It reassured to me why getting into flow is so important for mental health and life enjoyment. Above money, success, fame, or status, living a life of service and flow state is my north star.

If you want to go deeper into why living in flow state is so important for mental health and happiness, read the book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Letting Go

All of this play, dance, and exploration this summer helped me do one thing above all:

Let go.

During this month of volunteering, I let go of business. I let go of writing. I let go of the creator economy. Slowly, I was letting go of the need to achieve, the need to be successful, and the need to prove to myself through external metrics of validation that I was worthy of love from not only others, but myself.

By letting go of the creator economy, the thing that had consumed most of my consciousness for the past two years, I am now returning to it from a different place. New projects are emerging out of me, but they will not define my self-worth. I no longer need to be massively successful to be okay. If I am, cool. If not, also cool. I can take massive shots creating projects or businesses because I feel unattached to the result. I’m approaching life, business, and the creator economy from a place of play and creative expression, rather than from a place fo force and pressure. And it feels absolutely liberating.

After taking time away and reconnecting to my inherent playful nature outside of the creator economy, creativity started to emerge naturally again, but from a different place. I didn’t have to plan a morning routine or prepare myself for a deep work session to get myself to write, scheme up new projects, and create. Writing, ideating, scheming, and networking just started happening when I felt it was right.

I didn’t do this consciously, but in hindsight, I can see I was intuitively moving towards letting my inner voice guide me rather than my fear-based, neurotic monkey mind. I was beginning to operate from the place Lao Tzu referred to as “non-doing.”

This passage along with a few other quotes have been top of mind for me over the past month. Here are a few more I wanted to share:

Quotes I’ve been munching on

Over the past two months of traveling, it’s become apparent that life is always giving us signs of where we’re misaligned or where we should be allocating more of our energy. Usually, these signs start off as subtle whispers, but if we don’t listen, life will force us to.

My first taste of this was two and a half years ago when I tore my ACL in football. I didn’t know it at the time, but in hindsight, life was telling me I was misaligned in football, and that it was time to move on.

During these travels, these signs have been non-stop. I was checking twitter too much, and then my phone stopped charging and I couldn’t use it for three days. I wanted to write in the lobby of my hostel with tons of people around instead of being present, and I got water spilled on my computer and it broke for a week. I got infections on my feet because I was going out dancing too often and needed to slow down. I was constantly listening to music, and my Airpod fell into a puddle because I needed to destimulate. I got food poisoning and spent an entire night puking because I wasn’t being mindful of what I was putting in my body, and my body knew to clear itself out.

These signs weren’t just happening to me. They were happening to everyone around me. If you look around at most travelers in Pai, we all develop infections because we aren’t taking care of ourselves, cuts on our feet because we aren’t slowing down, or coughs and illnesses because we’re smoking too many cigarettes and too much weed.

The truth is, life is always providing you with signs of where you’re out of alignment. The question is whether aware enough to see and hear them.

I’ve been thinking about this quote a lot lately, building off the theme I mentioned early about play therapy and entering a childlike state.

What does Jesus mean here? Why would we want to become like little children as adults? What is the kingdom of heaven? Well… I’m not theologist or expert, but here is my interpretation:

First, let’s start with the Kingdom of Heaven. I don’t interpret this to mean some theoretical afterlife where everything is perfect and everyone is free of sin. I interpret to mean the realization of the utter perfection of the here and now, the present moment.

So, to reach this realization of the utter perfection and beauty of the eternal present moment (also known as nirvana or enlightenment), we must first become as little children.

Why? Because children are spontaneous. They exist in a state of wonder, awe, and play. They see every moment fresh and anew. They treat every situation with a beginners mind. They are incredibly curious and open.

Also, something else to munch on is to imagine how your tone and perception of people would change if you met them as their inner child. Beneath a man’s beard and muscles, and beneath a woman’s tattoos and piercings, can you see the 5 year old child underneath? How much more empathy would you have for them? How much more love? And how would you look at yourself differently if you took this same frame and used to it to look at yourself?

This is not a state of realization I am in all the time. But when I glimpse the state, it’s preceded by a childlike sense of awe and wonder for the beauty of the world.

“No man can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” ~ Jesus

Another Jesus quote. I’ve been diving deeper into the teachings of Jesus recently, specifically per inspiration from the show “The Chosen,” the Book of Matthew, and the Sermon on the Mount. I wouldn’t label myself a Christian though. But that explanation is not for this blog post.

Anyways, the other night, I asked God how I should think about my projects going forward. Almost instantly, this quote popped in my head. I realized my tendency to feel tense, anxious, and rushed when completing a project was at the root a question of where the desire to complete the project was coming from. Was it to serve others and express myself creatively? Or was it to make money and feel secure?

