Don’t Drink, Don’t Use… NO MATTER WHAT!

I am home visiting my folks in Hingham, MA before heading to a conference in Boston.
As I drove past my high school, a bunch of memories came back to me. Over 99% of them were great ones, making me smile – i checked in the rear-view mirror and caught myself smiling. Cool, right?!!?
When I was a senior one of my classmates, Frankie, lost his older sister in a drunk driving accident. It was the first time I had heard of a person dying from a drunk driving accident. I suppose you could say I lived a pretty sheltered childhood. In response, our school held an assembly, talked about it, provided counseling, and mourned the loss of the young lady. It was tragic. A hugely sad event for our whole town it seemed… An additional response that had NOT been done before, at least to my knowledge, was to take the totalled car and place it right in front of the school. I’ll never forget seeing it, walking up to it felt eerie. When I saw it for the first time, I will NEVER forget seeing the blood and hair on the passenger-side windshield. Gross. Scary. Weird.. and a bunch of other feelings that I’m sure you can relate to.

So, today, when I drive by and saw another totalled car, felt compelled to stop and pay respects to the person/persons who were in this recent accident. I have no idea whether the people involved in the accident where drunk, on drugs, hurt, arrested, found, male, female, young, old, nor killed… Naturally, my fingers are crossed the only thing hurt was the car but I’m assuming the administration of the school chose THIS car because it had some horrible story attached to it, presumably to Scare the Kids Straight… to possibly “Just Say No”. Anyway, I pulled over and did a quick video and wanted to share with you, once again, another Great example of why I think life is Such a GIFT!

I truly had a blessed childhood. At the time (circa1986) my High School had the highest number (percentage) of teachers that had graduated from Harvard University, anywhere in the country! Not sure of the current stats but i DO know that Hingham is one of those towns and people strive to live in and new or soon-to-be parents will beg, steal and borrow to get into because the Hingham School system is arguably one of the Best public school systems in the state… possibly in the country and equal to or better than many private school. I definitely got a great education in High School (and University as well for that matter)… interestingly enough, my English teacher was Judge Rehnquist’s daughter. She was a total rock star teacher… aaaand sadly, like most 17 year old males at some point in their growing year(s), I had a crush on an older women that distracted me from doing the things I SHOULD have done… like homework :-/
Upon reflection, I was surrounded by and had presented to me soooo many amazing opportunities that I didn’t take advantage of… and of Course, once again, it is *proven* that Hindsight is, in fact, 20/20… But, THANK YOU, Ms. Anna Rehnquist. Its because of YOU that I became attracted to brilliant, beautiful, older women… well, until I got old myself…
Now I like young ones 😉 HA!

Hope you enjoy the video and I’d be honored if you’d
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Live the Dream! ‘Cuz if you’re not, you’re doing it wrong.

SJCAM SJ4000 + Wi-FI: https://sjcamhd.com/sjcam-sj4000-wifi/

Great Advice on the Philippines

There are a ton of guys (and a few gals) that have YouTube channels and videos dedicated to moving to and living in the Philippines. One of the guys that I started following a few years ago, Reekay Valdez has hundreds of Videos he’s made and they are truly a single point of success for you if you’d like to learn how to move to the Philippines.

As many of you know, I started this website and accompanying YouTube channel to share some of my experiences, wins, losses, and lessons learned along the way.  I’ve traveled to Thailand several times but only been to the Philippines once.2015-12-28 15.43.03

While it was a great 4 weeks of vacation from the job I’m honored to have at the University of San Diego there is still a TON for me to learn and share.

The cool thing about Reekay’s videos is he’s also made them into MP3/PodCast-like snippets.

I had a buddy ask me soooo many questions lately about Thailand and the Philippines so I figured it was clearly time for me to out some new posts together, get my ass busy with the SJCAM (GoPro-ish camera) and upload some stories about my travels in those countries.  So, that’s coming! I promise.

But, for now, I just wanted to share Reekay’s new site about the Philippines.  Honestly, the reason I’m sharing this is up until now, I didn’t have an answer to my friends’ questions: “Yeh, but is there something i can listen to in the car on my way to/from work…??

This is a great way to learn about the Philippines before (or many times after) your first trip over there.  It truly is a magical place: beautiful beaches, beautiful people and *everything* is cheap!!!  I dig it big time.  So, if you have questions on dating in the Philippines or doing banking in the Philippines or want to get some info on how the culture over there is different than that of the US and how to adjust to that; I’d totally recommend you check out Reekay’s website

So, enjoy the multitude of suggestions and learning moments of my friend Reekay and until next time:  Live the Dream!… cuz if you’re not, you’re doing it wrong!

Reekay’s blog site:  http://www.LifeBeyondTheSea.com

Reekay’s YouTube Channel:  http://www.YouTube.com/enricosuave263/featured

ciao,   ~mikes