A Stranger in a Strange World

Well it's my second to last Friday evening in Virginia Beach and I'm in my hotel sipping on a hot cup of mint tea & reading a good book. I was stressed out early on in the week but ultimately found peace by remembering an old maxim: focus on what you're able to control, disregard what you cannot. Two weeks from now I'll have finished one of the hardest pipelines the Navy has to offer and be departing for Colorado. A month from now I'll be back in Arizona. Two weeks after that I'll be leaving to Japan & beginning my next great adventure. Life is good. I'm excited to see where it takes me.

As I make my way through a biography about Benjamin Franklin's life I can't help but wonder how a single person can achieve so much and reach such high levels of notoriety. The man was a living legend yet he managed to remain incredibly down to earth throughout his life. When he was 20 he wrote down a list of 13 virtues which he then used to guide his life. I think there's a lot to be learned from the young mind of one of the most accomplished founding fathers. 1. Temperance : eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. 2. Silence: speak not but what may benefit other or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. 3. Order:  let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. 4. Resolution: resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. 5. Frugality: make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e. waste nothing. 6. Industry: lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unneces...