I.
On Monday December 8th, 2014 I donned my cowboy hat at SFO, turned around one last time at the security check line, and bid adieu to the only world I knew.
The Bay Area had been home for 30 years…
3 0. y e a r s.
Driving through the Bay Area is like flipping through a personal album. 4th of July Parades along Highland Avenue, late nights at Grizzly Peak, countless burgers at the Smokehouse, colorful Bay to Breakers, and the technology gold rush.
Embarcadero was home to my first ( and most likely last ) marathon finish, I escaped Alcatraz, and filled my Yelp profile with as many good eats as possible. SF is a tractor belt for delicious bites.
I spent the last 8 years in San Francisco to which I owe much of my personal and career growth to. It was here that I had the opportunity to be a part of some of Silicon Valley’s most influential companies, such as Zynga and LinkedIn. Witnessing entrepreneurial growth from the ground floor was inspiring; when we hit 300 million members at LinkedIn I tried to digest the rarity of such a milestone. I just smiled big for the company photo and felt deeply grateful to add that slice of history to my story.
There is no doubt that I was supremely blessed & lucky to have been a part of such tremendous companies.
The people along the way made the city for me. From Reverend Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani at Glide to the countless friends from not only working in tech, but the political arena, philanthropic organizations and various other groups including my insanely fun and often mischievous kickball team( red cup nightmares..). The galaxy of people SF offers you is extraordinary.
You made SF for me.
It is to you that I owe for coloring in the streets, nights and pages of what is surely the lengthiest chapter of my life.
San Francisco is also home to the best damn prime rib in the world and that alone will keep me coming back often..
And yet, here I was. Gate A4, ticket grasped and on a one way flight to Seoul.
Throughout my last week in SF I was constantly asked, “..but why!?”
“Mike.. WHY!?”
I can still recall the phone numbers of my elementary school friends, get goosebumps when I step onto my old high school football field, and Tim McGraw still sends me back to the rivers of Idaho.
“Why?” is a darn good question.
Boarding my flight, I carefully removed my cowboy hat and made sure it had a first class ride in the overhead bin.
I’ll tell you why I left. I wanted 30 more.
II.
Chapter architects.
At times long, detailed and monumental. Some; brief, momentary and fleeting, but nonetheless, irreplaceable.
We have the privilege to author a life that is so singular in uniqueness that the comprehension of such an opportunity is almost negated by the very ignorance we play to it.
We breath as if it was a sustainable fortune, when in fact it is the only commodity we have that diminishes by the second.
I can still recall the simultaneous joy and somberness I carried along stage as I reached for my high school diploma. How did four years pass so quickly? Friday night lights, late Prom nights, and my first beer.
Another 4 years later and I was reunited with this ghost of a feeling as I crossed the platform again to accept my college degree. Freshman jitters, late night dorm shenanigans, and lifelong friends. Another four in a jolt.
As I reflect back upon the countless memories that have defined who I am, and have filled my life with laughter, love and growth, they have all stemmed from these ‘graduations’ that act as the necessary push to what we desire but all too often fear to do. Flip the page.
It is from these halts and beginnings where we begin to write again. We open ourselves up to the existing possibilities that we closet for “the right time.”
Our greatest memories take root from the soil of uncertainty, and yet we so rarely accept the beauty of our mortality to chase it.
At a certain point, these life ‘graduations’ are entirely up to us and therein lies the very conflict of our human condition. We are as attracted to comfort as a newborn to milk. Comfort becomes the ironic gravity that we chase, and enjoy, but tempers the counter force of our own curiosity.
High school was memorable and college was a blast, but to never have left seems almost unthinkable. To not have given the next stage an opportunity to sprout due to an unwillingness to depart comfort would have left me dry of some of the greatest memories of my life.
Comfort turns to an eventual drift, and it is in this drift that we dim the light on what can be and what more we can do. Our souls are as pliable as the universe is long. To cage and regulate it to the systematic future we’ve been told to live is something we should always question.
We owe ourselves that.
So as I entered my 8th year in San Francisco I asked the life I had yet to meet:
What more?
What’s beyond the 7x7 fence?
What is left unexplored?
Our gut gravitates towards it’s destined path, whether we like it or not. I don’t believe in mistakes. The trip, the hop and the occasional stumble are all part of our personal constellation.
That’s where I caught myself. Falling into my next chapter and realizing that the last thing I needed to do was just… Graduate.
I loved every bit of my SF life. A perfect Muni transfer left me beaming, a late afternoon pastrami sandwich from Millers always led to the best naps, and getting to live through 3 SF Giants World Championship runs is just mind blowing. What a time to be living in SF. How lucky am I?!
But I would never have had the opportunity to engulf myself in this extraordinary chapter had I never graduated from the last. I took a chance and built a life I loved.
I left a print in the sand, and this year I even got to revisit one of my proudest achievements, The Glide Legacy Gala. What a surreal moment to fly back to your roots and experience an event that encapsulates the work, passion and love you have for a city. My home.
I never left San Francisco. I simply fell in love with it…
When my time is done, I hope to look back on a series of these wonderful chapters; the world is waiting.
Gate A4. Graduation day.
Time itself plentiful; our own share limited. So I’m claiming the next big chunk of my remaining share and excited to meet my next 30.
Time to build again; live.
*****
Korea is the next chapter and I know, with great confidence, that this will be where I can leave a few more prints in the sand before my time is done.
In my next post I look forward to explaining why it was Seoul, Korea that was next up for me and what inspired me so much to make the move.
