RIP Fo.Kley's: I'm a Sentimentalist, I like to be Reminded.

I lost a pair of sunglasses I bought about a year-and-a-half ago in Bali today. They died well.

I lost them on the same side of the Pacific Ocean as I bought them, though, they have been to 3 different contents since I've got them.

They were with me from Notre Dame, to a certain corporate coffee shop. From Busan, to codes on 3...to Brisbane. They meant a lot to me, but, so does doing really well in school which starts next week. They helped me learn my priorities, my principles.

- have fun
- deliver the best
- do the right thing
- take ownership
- know what time it is
- keep focused

...know what time it is.  It is not time for a code on 3, it is time for school-ing; to deal with code on 3.

Today, I bought a new pair of sunglasses which will hopefully never see me be exhausted after codes. They never see me write personal statements, or, take a ten-minute break from said corporate coffee shop, as the ones before them did.

These lenses will watch me quit smoking.

These sunglasses will likely be part of my motorcycle helmet too...they will be with me as I'm exhausted from school. They will likely get taken out by a wave one day at the Gold Cost - just like the last pair. They'll be with me as I consider the idea of a PhD - and a half-a-mil in debt.

They are (at the end of the day), an inanimate object. They are just sentiment to those codes on 3, those bikes, those kiddos on 2, or those arcane objectives I had to get to this point in my life. 

Things are just things, and, money is just money (McConnell, S., 2009).

My motorcycle key still rests on my backpack from when I rode it. I still have the Red Sox hat Lexi bought me from 2008. My board shorts that Kendall sat on still are in my possession. The things I have through this journey remind me of where I am, and, what I needed to do to get here.

Here (read: MA in Counselling - fucking finally).

There is nothing better than running codes in a Vetnamese necklace. Or, walking around Australia with a camera that took a picture of Stonehenge and the Colosseum in Rome once. There is nothing better than a victory dance; even if it means raising a beer to a pair of sunglasses.

There's nothing better than having beers in Australia, in a pair of scrubs I got in Austin.

It reminds me of where I came from:
- "code gray - 3rd floor PICU."
- 5 shot, 3 pump, soy chai with no-foam?
- "ego, teacher, ego?"

Scrubs, hats, coffee mugs, (et., .al) in Brizzy will remind me of that life / buddies I left in Austin or Mokpo. They will remind me of what I did to earn those pictures I've taken, those beers i had, those cigs I used to smoke, and those times I was done with working towards Brizzy.

Cheers to work finally, working, for me. Cheers to next week - lets do this! Let me adapt the same way I did in Europe, in Asia, and finally, in Australia. Cheers to those sunglasses I'll never see again. To scrubs, to coffee mugs I bought after meeting Coach K. To that lighter after that kid told me they listened to me, or, that hat I'm wearing right now.

Cheers to life - cheers to 'what is next.'


Live High ya'll.