6 PRO JOB HUNTING TIPS

Sitting in your sweat pants waiting for the phone to ring while job hunting is a daunting task.  Tossing out your resumes into the wild blue yonder, yielding a myriad of rejections emails, from employer after employer can leave you (a tech professional or any professional for that matter) a bit discouraged at times.  The economy crash a few years ago didn’t make this any easier, sadly.

Lets face the actual truth that many employers, due to the technological age, if they are behind the times, have a “candidate black hole”.  You know that place, the mystical, magical place, where your work history, and personal information goes off to die on some server where once glanced over information failed to make the proper impression?  Over qualified, under qualified, salary requests too high, equal immediate black hole resumes.  It makes you wonder if the magical porridge will ever be “just right”.  I can promise that Neil deGrasse Tyson won’t show up in that black hole with your resume/ CV, nor will the 3 bears give a crap about your porridge.

Being recently back in the job market myself, and now on the West Coast, I have had the ability to see both sides of this amazing process.  Some companies have an expedited process that either parses your resume for relevant information, or some Universities, that have the MOST time consuming and atrocious processes for applications I have ever seen.  Companies like Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and EA have very expedited processes, where you can create a basic profile, apply, and move on.  Their HR people simply don’t have enough time during the day to process the amount of information they receive, although they have the means to track it fairly efficiently.

In 15 days, I have had 2 phone interviews thus far, both positions I’m very qualified for, but then the clock ticking begins, and the inner pressure builds as you wait patiently for the next response (if any).  Of course, the initial phone call after your first 100 resumes, no matter how quickly it comes, puts a bounce in your step, a beat in your heart, and music straight into your ear buds! It’s happy dance time!  Of course, these feelings of emotion spring to exhilaration on the 2nd call, or absolute despair when the email arrives you’ve been shot down, because somehow you managed to answer the irrelevant question, “What is your inner power animal?” incorrectly.  Don’t say squirrel. Seriously. Don’t do it.

Personally, my favorite interview questions are the technical ones; that no one is prepared to answer. In my mind, if you have solid references, a good work history, the technical side will be apparent in your history. Of course, NEVER say, “I’d stab the guy who logged into the VCS for no reason!” It’s kinda like telling airport customs in Europe, “The reason for my trip today is so I can take a dump in the EU.” It’s just not going to go over so well.  The truth is, while you can log into a device, and find out what damage was done, there are a million correct answers to this obvious hypothetical technical question.

One of the jobs I am currently in the running for REQUIRES 10 years of experience in a specific area.  Which is kinda silly. The technology they are using didn’t really even exist in the fashion it does now.  Sure, I had experience in working with that technology back then, but I used it to make phone calls home while traveling for a different career. 10 years ago, the iPhone didn’t exist. A blackberry was a separate device than your phone. Flat panel TV’s weighed a ton, and they cost the same amount of money as a cheap car. I’m still qualified, and hope I’m their guy!

My point is, in some cases, some questions just aren’t realistic, but if your still waiting for the phone to ring, chances are your more worried about your wallet, bank account, family, or the fact you’re staying on a buddies couch because somehow you’re back “in the market” for a new job.  You don’t want to sound desperate when the phone does ring, and it will eventually, be sure you let the recruiter on the other end of the phone know how much they brightened your day.  I’m sure they often forget you’re shoving out resumes like your kid is about to go hungry, and you don’t always remember which position you applied to where.

Sometimes it’s not easy, but me for example, if I put all my skills on paper it takes up 8+ pages.  No HR person would ever read that crap.  Ever.  Hell, I have friends in HR that would rather stab you with stapler than actually answer a, “How’s my resume look?” question.  They deal with 100’s of people, 100’s of attitudes, and send out 100’s of rejections regularly. Just let that sink in a moment.

Pro Job Hunting Tips

1. Write a solid 1-page resume. If you work in a specific field, highlight the high points, software, hardware, or being able to read blue prints… whatever it is you do.  Enter an executive “Summary” where the “Objective” used to be. Drop the “Objective” nonsense. Planning for 5 years down the road is nearly impossible in this economic climate anyway.  In 3 or 4 well-crafted sentences you should be able to state, what you do, have done, worked with, and your basic skill set. They’ll call and ask for specifics of you fit the bill.

2. List your last 10 years worth of career work. If you don’t have 10 years, then     make sure you list your education specifics. Beyond that, its silly, and unless you saved the planet, an HR person doesn’t give a crap. They’ll especially not give a crap if it’s over 1-page.  Two pages are a maximum. Even then you’re possibly playing catch with a trashcan.

3. An HR person should be able to determine in less than 5 minutes whether you’re qualified for the open position. Don’t apply for things you’re not qualified to do. You’re not only wasting their time, but your own.

