If I could go back in time and tell my 18-years-old, fresh out of high school, with no earthly idea or concept of what I wanted to do or where I saw myself in a decade about the man I am today he would have thought he won the lottery. I don’t want that sentence to be taken out of context or misunderstood as if I was a troubled teenager, nevertheless, I find it remarkably eye-opening whenever I reminisce on the journey of my life; mainly the trials and tribulations that I have endured; different routes that I have taken; times of extraordinary bliss and happiness; and, moments of extraordinary hardship and pain.

Finding perspective, coupled with reflection, was the inspiration behind this blog. Reflection is an activity that I don’t think we make enough time for as human beings in today’s day and age. Incidentally, the motivation behind 95% of my personal writing is reflection-based and to help me think deeply and carefully about my existence and the legacy I want to leave behind as a husband, father, and as a person. Furthermore, I believe that sometimes in the day-to-day, ebb and flow of life that it can be easy to lose track of how far we have come in life. As mentioned in my first paragraph I have been giving much thought over the past week as to what the adolescent Chris Harris would have thought regarding the life I lead today. Even though I didn’t have much of an idea as to what I wanted to do back then (what 18-year-old’s do?), there was a handful of distinctive and integral parts of life that I knew I wanted one day:

• A loving and beautiful woman who I shared a cordial and everlasting bond with and who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
• A family of my own with children to build memories, create traditions, and to love with boundless devotion.
• A job where I made a positive and invaluable impact and where I felt as if I was making the world a better place to live in.
• A home that I could walk in the door and feel the stresses of my day melt away as I settled into dinner with my family and talked about each other’s day.
• A vibrant community in which I pledged my loyalty to and planned to settle for the rest of my life & raise a family in.

After listing those bullet points and attempting to put myself in the mind of the 18-year-old, ‘Chris Harris’ I can wholeheartedly say that he would be unequivocally proud and jubilant of the life I lead today. He would put a check mark next to everything I listed and do so with a smile on his face and fondness in his heart. He would see me as man who’s worked hard for what he has, a person who lives their life with integrity and passion, and an individual who loves his family and friends to the moon and back and would do anything for them.

Furthermore, another inspiration behind this blog was a result of a philosophy that I follow on a daily basis — which is assuring that no one has higher expectations or standards for me than myself — and, while I believe that a great majority of who I am today has been achieved as a result of that mindset, I’m also conscious to remember that I’m a human being after all and to cut myself a little slack from time to time. That vantage point gives me an insightful perspective, grounds me and prevents me from more self-criticism, and signifies to me that no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes.

Now I need to start pondering what the Chris Harris ten years from now will be thinking about who I am today…

Thanks for reading!

— Chris