Whenever money becomes my primary focus for a project I want to create or how I’m thinking about traveling, I become rushed, controlling, and anxious. I need to map out my next 3 months. I need to calculate exactly how much money I’ll make if everything goes to plan. I need to plan where I’ll be, when, and reverse engineer what I’ll be working on down to the day.

Whenever service, spontaneity, and surrender become my primary focus, I become faithful, trusting, and at ease. I don’t need to rush to finish any project. I don’t worry about how much money I’ll make. I’m not creating for a means to an end, but creating for the sake of creation. I can build from a place of play, artistry, and creativity. I can allow a project, blog post, or book ripen and mature in its natural timing, without needing to force it to completion too early.

Again, this quote from Lao Tzu supplements the previous quote from Jesus.

I have a handful of projects that are ripening:

• This blog post series

• 3 books

• In-person podcasts with friends in Pai

• A private academy for spirituality and creator economy guidance (more details on this coming soon)

• In-person life’s purpose retreats (also more details coming soon)

• A potential superteam community/school with a handful of bigger creators

Even as I type this, I can witness my programming wanting to feel rushed and anxious about getting all this done. But there is no need to rush. There is nothing to force. When I come back to my senses, I come back to faith that if it’s in God’s will for these projects to come to fruition, it will happen in God’s timing.

I’m extremely excited to invest more time and energy into these things over the coming months and years. But for now, I also want to be where my feet are, and finish off these travels maintaining an internal state of presence and surrender.

Ideas From Other Travelers That Made Me Think

“Investigate the root of your thinking” ~ Sebron, 60, France

“Don’t ever say the word business again. When you say it, I feel the entire energy drop in the room.” ~ Galgo, 37, Israel

“Connecting to other people’s energies isn’t about studying anything, it’s about connecting to your heart” - Alisha, 28, UK

“Intuitive cooking makes the dish more delicious.” ~ Buse, 34, Turkiye (formerly known as Turkey)

“I’ve learned most about myself from having other people around me. I have lots of mirrors around me.” ~ Lilith, 22, Germany

“When productivity enters the conversation, real productivity ends. Real productivity is an outcome of love.” ~ Roni, 22, Israel

“I was on a healing journey for 3 years, but it wasn’t until I left England and I went to Thailand that everything changed.” ~ Jack, 31, UK

“It’s a burden when you know, but you don’t act.” ~ Lena, 31, Germany

“I suffer from eleutheromanina.” ~ Eli, 28, Belgium

“When I was climbing up the corporate ladder, and the corporation kept trusting me to move up, I started to ask myself the question: why shouldn’t I trust myself” ~ Michael, 30, Canada

What’s next?

From a travel standpoint, it seems I will spend the next few weeks in the southern islands of Thailand before heading back to Pai to end off the trip.

It’s wild to me that this is only the second blog post I’ve wrote about these travels and it already feels like they’re coming to an end. But I have over another month, and I feel a sense of knowingness that travel is going to be a big part of my life going forward, and that I will be out on the road before I know it.

And what’s interesting about this sense of knowingness about traveling is there is also a sense of knowingness about the importance to me of home and my community there. I miss my hometown friends. I miss my family. I miss my dog. I’m excited to bring back the things I’ve learned about community from across the world to my hometown community.

I see my life becoming a juxtaposition of both seasons of strong community at home and adventurous seasons traveling, as well as a combination of online creation/ education and in-person programs and retreats. I no longer am trying to separate the two in my mind and figure out which path to take as I’m realizing these things are ALL me and that’s okay. I’ll be writing more on how I came to this conclusion soon in a blog post about my kundalini activation sesssion and tarot card reading. Woo-woo. I know.

And as far as what’s next for my creator economy and entrepreneurship journey, as I wrote above, there are a number of projects ripening. The private academy and the in-person retreats seem to be what’s immediately on the horizon. And then when I’m home also having more space to dive deeper into Trust Yourself. I have no launch dates for anything yet. When I know, I’ll send updates.

If you made it to the end, thank you for reading.

This was one of the most difficult blog posts I’ve ever written, mainly because I haven’t had consistent writing time and because so much magic has happened in the past month that it was hard to choose what to include or what to exclude.

Even as I finish this, I feel I left so much out. But I know the experiences are in my heart and I will never lose them, even if I don’t write about them.

For now, this is the end. I’ll be writing soon about my kundalini activation experience, my tarot card reading, and the next steps on my adventure. I also am no longer following a “weekly cadence” for releasing these. I will release the next one when it feels ready.

“Forcing a project to completion,

you ruin what was almost ripe.”

This legend:

Until then, much love, and talk soon.

Jack

If you want to read the entire story of my adventures this summer - clink this link to read edition #3.