4. If you do multiple things (like I do), make multiple resumes/ CV’s and also make different formats. .docx, .pdf, .doc, ect. It is not unusual to show that you care enough to tailor your resume to a specific position. Look like you give a crap. It shows! You have to sell yourself on paper to someone who doesn’t know you in less than a minute. You may be clever, witty, and possibly even the best in town, but if you skimp on “the awesome”, someone else already beat you to the job.

5. At the end of the day, it can all be VERY discouraging. Even after all this work, days, weeks, sometimes, even months can go by. Rejection after rejection.  Be persistent, and don’t give up. Some people may forget you’re human, and going out and waiting tables while trying to find real work is just as tough. Because that temp job knows you’ll leave once something real comes along. I know many IT nerds, and most of them would suck in retail, or customer service.  They are better off web building, directing your calls, or fixing your laptop, I promise.

6. Most importantly, when the phone DOES ring. Be polite, answer the questions as best you can, stay calm even though you want to climb out of your own skin you’re so happy.  When it goes well, be sure you tell the recruiter how much they made your day.  They’re human too. If they can make your dreams come true, they are also rewarded emotionally.  So, be kind first.  Be memorable. If you make it to round 2, you’re doing super.

Like most of you reading this, I am in the trenches along with you. Fighting for my next chance at where I hope will be my home career for years to come.  I am supposed to have a 2nd phone interview with the huge global company tomorrow. Wish me luck! I need it, but most of all, I’ve learned quite a bit about this process over the last couple weeks from the corporate side of the house.  I have hired many people in my life as well, so I hope all of you can learn something from my own trials and failures.  Find something you love, not just a paycheck.

Lastly, and most importantly… DO NOT GIVE UP!

Cheers,

Christian

Seeking Redemption (Not Religious)

Disclaimer- this is NOT a religious post.

Seeking Redemption-

Everyone is searching for some sort of personal redemption. A few weeks ago I left my family in Costa Rica and returned home to the United States. I had received some information that my former employer was ready for me to return to Washington DC.  I came home to what inevitably turned into a 1099 contractor limbo.  I love my employer in D.C. more than any other career location I have ever had. From the CEO on down, the staff is nothing short amazing. However, the recent snowstorm weather, HR being out of the office, and just overall limbo, I have been forced to go out to look for more steady employment.

In the meantime, I drove down to Central Georgia to visit my high-school friends whom I hadn’t seen in many months, while patiently waiting for a call from work. I received a call from a friend on the West Coast who has just landed a new job with Microsoft in San Francisco.  I rented out my condo in Costa Rica, and I booked a ticket to San Francisco from Atlanta.  

In my life, I can honestly say I’ve lived a pretty charmed existence. I’ve been fortunate enough to see the world and do nearly everything I’ve ever wanted to do. Don’t get me wrong, not every scenario is a winner. However, this past week in San Francisco has been one of the best weeks of my life. I sincerely feel like I have won the lottery, and having a friend gracious enough to let me surf his couch for a few weeks while I work on building a new life is nothing short of miraculous. 

Now, let me point out, that starting over is not an easy endeavor. It involves a tremendous amount of wear and tear on the mind, body, soul, and lets be honest—“The worst part about having a job, is finding one.”  I must have sent out 100 resumes over the last week, and of course, being a bit of a perfectionist, I’ve redone all of my resumes about 20x each.  It is necessary to have several different resumes, and occasionally having to mold it to an actual posted position.  My resume, if I actually put all of my skills, and background history on it, is about 8 pages long.  Thus, I’ve made a single summary page with the basics.  HR managers simply don’t care if you once saved the planet if it’s more than a page long. Chances are someone else did too, and it was only one page.

I had a great interview with a company yesterday that caught my attention in many ways, but most of all the recruiter herself was Hungarian. What a phenomenal phone interview. Not only because I felt it went well and I was qualified for the position, but I was talking with someone else who came here to this city, and made it her home. She also loved her employer and found joy in what she did everyday. There’s not many people who can say that. 

About the same time I was leaving Georgia, another acquaintance of mine was doing the exact same thing.  He had spoke to me on Facebook, a few months back about Seattle. I had told him I lived there for a short time before, so he had plenty of questions. He was looking to escape the great southern stigma against people with tattoos and piercings, among other things.  He works in the restaurant industry as a chef, and in our conversations, he told me he was leaving for Seattle the exact same day I was flying out to San Francisco, except he was going by bus. He had no one to meet him when he arrived there, no friends to speak of in the city; only a dream of a better life tucked away in his back pocket, next to a handful of hope. 

We chatted back and forth via text message the majority of his trip, and since I have driven that route a few times, I gave him a few tips of when to keep his eyes peeled out the window. I wanted him to look at how beautiful the countryside is and the mountains along I-90, especially in the Idaho panhandle.  The roads twist and turn as they wrap alongside snowy mountaintops as if they were out of a postcard in a roadside Howard Johnson.

