According to my mother, with the story told by my father, there was an old belief in her family. When my dad was with my mom early in their relationship, he went to see her family. One time, it was cloudy as a storm was coming. He goes outside to see his father-in-law. That’s when he saw my grandfather standing out on the porch with a knife, and making cutting motions up at the sky. My grandfather, and at the time the rest of my mom’s family, believed doing that would push the storms away and go elsewhere. Maybe I should try that tonight.
It’s 11:15 p.m. as I begin to write this, and a heavy storm has been pushing through. A tornado warning was in effect for an area about 15 minutes from here. I’ve never seen one in my life, and you won’t believe me but I am one of those people who wanted (still want?) to be a storm chaser growing up. Thank Twister for that, because one day I will be driving in a heavy storm shouting “It’s the wonder of nature, baby!”. When it comes to me and my “adrenaline urges”, most people are in the hesitant/non-approving camp. From skydiving to bungee jumping, traveling alone or getting a motorcycle, they will voice their concerns and try and dissuade me from doing it. I haven’t done any of those yet, but the reason is 100% monetary.
On the lesser end of the risk-taking spectrum is my minor business ventures. From the app currently collecting dust to some sort of show on Youtube or something similar, the same support (or lack thereof) is there only not as opposed. As for the podcast, I’ll be collaborating with a friend for it, and we seem set on creating sports/movies/life kind of discussions. I believe I have finished creating the logo for it and have a rough draft of a potential schedule. A part of me, though, would like to focus on the life section and even include dating/relationships into it. Inspired by Matthew Hussey, I feel it’s time for Hitch to lend a helping voice as well.
Whenever I tell people how my friends nicknamed me “Hitch”, and that I’ve never been in a serious relationship, some tend to question my credentials. By that I mean when I offer suggestions on what to do for a date, or how to be romantic, or what the issue is in their relationship. Totally understandable, and there are certain aspects that I can’t speak on. But that is mostly marriage issues, and raising children. Raising teens, for example, as a parent is a bit different than being there for them as a mentor. However, for the other things, I am someone who grew up surrounded by the Don’ts of relationships.
In my way older posts, somewhere tucked deep within this blog, I talked about how I hardly saw a happy relationship until I reached college. Growing up, I mostly saw arguments, jealousy, etc. that you swear belongs on a reality show. You might think growing up in an environment like that would alter my views on relationships, but it actually helped me. Perception is key, and we all choose to believe what we perceive. To some, perceiving something like jealousy as okay only promotes unhealthy relationships. Somehow, going into my teens, I knew what I was seeing among friends and family was not always good; as they dated or were in relationships. So I studied and mentally took notes of the different scenarios. I learned what to look for, what to avoid, as well as helping others in their situation as I entered college and beyond.
In its own way, having an outside perspective can be beneficial. Someone who isn’t biased to one side or the other. For example, you’ve seen on TV those characters who are divorced telling someone who is married (maybe going through marital problems) that being single is the best decision anyone can make. You have someone who has experience with marriage, but their advice leans more towards a certain view. Where was I going with this tangent? Ah yes, so whenever someone tries to question my “experience” I have my response ready. As for the dating/relationship podcast, well, that might be something I do on my own if it’s something people would like. I could see myself using my counseling skills doing something like that. I absolutely love the show Frasier, and wanted to help people like that when I studied radio communications in undergrad. The list of careers I can do never ends it seems.
I still need to dive back in to the freelance work, and see if I can build experience there; whether writing or lending my voice. I wanted to do voice notes here on my blog, but apparently I need a higher-paying subscription to do that; I think it’s the business plan option. As for my novels, I have Wattpad open to my account right now. I have five books started, and all fall under the drama/mystery genre. I just don’t know if I want to post chapter by chapter, or wait till I’m absolutely finished before posting the whole book. If I do the former, I can get comments from readers about what they did and didn’t like, while the latter option I won’t know what they think until the end. The storm here has now passed it seems, and tomorrow I go back to my apartment to finish packing up. As the job search rolls on, I have these other projects underway and am spending good times with my friends. What will happen next I don’t know, but maybe I can find a way to cut these clouds of uncertainty to see if that helps shed some light. . .
Novatourist 