Track 13 - Skymiles and Hotel Points

The travelling professional is a special breed of person.  To the average person, the idea of jumping on an airplane and bolting off to a new place each week sounds exciting.  I always hear from people, “I wish I could travel as much as you do.”  I realized a long time ago that I couldn’t work a job that doesn’t have perks of some sort.  I worked in the NBA and it was full of perks.  I sacrificed a high income for a high fun level.  I travelled, received free tanning, hair cuts, food, club passes and spent most days deciding if a monster tricycle or new multi-shot t-shirt cannon was a better expenditure.  After being laid off by the Nuggets and getting passed over by the Nuggets, Dodgers, and Jazz for Game Entertainment Director positions due to what I deemed political missteps, I decided I needed to go a different direction.  The opportunity fell into my lap to pack up the roller and head out on the road. 

I was hired by a seminar company as a sales rep selling e-commerce websites and it started off well.  Three months into it, the new president laid off the whole sales staff.  Layoff number 2!  It’s old hat now.  But I had been bitten.  I liked the travel.  I liked the travel benefits.  I liked people asking me to where I was off to.  I was determined to get hired by a new seminar company I had heard about selling real estate investment training.  Good fortune smiled upon me and two months later I was back at the airport with a new roller bag and a boarding pass to a new location. 

The road has granted opportunities I probably never would have had if I had not become a business traveler.  In fact, I am writing this from my first class seat 35,000 feet up on my way to Denver.  I recently took a 12 day trip to Thailand.  My flight was free.  My hotels were free.  I spent less than $700 dollars total for an exotic trip to Asia.  Skymiles and hotel points now come in droves.  I spend my spare time researching tropical locations I am going to visit on my weeks off.  With my paycheck and travel rewards I can pretty much go anywhere anytime I please.  But, everything comes with a price.

I have sold my social life for perks.  I have lost multiple dating relationships because for some reason women actually want to see their boyfriend.  Strange!  It has been hard on me.  If you have read previous tracks, you know that I actively looking for my “it girl.”  It is going to be a challenge.  I am home about 4 days a month.  If and when I do have a family, will I be ok missing so many milestones in their life due to my travel schedule?  I’m not sure.  I have also been shopping for a house, which has been tricky in it self.  I find a listing I am interested in and by the time I get a chance to see the property, they are already under contract.  Finally, I had to send Bella to live with her grandma and grandpa and I miss that little girl. 

Why am I complaining?  I have no idea.  I get a kick out of being somewhere different each week.  I don’t have a desk I am chained to and I get to check out random locations.  If that isn’t enough, add the frequent traveler benefits and perks that go along with it.  I’m probably way over paid for what I actually contribute to society.  I also don’t have to pay $4/gal gas and along with that I haven’t had a speeding ticket in over a year and half, a new record I believe.  So, for now, I am going to keep rockin’ the priority lines and laughing at the casual travelers as the fumble around the airports as I head to my next destination and leave normalcy along with liquids over 3 oz. at the security check. 

Track 12 - Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall

I stand in front of a mirror and gaze at the reflection that holds my analytical stare. Who is this man that looks back at me. Do I really know who he is? Recently I read a book that brought up a topic of one’s true name. The protagonist needed to discover his true name to overcome a significant obstacle. A true name in the sense of the book was a name defined by attributes positive and negative that made up one’s self. To learn one’s true name required an absolute understanding of who an individual is. I have been thinking a lot about that question lately. Who am I and am I who I want to be?

Yes, I know who I am in a very superficial sense. I can spout out all my personal stats. I know I was born in Salem, Oregon to Tom and Margi. I have an older sister and three younger brothers. I know that I grew up spending much of my youth playing sports and trying to develop other minor talents such as playing the piano and saxophone and attempting to learn Spanish, an ability that required complete immersion for two years to finally master. As I examine my image in the mirror, I can tell you that I have dirty blond hair and hazel eyes. I am eight pounds heavier than I would like to be and frustrated with my lack of six-pack abs. I can complain about my receding hairline over my temples and how I too frequently enjoy the company of an ingrown toenail on my already unattractive feet. Yes, I can recite my physical stats and pick apart the undesirable qualities as quickly as the next. That is not telling me anything about my true self.

I dive deeper. I know that I love people for all their quirks and intricacies. I make friends easily and generally want to make others happy. I love to entertain and be the center of attention. I worry about being successful and stable a condition directly correlated to being laid off twice in the last three years. I do not worry about exceeding in my employment opportunities but more so over the stability of them. As a result, I spend more and more time setting goals and plans to eliminate economic dependence on a single employer. A desire for a family and children is a subtle dull pain that resides darkly inside and never seems to fully subside but is no match to the bullying and dominate insatiable quest to find the “perfect” helpmate. I am innately good but struggle with temptations and shortcomings. That is closer but it still does not extinguish my curiosity and wonderment.

I guess the question is do I see the same person my mother sees. Am I living up to the potential and being that they hoped I’d be or believe I can be. But, why stop there? Even that is just a perception of a third party that truly cannot control the outcome nor knows who I really am and all the abilities that I should be cultivating. So I go to the top. I want to know if the man I see and am is the same man that God sees and knows I am. Do they match or while I stumble around this work in progress, on lazy feet and with clumsy hands, am I creating a piece of art that one day will fulfill its true measure of it’s creation? I hope so.