I told him I would connect him with a few friends of mine who live in the Seattle area so he wouldn’t be alone.  As I am a firm believer, there is nothing worse in this world than being in a huge city with no friends, no place to live, and having to find a job starting from scratch.  Within his first 24 hours my friends came through in FINE style. They fed him, got him a few drinks, and even a job opportunity working under a Su Chef there, in downtown Seattle.  I’m not 100% sure, but I hope I helped Chris find his internal redemption. 

Redemption means many things to many people. To me, personal salvation has nothing to do with religion at all.  It is finding your direction wherever it points.  Like the needle on a compass spinning under a magnet, where the staccato notes are slowly swept into chords of memory making a new resonance that firm us onto a new foundation, now supplanted into our collective reverie.

Right now, I am living vicariously by the grace and kindness of my friend Dan and a little bit of money I have saved along the way. Wish me luck my friends and fellow travelers. I believe I have finally found where I am supposed to be.

Life has a way of taking us places we are meant to go, and with kindness in my heart I hope the Hungarian recruiter who made my day yesterday has a new occupational home for me as well. 

Cheers from San Francisco!!!!

Destination Where?

Destination where?

It’s true we all live in some sort of turbulence.  The air is not always graced with success, hope, and satisfaction, but just like basic physics; every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  Choosing drastic changes in ones life, even if for the better, doesn’t always lead to the readily seen, or pleasurable results.  It doesn’t mean they don’t exist, as with any dedication, perfection comes with a tremendous amount of persistence, work, and due diligence.

While traveling this past year abroad, I’ve found and met many people seeing the world.  Some more amiable than others, but moreover I’ve met hundreds of people who have no idea where they are going in life; wherever the wind blows is fine with some of them and others who require a defined direction.  To those people that know me personally, I’m sure I’ve appeared somewhat haphazard in my travels over the years.  However, there’s always been a method to my madness, maybe I’m too stubborn to look past my own ideologies and find contentment in more simple happiness’s.  Then again, maybe it’s my desire for the extraordinary, or the idea of destination unknown…  There is no question that I’ve had an interesting ride thus far around this globe of ours, and I certainly haven’t seen enough. 

"Lemme show ya something'!" 

One thing is for certain though; money clearly does not buy happiness.   That age-old adage has been proven true far too many times, from lottery winners, to even myself pre-2008 recession when I went from financially secure and solvent, backwards to paycheck to 4 days before each paycheck!

I run a forum on Couchsurfing.org called “What am I doing with my life?”  It has members spanning from teenagers to middle aged people in their mid 60’s.   I’ve personally watched many people transform their everyday lives into long held dreams as well as others who remain hopelessly stagnant.  While Couchsurfing is predominantly a shoestring budget travel oriented website, it is an excellent resource for simple philosophical conversations as well. 

As I do every year, I write an end of the year editorial, and as I’ve done previously, I poll social media on a couple of questions, and base my article on the data results I glean.   This year’s questions were:

#1. If you had only 6 months to live, what would be the most important thing for you to do in that time frame?

#2. If you could know the exact date of your death, but not how, would you want to know?

I had quite a number of responses. Well, 5 of which were anecdotal, or arbitrary responses that had nothing to do with the questions.  Surprisingly enough only one person said he would “go on a killing rampage and murder everyone he hates, and then go down in a blaze of glory”.    Now, personally, I don’t think that blowing people up like a religious whack job with a bomb strapped to his chest is a quality way to leave the planet, much less hurting others, but I should have expected that from at least one or two people.   I doubt he was serious, considering the person seems to be quite successful, and has no real issues apparent of concern, but who knows?  Maybe he’s a secret nut job, rubbing himself in peanut butter planning the next big Smucker’s Jelly Plant heist, but he’s not the point of my story. 

From a strictly mathematical position for question #2: 97% of responses said that they had no desire to know the exact date of their passing.  The other 3% either wanted to know the exact date so they could use their 6 months as efficiently as possible plus the 1 person who “wanted to go down in a blaze of glory” (possibly strawberry is his flavor of choice…).

The first question was considerably more complex.  91% of the responses were in regard to making sure they gave their friends, pets, and family the love they deserve in preparation before doing anything else.  Then the remaining 9% wanted to live their life free of the bonds fear.  Let me reiterate; that 9% gave the typical response “to live each day as if it were the last”. 

A few years ago, a US based movie, called The Bucket List (2007), starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, portrayed a pair of unlikely would be friends dying of cancer, who go off on several adventures before they “kicked the bucket” and died.  Short of the movie being fairly well received, I’ve seen more people actually take a cue from Christopher McCandless (John Krakauer’s non fiction book “Into The Wild” and later made movie by Sean Penn) where the young McCandless seeking his own adventure unfortunately proved fatal in the Alaskan interior.  In McCandless’ final weeks, the only regret he appeared to have was not showing the people he loved how much they meant to him, and he underlined “Happiness is only real when shared” in his copy of Family Happiness by Leo Tolstoy, in his final days.

