Funny, when I bought this house in 2008 my intention was to flip it in a couple of years, here we are 17 years later I’m finally moving on. In 1998 I made a decision to move to Florida, I was 38 years old and have been living in an aquarium type of life that I didn’t want or enjoy. An opportunity came to me and I jumped at it, mom was sad, dad and my brothers were happy, I will never know if they were happy for me or happy to be rid of me, some questions are better left unanswered. I flew to Orlando because it was closest to my friends house, I ultimately ended up in Venice to give my friend his life with his family back. I will never be that guy who crashes on your couch indefinitely, I respect people’s lives and their choices and all I want is the same in return. This was all happening at that point between pagers and cell phones so I was only able to call mom when I was home. Ocala was nice, really nice, but it was during a brief conversation with my dad that he mentioned his friends in Venice and thought it would be nice to go down there and see them. So one day I decided to visit them, it’s a two and a half hour drive and turned out to be worth every mile. When I stepped foot on Venice Beach for the first time it brought me closer to nature, GOD and myself, it was still springtime, but the air was already a little heavier with humidity, I must have spent half the day in and out of the water, swim for an hour or so and lay out on the sand and let the sun dry my skin. I sold my pan head to make the move, in hindsight I should have brought it with me, but in my mind I was beginning a new life stripping off the “old” me down to bare bones and going to become the person I always knew I was. I spent the next few years living outside my comfort zone, I volunteered at the local theatre because I was terrified of being on stage. I auditioned To kill a mocking bird, my knees were knocking so much I believe they could actually hear them. I didn’t get the part, no biggie, a few weeks later I auditioned for A street car named desire and got a small part with a few lines. I put everything into that role and it paid off, after that I spent the following six years there, it helped me to overcome a lot of my fears and connect with my community. Sadly I had to stop the theatre and find a second job to pay my child support that I fell behind on. I Since then I’ve found love, lost love had success, lost almost everything and bought my home, all the while making time to enjoy the sunset nearly every night. I’ve got married to a Thai girl that has been my unicorn, my once in a lifetime wife. We’re the best when we’re together, but function great on our own. When we decided to move it was a surprisingly easy conversation and now that we have our house on the market and have moved into our house in the mountains life still seems very natural, comfortable we are at peace in our lives, obviously once the house sells we will breathe a little easier in the meantime we don’t spend foolishly and are very content. A these wonderful feelings were so alien to me, every relationship I’ve ever been in has started with a passion that consumed both of us, but as time passed we realized that was the only reason we were together. Funny thing about sex, when it wanes off you must look at what’s left, that’s usually the point where the arguments start and within months you can’t look at each other without disdain, soon after you hate each other so bad you have no choice but to leave, but the anger stays until a wall is built around your heart that is so dense no one can get in. There comes a day when you realize you are the only one to break down that wall and live life freely, openly with no inhibitions, no regrets just love yourself purely and the unicorn will come into your life like it did for me and so many other people the next thing you know you’re looking at your amazing life and wondering how you got there like me, my advice is in the words of the immortal Bruce Lee… “be water my friend” it’s that simple.