Since graduating high school, my endeavors and the skills I have had to learn along the way have been wide ranging. I have learned to prospect for new clients by owning a landscaping company, write intriguing copy when I published my book, and design websites when I wanted to post my personal essays online.
First, when I established my landscaping company, I quickly realized that without clients I would not have a company. I had to prospect. To do this, I walked door-to-door handing flyers to homeowners and advertised on the popular neighborhood app Nextdoor. If I did this again, I would incentivise my customers to leave positive reviews online and display signs with my contact information while I was working for passersby to see. Even looking professional and completing every job to the utmost standard can attract more clients.
Next, while I wrote my book for myself, I learned that if I wanted anyone else to read it, I had to intrigue the potential reader with the cover, draw them in with the back cover text, and keep them hooked with every sentence. I had to learn to write copy. This specifically applied to the back cover text and book description on Amazon. Doing this, I learned that effective copy requires a balance of psychology and understanding the target audience. Writing copy for a book is not about boosting the book to be the best ever, but understanding the target reader and catering to them. This goes with all copywriting, sales, and life.
Finally, when I was 18 I wanted to post my essays online for others to read. To do this, I had to make a website. I did this with WordPress and an Elementor template, but knew nothing about how to guide a user’s attention. When I relaunched my website (greggould.blog) earlier this year, I was conscious of having a clear landing page, easy navigation, and SEO. Moreso, I used ChatGPT to customize parts of the site using HTML. Combining these pieces, I can guide a user’s attention through my website. That is critical.
In closing, a favorite motto of mine is “Commit, then figure it out.” Whether it was from owning a company to publishing a book to creating a blog, I learned to prospect, write copy, and design a website all by figuring it out along the way.
This past August I set out to complete my first thru-hike on the 500 mile Colorado Trail. I was confident despite my inexperience because I had researched the trail extensively, lightened my backpacking kit to resemble a daypack, and worked manual labor all summer. I intended to walk from dawn to dusk and average a marathon each day because I thought an average pace would be too easy. Still, my longest backpacking trip prior to this was only 40 miles.
Within three days on the Colorado Trail, I had hiked more than 60 miles but could not fathom another step. I was ravenously hungry, keeping to a diet that I thought was adequate. My pee, when I could pee, was burnt orange from dehydration. And, the outsides of my knees exploded with hot pain on every step. I had no trace of the confidence I had three days prior.
But I had to take action. I knew basking in my pain wouldn’t do me any good, and I was 20 miles away from the nearest town! I had to find a way to walk again.
Assessing the obvious and talking to experienced thru-hikers, I learned that I needed to eat about 3000 calories per day (I was averaging 2000 calories), drink a liter every 1-2 hours, and stretch at regular intervals. Above all, I had to listen to my body.
Until I bonked on the trail, I listened to my ego alone. I valued the arbitrary goal of hiking a marathon each day above caring for my body. I would forgo breaks, snacks, and stretching to keep walking. This was idiotic of me. I could not hike, let alone a marathon each day if I was not taking care of my body.
Broadly, I learned (the hardest way) that health comes before arbitrary success. This includes not only physical, but mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, and relationship. Without health, we literally have nothing.
I have not posted since Saturday, March 12.
Living at Copper Mountain, balancing work, life, snowboarding, sleep and progressing on my projects has been difficult to say the least. I even struggle to articulate it here.
But really, living at Copper for the past few months temporarily shifted my priorities. To illustrate, people travel from all over the country to Copper Mountain to have fun, daytrippers, vacationers, and employees alike. Here, work is an afterthought. And while fun, specifically snowboarding, wasn’t my primary motive for moving to Copper, I couldn’t resist the urge, I wanted to have some fun, and that I did.
Since the beginning of February, when I moved to Copper from Castle Rock, I have worked at Gravitee Boardshop. Within such close proximity, I would often leave my place at 8:59am to arrive at work by 9. Here I helped repair, sell, and rent snowboard equipment. Repairing gear was my favorite part of the job because I had to be creative and use my hands. I fixed broken bindings, busted boa laces, core shots, and topsheet delaminations. I also loved the systematic process of tuning a board beginning with sharpening the edges, then checking and repairing scratches in the base, and finally, waxing, scraping, and buffing. Among the people that came in, some had fascinating stories, were unrecognized snowboard legends, Olympians, drunk or stoned (often both), and one man even gave me a barbeque platter as a tip for fixing his boot. Lastly, I told more people than I can remember that their gear was older than I was and therefore it wasn’t economical to repair it. At Gravitee, I got an intimate look into the snowboarding core. And above all, I helped people have fun. That is quite a noble cause.