What surprised me, and has surprised me over the course of the last year while my own life has been in constant flux, is that it’s extremely easy to say, “Maybe one day I’ll do  (Insert variable here)”.   It doesn’t matter.   It absolutely baffles me that people assume that money will bring them happiness, and that time is some sort of limitless black hole that in our daily Western lives we will always have the ability to “eventually get around to it”.  “It”, being the variable.  “It” could be: Visit distant friends, see the world, get a different job, make a new friend, find something that’s missing, or find a solution to a problem long ignored, etc.

I always seem to harp at people and remind them that this life, is the only one you have.  As comic and musician Tim Minchin coyly states in a poem called Storm:

“I am a tiny, insignificant, ignorant bit of carbon. I have one life that is short and unimportant, but thanks to recent scientific advances I get to live twice as long as my great, great, great, great uncles, and aunties. Twice as long…to live this life of mine, twice as long to love this wife of mine, twice as many years of friends and wine…of sharing curries and getting shitty with good looking hippies with fairies on their spines, and butterflies on their titties.”

In the last year, I have had many great things to be grateful for.  While, even on grander days, I still attribute 2013 to be a not so pleasant year overall for me personally, but what I did do, thanks to a number of amazing people; was leave the US and relocate to Costa Rica for a time and spend time with my aging father and step mother, who when I arrived deeply needed my help.  I have been living each day exactly how I please, in the meantime I write with the deepest passion I’ve ever had, and eventually I will return from whence I came with a deeper knowledge of myself, my craft, and my father.   How could I regret any of that?

When I left the US 4 months ago, my entire life was put on hold.  I gave the majority of my possession’s way to charity, moved out of my condo in Washington DC, and due to my employer being the best company I’ve worked for allowed me to leave indefinitely till it was time for me to return.  (On a personal note:  I will forever be grateful to Tony & Tim for guiding my career path, and their compassion, and humanity toward me.  My employer never treated me like a number. Ever.)

In conclusion, people have told me a million times in the last 4 months; “I give anything to do what you’re doing right now”.  My response is always the same; ‘I gave EVERYTHING to do what I am doing right now, but you know what?  Not a single one of us on this planet are getting out alive’.   We meander, procrastinate, postulate, and pretend there will always be a tomorrow.   For millions globally, tomorrow will never come.  If you have a dream, or someone you love and need to tell them so —What the hell are you waiting for?  It never required a possible death sentence for a reason to follow through.  It’s 2014.  I’d like to say make your dream a reality this year, but if you haven’t started it yet, you need to live like there is no tomorrow today.  If you think you have something to loose, there is no greater loss than gaining the regret of not being what or where you want to be today.  

New Years Eve Sunset on 2013 in Playas Del Coco Costa Rica   ©2013 Christian Ernst Photography

©2014 Christian’s Theory

Leaving the US and moving to Costa Rica

“Your mom has Dengue”.  A set of sobering words from my father via Skype in Costa Rica; I had already been well aware of the flu she had previous, but now suddenly the situation was more serious as she was already sick before, with a now crippled immune system.  In less than 3 weeks time, I would be sitting on a plane to give my parents a much needed hand in what many people see outwardly as a 3^rd world country. 

My parents had moved to Costa Rica 3 years prior to live a bit easier as permanent resident “pensioners”.  That said, Costa Rica has some of the most consistent weather patterns in the world, beautiful beaches, socialized and for profit medicine, and most definitely there is no shortage of North American expatriates living out the remainder of their lives here abroad.  The medical systems in Costa Rica are more than adequate, but if you’re from anywhere in the Western World, as with nearly everything here, much of it operates significantly differently, and learning the ropes is better done in advance vs. learning by necessity. 

After arriving here in early October, which is the last month of the “rainy season”, my longing for the dry days ahead in November through April is now slowly becoming a reality, and the North American & European tourists are now arriving in droves to the province of Guanacaste; the North Western Coast line that follows the Pan American Highway all the way up to the Nicaraguan boarder.

North Western Costa Rica

I found out quickly, that securing a long term residence here in Costa Rica literally gets harder by the day (if you plan to rent close to November).  As the tourists arrive, the thousands of rental properties that remain empty all year, which can normally be rented for a few hundred dollars a month (depending on the size & need of course) in the off-season, can command upwards of a few thousand a week based on location & size.  I personally went from searching for a place, finding a rental, and it being already rented by the time I drove 15 minutes up the road to view the property!  Needless to say, once I found a place (a small studio apartment across the street from the beach) that was actually available; I immediately decided to go back to the rental office to discuss price.  This small studio apartment (less than 500sqft), rents for $500 USD a month + utilities long term, or if you’re willing to spend the cash up front (I do mean CASH literally), you can get a smoking deal as everything rentable can be negotiated easily, but during the high season the rates are not so easily affordable for some.    

