Wanna See Something Beautiful?

And no, it's not my tattoo, mom

January was blah. I feel like I went into 2025 stoked with all these new ideas in my head and things I wanted to accomplish. But at the same time knowing things still felt unsettled/uncertain for the future. I had myself convinced I was going to adapt and evolve despite anything else going on in the real world. I was super pumped and then I wasn’t at all. It reminded me of an adrenaline dump. Not an adrenaline rush. A dump. You ever experience one of those?

I did. Once.

There was a time when I was early in my dispatching career that I thought about pursuing being a police officer instead. I had a lot of people in my ear telling me I should. Heck, the guy doing my background investigation as a dispatcher tried to talk me into going straight into police over radio. And I had always admired my dad and the work he did. I was starting to experience some burnout dispatching and I thought it was now or never to see if this was going to happen.

So there I was taking the running test for a neighboring police department. I had done everything else successfully, like the wall climb and the body drag. Now all I had to do was the 1.5 mile run in I think it was 15 minutes.

Now I have never been a runner. Not when I played high school soccer or college lacrosse. Not when I got obsessed with the cult that is crossfit. Just running has never been my jam. So I trained with my dad for some time before the test so I could go in there prepared. Day of, I got my shoes and my outfit. I’m comfortable. Hydrated. Carb loaded. Ready. And then they blow the whistle and I make it 50 yards and I just feel all that adrenaline dump and it’s like I’m carrying a sandbag on my shoulders. Never felt anything like it and the more I tried to push forward the slower I felt. My legs were mush. I came in ten seconds over. I didn’t become a police officer and life worked out the way it was supposed to. But that dragging weight I felt during the run was basically how I felt the last days of January.

And then came February. When I saw one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life. Something truly remarkable and magical. Something I knew existed and could find plenty of pictures of on the internet or in a book. But there it was right in front of me. Real life.

I want to describe it properly before I share the picture. Because when I show you the picture you’ll be like ok, yeah, I guess. I just want you to kinda experience it how I did….