“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” – John Lennon

Disclaimer: If you feel your good enough friends with me to harass or make fun of me… stop reading immediately.

Life is hard. It’s a rollercoaster ride that offers highs where you can’t stop smiling and lows where you can’t stop crying. Life’s unpredictable. It’ll give you an unexpected laugh after a hard day and pull you back to reality when your happiness wanders off too far. Life’s brutally honest. It holds you true to the karma that surrounds you. It constantly reminds you that no one lives forever, and that joy can be found in the most unexpected places. Life is cheesy. It’s a highway. It ain’t always beautiful. It’s wonderful. It’s pretty chill, bro. It’s a song, created just for you. Life is a funny thing. It’s something you should never take too serious, because no one gets out alive. Ever.

Life is what you make it. In the past couple months, I’ve been pretty damn happy. I got dealt a few cards that I could play and I developed some confidence that even Michael Jordan would be jealous of.  I had a new perspective that laughed at the old me, who bitched about evvvvverything. I was going on trips with my family and friends. I was going to Kenny Chesney and Corey Smith concerts. The buccos were competing with the best of the NL. I had one of the best weekends of my life in Atlantic City, followed up with a nice get-a-way in Deep Creek, MD. I could see the end of the tunnel in my academic career. I was in relationships that seemed right. I was letting the good in people outshine their ugly side. The summer heat was replaced with a painted autumn breeze. I updated my Apple fanboy technology. Football season finally started back up again and Holgy bear had the mountaineers ready. Gameday finally stepped up and made an appearance in Morgantown… where I managed to be within the first five rows. Women were complimenting my silver fox-ish ways. I helped my brother take another step toward his life of happiness and tie the knot. A few weeks later, I also was lucky enough to take part in my good friend’s nuptials. My classes for the semester seemed promising and I was genuinely excited about them. Hell, I was excited about my future as a whole. Life had me ready to leave out each day to the fullest.

Life caught up to me. I woke up one morning and it was all gone. It was like I, all the sudden, was lost and all by myself. I was pretty damn depressed. I had as much confidence as Superman in a room full of kryptonite. I was bitching about evvvvverything to those who were willing to listen. The sun infested summer changed to the leaf-killing fall. The buccos ended up in the bottom tier of baseball. The gray hairs started to tell the tale of my quarter life crisis and stress that surrounds me. I had to sell my Apple desktop. WVU ended up losing to LSU and Syracuse. I’ve grown to despise Morgantown as a place to live. I barely had enough money to drive to my hometown, let alone go on trips. I started to realize that the majority of people are selfish, and if you dig, they are more than happy to show you their ugly side. I wasn’t excited about anything. Hell, I didn’t care about my future. I had health problems. I had depression problems. I had money problems. I had school problems. I had girl problems. I had life problems.

Life is honest. It has a funny way of working things out. I’m a firm believer in karma. As the song goes, “you get what you give and people get what they deserve.” (yes, I just referenced Kid Rock) Starting that morning, I deserved to feel ghastly about life. I wasn’t fair to myself, and it finally caught up to me, and it kicked me square between the legs. Yet, sometimes that’s just what you need, a nudge to jumpstart some sort of transformation that betters you as a person and the life that comes with it. Instead of doing what I need to simply get by, I’m starting to look at each day as an opportunity to change into something better. A chance to change the way people look at me and more importantly, how I view myself. There’s nothing more contagious in this world than smiles and happiness. If you surround yourself with people who care about you and go out of their way to make you smile…then it’s going to be hard not to be happy. There’s no point in living, if you’re living a life of misery and despair. Life is what you want it to be…and chasing that dream is half the fun.

Life is real. Go live it.

Cheers,

Pauly

He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left.  — Chinese Proverb

As the majority of you know, I tend to send my attitude and life outlook on a roller coaster of emotion and nonsense. I rarely can dictate if I’m happy or if I’m content, actually sad or stressed, depressed or jealous, etc…so I usually live through the “expect the worse, but hope for the best” mentality which comes off as my friends like to bitch at me about, “miserable.”  Yet, for the last 5 years, I have managed to manipulate nothing but greatness into my life plan/attitude for 9-10 solid days (reality hits REALLY hard at the end [...see, I had to put a negative on a positive]). Some of you may be saying, “Ya, it’s called a vacation…you idiot.” And to you, I say “suck it…it’s more than that.” It’s a combination of things that make me happy to be alive and things that make me not scared to die.

It’s time to play a game. Get out a piece of paper and pen, and write down 10 words/short phrases that put you in your “happiest of all happy places.”  Okay, you got it? Here’s mine…  -  Beach.   Family.   Friends.   Alcohol.   Live Music.   Beach Bars.   Outdoors.   Not a care in the world.   Good Times.   Reminiscing.  (all will be present at my wedding, if I ever decide to take that path) -  I’m not saying you should agree with me, but that’s one hell of a list…and, well, you should agree with me (at least 6 or 7 have got to be similar).  Okay, now in order for you to win at this game…you have to go plan your ten things into 10 days of awesomeness, and overlapping themes is strongly encouraged… I am going into my fifth year of “winning,” which starts tomorrow. It’s really a get-away like this, that puts what really matters in life into perspective.

Anyways, my 10 days consists of:

Day 1 – Day 5, Beach with Family: Going to the beach with the majority of my family (immediate fam, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.). We soak up the sun and appreciate boredom by day and hit a few beach bars by night. It’s one of rare occasions where I wake up/goto bed without a care in the world. Following our Irish heritage, alcohol is mixed in and Remember When stories keep the laughter alive. As an added bonus, Country Roads is usually heard wherever we go. The 5 day venture is ideally planned before I am on my last nerve with some and have all but my hands around their neck (metaphorically).

Day 6 – Day 9/10, Jambo with Friends: I have nearly turned the process into a ritual/routine. On the drive back I always stop to get some fresh watermelons so that I can soak them in Watermelon vodka for Jambo. I round up my supplies and food, then it’s off to The Superbowl of Country Music, where the live music is unbeatable. It’s a four day festival in the great outdoors; where I surround myself with my closest friends, bullshit about all the memories we have previously made, throw some back Miller Lites, appreciate what country music really is, and just soak in the goooooood times. (I truly kept that modest and PG…)

While it is a selfish personal appreciation, it’s what makes me who I am. If it’s good enough to make me feel alive, then it’s good enough to be able to die tomorrow… or preferably, in 10 days, when I get back.

Your Favorite Drinking Buddy,

Pauly