Saturday will mark my 25th year of entering and contributing (I’d like to think so, but this is sometimes questionable) to this planet we call Earth.

While a lot has happened in 25 years, it was 2014 that was probably the biggest eye opener for me for a few reasons. What I am about to write is not meant to be a complaint, rant, or anything negative. On the contrary, I wanted to detail what I have learned as I feel like a lot of people can probably relate. I do realize that some people will read this and think I am just spewing bullshit, or will judge me for other reasons, but that is totally acceptable. My disclaimer is in no way am I claiming to be an expert or someone who has figured “it” out – these are my thoughts only.

As a warning (and something you should expect if you know me): these will probably be longer articles than what someone normally reads so I will write a TL;DR at the end for you to scroll down. Originally I had these all in one post, but figured that this would be way too long for the average user to go through and figured that organizing my thoughts would allow people to pick and choose what they want to read.

I do appreciate you taking the time to go through these – so thank you.