The flat I rented dropped down to only  $350 dollars a month if I paid the entire 6 months in advance in cash, plus the security deposit.  While to some this may seem like an exorbitant amount of money to pay out considering I don’t know how long I plan to be here, there are many who will pay 5x what I am paying total to stay only a few weeks in a similar space.  I certainly don’t have that kind of money as a writer, but I’m far from destitute, and still living on the cheap in one of the most popular beach towns in the world, Playas Del Coco.  Take into account, a North American version of “cheap” is considerably different than the local “Tico’s”.  My studio apartment maybe small, but it is fully furnished, pots, pans, dishes, sheets on the bed, cable TV, and is actually better than most of the efficiencies I’ve stayed in throughout Europe, or even on the eastern seaboard of the US.   Did I mention I am directly across the street from the beach and Pacific Ocean?

My new home in Playas Del Coco

I relocated here from right outside Washington DC, and I have previously been here to visit my family; so I had an idea of what to expect when I arrived, but I’ve only been here a month, and still have much more to learn!

The locals are polite and kind beyond measure compared to many other countries I’ve visited.  That said, I’m not entirely sure that “no” is even in their vocabulary.  They would rather bring you anything, but “no” as an answer… So you can completely expect random stuff occasionally.   Even at the local grocery store I came across this "complete" cooking seasoning.  Not only is it the only one you apparently need, but judging by the size of the container it's the only one you'll need FOREVER! 

Top Chef never had it so easy! 

One thing that stands out for me personally; I am constantly trying to better my Spanish and speak their language, but the locals at the same time desperately want to practice their English.  So, what happens is, even ordering a drink, or meal can turn out to be a mixture of English, Spanish, Spanglish, but however the majority of the young people in bars and restaurants speak FAR better English than my Spanish, and when you compliment them on how good their English is, they are always very flattered, say that their “English isn’t very good”, and then say “thank you for saying so”.  My 2^nd week here, I met a local “Nica” (slang for Nicaraguan) tour guide in a bar who prefaced his spontaneous conversation with me with, “I have a question for you, but please bear with me, as my English isn’t very good…” and then while I’m expecting some Spanglish; instead his vocabulary and correct grammar blew me away.  I have never met anyone in my life that says his or her English isn’t very good, and in that first sentence use the word “reciprocation”!

Needless to say, my adventure here in Costa Rica has only just begun. My mom is now mostly recovered from her Dengue Fever, and my father is back to being just as ornery as he’s always been.  Either way, I’m still around to help them out and enjoy a journey that is still very much my own to create.  I certainly have plenty to write about! 

Pura Vida!  

Escape to Alaska via Motorcyle

It’s June 3^rd, 2010 at 5 o’clock in the morning, my hands hovering over my keys as I take a moment to reconsider my actions.  At this exact moment, I am thinking about all of the emotionally catastrophic events over the previous 2 years, how they shaped my decision to escape.  To the average eye, I had a life most every American would want, but in reality it was all just a façade.  What most didn’t see was that I had just lost an almost 10 year career due to the recession, was bankrupt after 2 years of trying to save my home, my savings was nearly completely liquidated, a now failed marriage, and besides a few items I had tossed haphazardly into a storage shed, my life’s possessions now firmly resided between the two inline wheels of my Harley Davidson motorcycle. 

Preparing to leave

Have you ever heard the anecdote about the man who one day steps out to pick up a pack of cigarettes, and no one hears from him for years? In my mind, in less than 20 minuets this was about to be me.  Reaching down, I snatch up my keys, walk into my garage, press the button on the opener, and proceed to manually roll my bike into the driveway, as starting it is anything but quiet this early in the morning. 

I took a quick photo of my bags piled high on my bike, zipped up my leather coat, and I, in that very moment, chose an adventure I had only dreamed about since childhood, but never thought I’d have the “time”.  Now, in my choosing, all I had was time, an emotional emptiness that needed to be filled, a desire to be free of all the sadness that came with sitting amongst the possessions that now owned me, and starting from Chesapeake Virginia, I squeezed the clutch, pressed down into 1^st gear a new life as I headed off across North America without a map, later into Canada, the North West Territories, the Yukon, and then back into Alaska.  Alone.

However, at that precise moment I only felt REAL freedom, and while I thought I was leaving my past behind me, I had no idea how much of it was soon to become my very real future. 

I’ve always been what one might call a dreamer, most definitely an artist, musician, and writer.  I have always been rapt in my desire to travel, to see places, and marvel at things with childlike wonderment.  Though, I can place my first personal desire to travel back to 1984, and a conversation I had with my mother.  In 1984, I told my mother; ‘what an awesome trip it would be to drive to Alaska! I mean just to think about it… that long epic highway out there’, across the continental divide, and just like opening up a can of reverie, it was this conversation that fueled the beginning of what became my motorcycle journey. 

Just as most of us in life, myself included, feel like we wander from tragedy to tragedy.  Somewhere amidst this wandering we most often neglect to revere the good moments.  Why is that? I like to think it’s because of a tragedy's ability to make us change.  Change; some are more open to it than others, and then again, all of us will experience it whether we want it or not.  It’s in what we do with that change that makes our paths illuminated.  In my case my feet always carried me where the wind blew, back and forth, between safety nets, and thus old habits. 

