West Virginia

Whenever I drive up to Pittsburgh to spend a few days with coworkers, I look forward to driving through West Virginia. Lately I've been making sure to stop at New River Gorge. It's that big bridge you see on the back of West Virginia quarters. The thing stands 900 feet above the river; think about that for a second.

Sure it's touristy, but it's a pretty awesome place. When you stand at the overlook, vultures are riding the thermals at eye level. It's best on a windy day- the only thing you can hear are gusts of air, and if you are lucky, a few local rednecks mumbling. It's got a kind of feeling to it that's hard to describe; almost sacred. It's the kind of place that makes me wonder what everything was like before modern civilization.


Once a year, people who have more balls than me take part in Bridge Day. This is the one day a year when you are allowed to base jump off the bridge. I'm good with jumping out of airplanes, but I had some lunatic strapped to my back and a reserve set on auto deploy in the case that he or both of us were unconscious. Not the case on Bridge Day; my guess is that on Bridge Day, reserves are weak sauce.

Anyway check it out if you pass through; it's worth a 15 min break from a long haul.

So listen up people. It's quick stops like this that make me think about the last year and a half of my life, and I've got something to say about it. Because of the nature of what I'm doing in my career, I don't make boat loads of money quite yet. In fact, there have been many times where I've barely been able to make ends meet, and if you haven't been there before, it's more stressful than you can imagine. But at the same time, I've never had more freedom or learned more about myself and other people than I have since the beginning of '09. Before that, I was working in a job where I didn't even realize I was unhappy until I quit. I may have liked most of my coworkers and made decent money, but I was in a rat race and lacking one thing: Hope. The only thing I ever had to look forward to were weekends and holidays.

If you are in a job that doesn't satisfy you, for your sake and others around you, look elsewhere. When I did, I realized that without that hope or satisfaction, I just hadn't been myself. I almost felt the need to apologize to friends and others who were around me during that time. I don't expect this to inspire anyone to take action, but if it does, good.

Amazing what some bridge in East BF, West Virginia, can do to someone.