Today is my birthday, but I don’t want anything. No gifts. No money. I have only one small wish – which I’ll get to shortly. I have already been truly fortunate:

• I’ve been to the depths of the oceans on SCUBA, and the heights of the sky in the driver’s seat of an airplane.
• I’ve hiked long parts of the Appalachian Trail and seen the beauty of the natural world and learned to respect and enjoy mother nature.
• I drove half of the USA in an epic road trip with the girl of my dreams.
• Amid the waves on a beautiful beach, I gently placed a ring on that girl’s finger.
• I spent a week in the forest with nothing but a bag of rice, and became a real-life Survivorman.
• I practiced martial arts, hiked, sang, and rode horseback on a mountaintop in Colorado.
• I have designed and developed websites that have been seen by millions of eyes.
• I canoed most of Shenandoah River.
• I wrote my feelings down and boldly challenged the evils of the world with my voice – on stage while my best friends created the melody behind me.
• I’ve driven some of the coolest vehicles man has ever created, from semi-trucks to heart-stopping speed race cars. I’ve flown airplanes, sailed boats, driven motorcycles. I survived an ATV accident which could have killed me.
• I found the confidence to leave everything and everyone I had ever known in search of a new lifelong adventure in a place I always wanted to live.
• I have a job – a good job – one that most people would be jealous of. I get to wake up every day and do what I love to do, surrounded by some pretty cool people. I was given opportunities that a lot of people never get.
• I have a loving family who would, and have, gone to the ends of the Earth for me.

I love to write about the adventures I’ve had, you can read more details about them throughout this website – that’s why I established this blog. But I’m not stopping there – this is my hit-list for future adventures. They are bigger and more glamorous than anything I’ve ever done and I intend to swallow each of them whole, one at a time, and hopefully with my Tina beside me:

• Hike – Hike the entire Appalachian Trail at one shot.
• Sail – Circumnavigate the globe by power of wind and water, and see all of the other inhabited continents with my wife and son.
• Summit – Climb to the top of Mount Everest. I know it’s cliché, but Everest is Earth’s ultimate test of self-confidence, endurance, strength, and immeasurable willpower.
• Explore – Train for and dive in the Diepolder cave system in central Florida and Sistema Dos Ojos north of Tulum, Mexico.
• Build – Live on an island in a house that I design and build with my very own hands.
• Fly – If made possible in my lifetime, I’d like to pilot an airplane beyond the boundaries of Earth’s gravity.
• Write – Publish one or more books.
• Sing – Publish one or more music collections.
• Swim – Dive the mecca of all ocean reefs, the Great Barrier.
• Safari – Witness the beautiful plains and meet the indigenous people of Africa.
• Shiver – Explore an Alaskan mountain.
• Contribute – Share a bit of my good fortune with less fortunate people on a wide scale, possibly through a future re-evolved political system.
• Teach – Raise my son to have values, a strong moral compass, a thirst for knowledge and desire for adventure, and to pass on the ideals I give to him.
• Love – Lastly, I hope to happily fall asleep as an old man, and painlessly pass away knowing that I have always unconditionally loved and honored my beautiful wife.

So what exactly is it that I want from you for my birthday? Truly and sincerely – I want you to wish me luck with my list … It’s going to be a long hard journey, and I’m already 29 years old.