I have always sought out the extraordinary things in life. The only times in my life that I have stood still, accepted the ordinary, or wasn’t constantly fighting to see something new was when I was “in love” or in love with the idea of success.  Otherwise, it would seem I spent my time running away from some kind of heartbreak.  However, these are only the things that shaped my way of thinking, and how when I was at my lowest is when I began my greatest of journeys.  I will say there is one person in my past that started me on this way of life, and how if it weren’t for her, good or bad, I may not have ever known all this beauty in my life, or the ability to appreciate it the way that I do.  I’ve learned that when people discuss love, they talk about heartbreak, or if they discuss desire, it’s only importance is that it remains simply a desire, because once we obtain the desired, that gold can quickly lose it’s beauty.

As I pulled out of my driveway and on to Quailshire Lane, every foot and turn I made had not one single plan.  Even before I left, I only had a loose idea of heading to Alaska, but even then I didn’t have a route plotted, no destinations set in stone, nor did I even know where I’d ultimately decide I’d be finished.  Though, I will say, this was the first time ever that I didn’t care about money, what people thought of me, my career that I just lost, or even my failed marriage – in that moment I stopped caring that my soon to be ex-wife ever even existed in my life.  That may sound cruel, but I had worried about her stability for many years, and I had a deep-seated fear I would come home to her having hurt herself, or gone, but now she was resolved to leaving me regardless. This left me free from the possibility of guilt and it began with the wind in my hair as I literally road off into the sunrise to begin the greatest change I could have ever anticipated. 

Many people choose to “run away” at different points in their life for different reasons, in the Western World be it because of fear, responsibility, over bearing parents, curiosity, but moreover I believe it’s our human consciousness that is apprised of the same emotions we all share and we all crave adventure.  However, it’s in how we deal with these emotions that makes us the people we are to become. 

When I was young, a teacher of mine; told me “that no matter where you run, or why, your problems will eventually catch up with you no matter where it is you go”.  Though, I can say with absolute certainty that that is true, but you can for a short while ignore the past and fill your life with such beautiful wonders that it is hard to dwell on former ails.  Make no mistake in this thought process, as it is only a matter of time before the past will come back and kick your door in. When this occurs we are seldom prepared for it.

Like many people in the US, November of 2008 was the beginning of the 2nd worst recession in US history, the first being “The Great Depression” in the 1930's, and for me it may as well have been called that again except add the number 2 after it and call it "The Sequel".  I, like many other people lost nearly everything, but my story isn’t really about the recession, but what I found along the way on this new road I began.  In that month, America elected the first black president amidst the beginning of a deeply burdened, war tanked, and declining economy.  A month after President Obama’s election, on December 5^th, my now estranged ex-wife lost her job.  A year and a half later,  I had a decent little stash of money in cash, (roughly 12K dollars which I had acquired by selling some of my music equipment). I then gave my ex-wife a 1/3 of it on June 2nd, 2010, a nearly paid for truck, and asked her to take whatever she wanted in our home—I emphasized I wasn’t sure I’d be back before the bank came to throw her out of our dream home I had had built 5 years prior.  She was still deciding where she wanted to go anyway. 

That morning of June 3^rd of 2010, just before I pulled out of my driveway, I had told a few people I was going to drive my motorcycle alone to Alaska on Facebook, but honestly…. I had no idea where I was about to go.  I only really knew that; I had just lost my marriage, my career, my home, 10 years worth of work, all my savings, and short of that small storage shed I had paid in full for 6 months with some of guitar equipment in it and I was beginning anew.

Although, I had no illusions of how dangerous my steps may become; within my first 24hrs of leaving my home, I wrote my last will and testament in a ramshackle hotel somewhere in West Virginia and I emailed it to my mother.  I sincerely believed in my mind, I probably wasn’t going to make it out of this alive, but as low as I was honestly feeling… I didn’t even care.  I truly felt completely, utterly alone, but I at last felt as free as the wind blows.  I learned quickly freedom often is accompanied by alienation between lifestyles.

A couple of friends I had made online, but I had never physically had met, saw that I was on Interstate 64 heading west, and they asked me if I was going to pass through Louisville, KY, and while I was reticent at first, I agreed I’d stop by and say “hello”.   I had a feeling they knew where my head was, but at this point what did I have to lose? 

I got some wood!

Several hundred miles later, I stopped and visited Jeremy & Misty there in Louisville. After I humped the Louisville slugger bat downtown, Jeremy & Misty asked me to come on over stay.