Next, whenever I wasn’t working and the lifts were running, I would snowboard. This equated to roughly 4 days each and every week for the span of two and a half months. I had fifty days at Copper alone. And as one should with this time, I became the best snowboarder I have ever been. I now have a growing bag of tricks that I can pull out at any moment. I understand how to leverage my personal anatomy to get the most out of specific boards, conditions, jumps, and turns. I learned how to better read the terrain and find the best conditions by building a practical knowledge base of sun exposure and wind loading. I also fondly remember the countless park laps with Scott, Cam, and Ronnie, each of us pushing each other to dial in old tricks and try new ones. In addition, I loved watching people break through their mental boundaries like Shea hitting all five jumps in the medium line. Lastly, it was always a treat to talk to friends and people I knew (some working, some riding) while riding. This can only happen living and being integrated into the resort community.
Finally, I have made so many new friends, met many new friends, gone to a few concerts, learned to cook and play poker all in the last few months.
First, Copper Mountain is full of intentional, genuine, and experience oriented people. Whether it was partying at Mully’s, hanging out at the Edge, or seeing each other on the mountain, I have loved every moment. Specifically, playing poker with TJ, Ashton, Kevin, Andrew, Hunter, Jesse, and Jared while eating corned beef for dinner is something I will remember highly. There are too many people to name, and it’s bittersweet that many have moved on to new things after the season, but I loved the people I met at Copper.
Next, I have had the privilege to go to three great concerts over the past few months. I had a dream come true going to the John Mayer Sob Rock Concert in Denver. His live performance has elevated my musical perception of him. Also, I fondly remember going to CU Boulder (feeling like a 19 year old again) and nug chugging prior to going to the Felly concert with the Chan Man, Ryan. And lastly, I don’t think I have ever had as much fun for free as in the mosh pits of the El Paso Lasso concert in Frisco.
And last but not least, I have become integrated into a strong, tight-knit Christian community that has reinvigorated my faith. From Monday Night Dinner and Discussion to delivering cookies to lifties each Sunday or serving at the employee meals, I have grown in my faith by acting faithful. I struggle to put the impact of this into words, yet I have seen how to serve. The people here are great friends of mine who I can be serious and silly with. I can only see God’s grace reflecting on this time.
Before the last three months, I didn’t know life could be this good. I am doing what I love and helping people in a community of people who all do the same thing. While it has been a battle between present fun and future productivity, I will look back at this time with awe in the years to come even though my inner workaholic feels bitter towards my creative output. I was truly living the dream.
The question is though, how can I do this while consistently producing creatively? That’s for me to find.
I hope you can find a way to live your dream.
“I’m 19.”
“Wow, I thought you were older.”
Maybe it’s my mustache that portrays an older self. But even I forget that I’m 19 because I don’t feel 19.
This begs the question, How can I be but not feel?
To begin, everyone has a physical and mental age. Your physical age is how old you are. In my case, I am 19 years old. Expanding, your mental age is how old you feel, but, unable to measure this, how old others perceive you to be. An example of mental age is, relaying to the opening scenario, someone saying that they thought you were older after talking with you. Mental age is a combination of unquantifiable factors. While physical age is nothing but a number. The key to differentiate physical and mental age is that only one can be quantified, hence the reliance on feelings for the other.
But what makes someone seem older or younger? This is mental maturity. Mental maturity is an amalgamation of one’s self-confidence, responsibility, values, and decision making. A mentally mature person can be seen as responsible, confident, and maybe even wise. Unpacking this, personal responsibility is the difference between a child and an adult. True confidence takes self-awareness and introspection. And lastly, wisdom is having experience, knowledge, and good judgment. These are the attributes of a mentally mature person. This can be heightened by the ability to conversate effectively. On the contrary, a mentally immature person (offense is not my motive) can be seen as irresponsible, naive, and awkward. Although unquantifiable, it is easy to spot the difference between people.
In my life, I have struggled to associate with adolescence, although that statement is probably founded in my ignorant adolescence. In high school, feeling older often pushed me to isolation. I was stuck between being too old for my peers and too young for the adults. I always felt different. I had a hard time talking to my peers but could easily strike up a conversation with someone much older than I. To illustrate, a retired man asked me a question on a hike that led to us talking for hours. While I struggled as a child to connect with my peers, I am beginning to come into my own relationally.
Today, I have friends, people I’m truly friends with, ranging from anywhere from 16 to 75. All of my friends, more or less, match my mental maturity level making conversation easy. Still, my group of friends is constantly expanding because I am becoming a more mature conversationalist. I have grown into this immensely in the past year living in new places and working a sales job. It is not always easy, but I love my life right now. I don’t mind being an old soul.
Still, the first semester of college was especially difficult. I struggled to relate to my fellow college freshman, and by the end of the semester my closest friends were juniors or had graduated.
And so I ask, Is it a blessing to be an old soul? If I’m 19 and people say I think like a 75 year old philosopher, where can I go from here? Is there a limit? I just want to eschew responsibility and be a normal 19 year old, whatever that means.
But not always. I love my life. It’s the only one I know, and because I can’t change who I am, I don’t want to.
“How old are you, actually?”