My what we have seen

As a kid growing up in the hills of WV I used to dream.  During the summer months I would lay with my back on the cool grass and stare at the stars. Watching planes pass over head, I used to wonder where the people in those planes were going.  What adventures awaited them.  I would make up stories. It was great entertainment.  In my real life, I was too frightened to even consider that I could be the person on that plane someday.  For me adventures had to be close to home.  

I grew up on what should have been a one way street.  Both literally and figuratively. My next door neighbor was one year older than me and she was just as bat shit crazy as me.  We would play Dukes of Hazzard with our big wheels and explore the woods behind our house for hours.  Our imaginations would run rampant as we dreamed up other worlds to be in, any worlds than the one we currently resided in.  As you made your way onto the main drag of our little neighborhood you would find the house Phil grew up in.  He was one year younger than my brother and equally as bat shit as Jeff, Amber and I.   We would have similar adventures, making up stories and acting them out.  We would play hide and seek at night.  The light post was home base.   

If you took the dirt path shortcut you could get to Brandon's house in 5 mins on bike, 15 by foot.  In my young life that was taking an adventure.  Once I got to Brandon's house we would have all sorts of fun.  Playing whiffle ball, basketball.   Burning stuff.  As we got older, braver we would ride our bikes to other neighborhoods.  We would explore the train tracks and tunnels that ran under our homes.  Coal ruled Southern WV and the trains got the coal out of the state.  If I close my eyes I can sometimes still hear the clicking and clacking of train cars full of the black, dusty rocks that fueled power supplies and the economy of my home state.   In the winter the tunnels provided for a seemingly endless supply of icicles that we would throw rocks at and try to break.  

On our biking adventures we got to know others that were close, but seemed far away.  Pickup football games.  More hide and seek, but a different light post was home base.  We were the traveling team.  That is how we got to know Brian.  And for a while we all hung out.  Some nights Brandon and I would ride our bikes to the end of a cul de sac.  It looked like a campsite, with young oak trees that had branches that hung low. The ground under those trees was worn out from bike traffic of kids rushing from street to street.  But it was a perfect place to go and talk.  Away from our parents.  Away from the narrow world we lived in.  A world we thought so large.  We would dream and laugh.  Sometimes cry.  Sometimes Brian would meet us.  I miss him.

This was life.  At least until high school.  Then my junior year a lot of things changed.  I’ve had the tendency in the past to focus on this year’s sadder events.  But it wasn’t all bad. Instead of riding our bikes in the summer we spent time at the FOP pool.   Rain or shine my brother and I were there.  That is where we met Bryan, Rusty, Beau and Ryan.  Jason, Nick and Harper.  Wes and the Cook sisters Jody and Jill.  We played “one” (a game I couldn’t explain if I tried).  We played hide and seek in the pool.  I had an apparent hide and seek addiction.  Brandon’s brother Aaron revealed his dormant ninja skills at that pool playing hide and seek. He either had gills or mastered invisibility.    We made up nick names for each other and spent countless hours in the water and at each other’s houses.  The mall.   The movie theater.  This was the time in my life I fell in love with movies.  And movie theaters.    But with junior year, college starts to enter you mind and I was scared to death of leaving home.  Even more scared of having to stay.  

Bryan and I decided to join the wrestling team that year.  For what reason, I have no idea.  We also decided to get our Lifeguard licenses.  The classes at the YMCA were fun and tough.  More than once I am sure our instructor wished we would quit.  We were huge pains in the ass.  But in the end we got our licenses and I got a job at the FOP pool were we spent so much time.  I miss those days.  Joking around with Dennis, Wes, Jill, Jody, Jamie, Ashley and Harper.  Getting to hang with Timmy (you’ll always be Timmy to me little buddy).  Teaching kids to swim.  Busting runners as they rushed from the pool to the concession stand.  Making Judy nuts with my antics.   It was awesome.  It made me think I wanted to follow my father’s footsteps and become a firefighter.  Helping people felt amazing.  Always has, reckon it always will.  In true stubborn Sean fashion I didn’t study for the firefighter exam like my father had recommended.  So I failed.  Pretty hard actually.  

That is how I ended up at Concord in Athens, WV.  Even though I lived at home my world got a little larger again.  I met some of the seriously most amazing people in the “subway” at Concord.  DJ, Ryan, Spanky (Ryan), Bob C, Bob S, Billy, Neal, CHUCK!, Dylan, Kelly, Sabrina, Dave…so many others.  It rocked my narrow world view. In a good way. Concerts.  Road trips.  I was slowing realizing that I could travel and not die.  Some of the most meaningful lessons and conversations happened with these folks.   The first year I carpooled with Bryan and Rusty.  The conversations those two had still make me laugh.  And I still know every single word to the Humpty Dance because of them.  The later years Jeff and I commuted with Pete (Elizabeth) and I learned even more from her.  Never told her that.  But I think she knows.  Other than visiting Brandon, Jeremy (say Bundy), Bryan and Aaron at WVU I didn’t travel much on my own.  In fact I was pretty famous for not showing up. I know they thought I was being a jerk, but mostly my anxiety had just won the battle those times. 

So I know this is getting long and I am going to just jump to this last highlight.  My last semester at Concord I did an internship at a fish food company.   It went well and I was offered a job (not really but I thought I had been, that is a story for another day).  I wasn’t sure I would take it.  It was in Blacksburg, VA.  A whopping 1 and ½ hour drive from Beckley, WV…my hometown.  Brandon was graduating from WVU and had decided to get his MBA at Virginia Tech.  Which is in Blacksburg.  One day he called and asked if I wanted to go with him to Blacksburg to check out apartments.  I was off that day and I said sure.   I’m not 100% sure he planned it this way but we ended up signing a lease that day.  Which meant I had to move.  To another city.  This terrified me but I was doing it.  And I'm not sure I ever thanked Brandon for pushing me out the nest finally.  That singular event changed my course in an amazing way.

A few days ago I was walking back to my hotel after finding a 7/11 so I could buy some spicy water and a snack.  I was in Islandia, NY.  Sounds simple to you doesn’t it?  But I got nostalgic.  Thought about those summers in the back yard of my parents’ home.  Stargazing.  Dreaming up adventures for other people.  Never imaging I would live in Blacksburg.  Travel to China multiple times.  Hell, travel anywhere for work.  Meet so many wonderful people.   My hope is that the kids gazing and dreaming about the plane I am on now know they can do it.  Whatever it is in their heart, they can.  Just take that step.  Lean on their friends.  Remember that learning lessons doesn’t feel great sometimes.  Just step out. Live their life.  Trust themselves, their gut.  And love the life they choose to live.  Even if they never make it out of their hometown, enjoy their adventure.   Wherever that leads them.