In fact, they practically begged me to stay awhile till I figured out what it was I doing.  At this point, I still had nothing plotted, only a vague destination in mind, and was so heartbroken I would just breakdown into tears if I studied on my situation long enough.  I agreed to stay 1 night. Jeremy (who had just returned from a stint in Iraq) had me bring all my stuff inside, and he began a very military process of “shaking down my gear”.   Admittedly, I was under prepared for my current journey, much less the journey I was about to embark on, so he gave me his United States Marines first aid kit, a Marine arctic sleeping bag, a LED flashlight, some eating utensils, and a real hunting knife.  I was blown away by their kindness and generosity, and they asked me to stay at least a 2^nd day, noting I still had not one defined route, or plan. I also think secretly Misty wanted to make sure I ate so well, I'd never eat another meal in my life!

Now, I need to interject here—That at this time in my life previous, I always tried to be a very generous person, so I was never good at receiving gifts or help from anyone (and I still suck at it).  Prior to this journey for many years, I was often told I was “the guy who had it all”, so I seldom would receive, or accept gifts, and if I did I would give them to someone who needed them immediately upon receiving it.   I am absolutely terrible at gracefully saying thank you, as I would rather say, “you’re welcome”.  As there is NO greater gift in this life than to give to others in need.  Jeremy KNEW I needed some things, but more importantly, he knew at the second he saw my eyes… what I needed at that precise moment was compassion, and maybe even a little hope. 

Everywhere I used my phone in 6 months during and shortly after Alaska.

 

The 2^nd evening I was there we began plotting a course on a road map, he asked me if there was anything in the US I wanted to see while driving toward Alaska.  I told him, that I had always had had rambling feet, and had already seen 46 out of the 50 states, and then I quickly interjected that I had never seen Mt. Rushmore.  So, we plotted a basic course that took me through St Louis to Kansas City, and then North to Sioux Falls, South Dakota before heading west again.  The next morning, I loaded up my bike at 4am, and drove off into the dark, feeling a little more grounded than before, and he asked me to make sure I continued to “Check-In on Facebook”, so they both could follow where I was online, and if I didn’t check in within a certain time frame he could call the authorities to look for me.  They clearly knew, I wasn’t stable in my current mindset.  I mean after all, I was a 37-year-old man running away from himself. 

I posted on Facebook again which direction I was heading, and sure enough, I got another private message.  This time it was from the wife of an old British friend of mine, who I had not seen since I was in London England in December of 2002. 

Kelvin, married an American girl and had moved to Jefferson City MO and she asked me if I would like to see them both in Columbia MO, a quaint college town in the middle of America, where when I had last been there was in 1992.  They put me up in a cheap hotel room, when I kept insisting I wanted to camp outside of town, and didn’t want to spend money frivolously as I didn’t know when I have any income again.  Here I was again, people being generous and kind to me, and I felt guilty for it.  They convinced me also that I should stay a few days and take it easy; after all, this will likely be the last time I see any friends till I get to Edmonton, Alberta, and see my boy, Jamie.

This was where someone had referred me to John Krakauer’s book “Into the Wild”.  I knew it was about a kid who ends up in Alaska, but that was about all I knew.  My 2^nd day in Columbia MO, I left my hotel once, I went to the book store, bought the book, and read the whole thing in 8 hours, before I did anything else.  I said my goodbyes, and hit the road again.  From here it took me 3 days to get to Rapid City SD due to weather, where I spent another 4 days stuck in a hotel. I’d venture out in between the spells of heavy rain. In my previous occupation prior to being a modern day adult runaway, I was a fulltime business traveler…. I had so many miles that once you go beyond Platinum… there’s Diamond status.  I never had to pay for hotel rooms while on my own travels, and this excursion was no exception.

Deadwood, South Dakota

In South Dakota, after being there for 4 days, I visited Deadwood, Sturgis, Mt. Rushmore, and the National Black Forrest, but one reality became clear.  There is a reason they call it the windswept plains.  On a motorcycle, wind gusts in excess of 20-30mph are not normal. 50mph gusts happen frequently in early June there, along with the rain.  For a biker, this is very fatiguing keeping the bike upright and yourself off of the pavement in one piece.  I decided I needed to continue my journey to get out of the constant rain, wind, and even hail.  So, I went to U-Haul, rented the smallest truck I could find, some ratchet straps, and decided to haul my bike for a little while till I could plain escape South Dakota.  Now, for the record, I have NEVER hauled my bike anywhere before, but this time I needed to keep moving North West, through Wyoming briefly, and on into the land of the Big Sky Montana.  I pretty much assumed I would ditch the U-Haul in Edmonton Alberta.  Which for the record-- I was wrong about that.  When I booked the truck, I told them I would drive it to Alaska, simply because I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t experience any further weather that would slow me down, and when I felt safe again I would just dump it off early.  Lets just say, if you book a truck to a Canadian city, no problem, book it to Alaska and change your mind.  They’re not too hip or cheap about it.

I stayed one night in Edmonton, Alberta, and the next morning I began my long haul to Dawson Creek.  Yes, it is really a place in British Columbia.  This is the beginning of the ALCAN Highway.  The ALCAN Highway, originally constructed during World War II is 1387 miles long (1700km) by itself. 

The ALCAN entry point

Everyone has a different reason for wanting to do this journey, be it the challenge, the desire, a running away, whatever you want to call it—there are no shortage of people who have childish romantic ideas and let me be 100% clear on one thing, this is not an easy drive for an experienced rider even though the road is completely paved the entire distance on a bike or in a vehicle.  Alaska holds a tremendous amount of mystery for many people, just like it did for me as a boy from the east coast wanting to REALLY see mountains, but Alaska seems to hold a gigantic allure for many people wanting to see the summer solstice, climb, live off the land, or whatever you can possibly imagine.  However if you’re on a motorcycle, first remember YOU are a meal on wheels!  The wildlife on this highway is everywhere.  It’s beautiful without a doubt, even more so in the North Country, but you are the minority on this road.  You WILL have moose run in front of you, mountain goats, bison, and there are no shortages of bear.  The small townships, or sometimes only gas stations are few and far between; occasionally even 180 miles apart.  Be prepared for that.  You will see signs that say 120km to the next stop, but you can get there, and the place is either closed, or closed down indefinitely.  There are a few inns to stay at along the way, you can grab a room key and pay in the morning, but I chose, once I started, to drive all the way through till I got to the ALCAN border port where the Yukon, and Alaska meet.

My adrenaline was pumping the whole drive.  At one point, around 1am I began running low on fuel, my spare gas can was already empty, but I was only about 50 miles or so from the Yukon border.  I decided to stop and take a quick nap, knowing, any gas station I arrived at would be closed anyway, and I found a beautiful spot to stop where a few other campers and RV’s were, I balled up my leather coat as a pillow, and I took a brief 3 hour nap.  After all, I had already been driving since Edmonton Alberta (an additional 360+ miles or 590km)! I was awoken by a heard of passing mountain goats, and it took me a moment to scramble for phone to snap a quick photo, but they were un-phased by my presence; so close I could easily touch them. 

The 1 am midnight sun and my nap location in the rocks.

It was about 5am, and I headed off into the Yukon Territory searching desperately for fuel.  Once I crossed over the border into the Yukon that was an early easy find.  The man running the station was jovial and polite, he gave me a free cup of coffee, and also told me of another station almost 200 miles away where he knew the owner, and he’d give me a deal on fuel if I mentioned his name.  This is what I most certainly did.   

The Yukon, was breath taking, gorgeous views in any direction, although this is where I began having my first introduction to “Frost Heaves”.  Frost heaves are places under the tarmac where the permafrost has melted, the asphalt has unraveled, but is generally patched quite quickly.  Making the road drivable, but just barely.  The road is so bumpy that 35-45 mph is about the best one can handle in any vehicle, and it only gets worse after the town of Whitehorse.  

At this point I was somewhere around 4700 miles from where I had begun in Virginia, and at every corner I parsed, I waited longingly, and lustfully for just a view of that border crossing.  In my minds eye, while constantly searching for the ALCAN port guards, the mountains were surrounded by lakes of snow runoff of crystalline clear waters that just made the sky seem to sing of the lightest pure blue I’d ever known, and then—after climbing a small hill, I saw it; the brightly painted “Welcome to Alaska” sign.  I had driven nearly 2000 miles on merely a 3-hour nap to get to that damn sign and I wanted my photo taken with it.  When I first made it to the sign I wept.  I sobbed like a small child.  I told myself to buck up, and I stood there and patiently waited for 15min or so for someone else to stop, so I could ask them to take my photo.  Sadly no one had stopped, and personally I was a bit too excited so I didn’t even think of doing a “selfie”.  I took out my large SLR camera snapped a photo, and continued on.  I passed through border port, received an ALCAN stamp in my passport book, and continued my drive of the last few hundred miles into the Alaska interior.  Eventually arriving in Fairbanks.    Two Moose ran out in front of me on that section of road, and I even saw a Harley Roadking Motorcycle in a ditch, but the roads overall were much better in Alaska, having been recently repaved in entire sections.  

I made it!

All told, I spent approximately 45 days on this journey (although I spent well over a year traveling).  I stopped taking pictures (save a small few of me in Denali national park), because I decided that that beauty I saw there, I had earned EVERY single bit of, and I wanted to keep those memories for myself. 

Me w/ Denali National Park behind me

During this entire journey, I fought some very hard emotional battles within myself.  After all, running away certainly didn’t solve any of my real problems, but for 45 days I escaped a trap, that emotional prison that tells us we must conform, and follow some sort of daily routine that others do.  On this journey I never felt as free than I had been in my life.  I received encouragement, from the most unlikely of places, even when I didn’t think I could continue; as there were a few times I considered giving up.  I found myself in Alaska, in more ways than one, but most importantly I found strength I never knew I had. 

"I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life".  -Leo Tolstoy

 

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