takeitupalevel.com

I’m hanging 200 feet in the air above the Kentucky river, 100 feet below a railroad bridge named High Bridge in Wilmore, KY.  What else would I be doing at 1:00 am on a Thursday night?  I’m stopped because my hand is getting hot as the rope is starting to burn through my glove from the first 100 feet of the rappel.  The only thing holding me is a 10mm, 300 foot rope attached to the cheapest harness I could buy at J&D’s, one D-ring, and one 8-ring.  And the only I can think is “wow, my life is awesome.”

 I start to recall the last few months of my life. 

 - Merging my software business with another successful software business. = fortunate to surround myself with smart, awesome people.

- Trips to Boulder, CO and San Francisco, CA to learn how to start a business incubator called Awesome Inc. = way more fun than should be legal on a business trip.

- Coaching a full season with a soccer team of great and entertaining kids. = 5 wins, 7 losses, and 7 ties.  Most would write that off to a less than average season, but since 6 of our 7 losses were by one goal (and most of those goals scored against us were on corner kicks) and the players have really developed over the season, I am avoiding the trip to negative town and staying positive.

- Going on the most random, amazing, exciting date with an extremely fun and cool girl. = lots of fun and a great story to tell.

- Spelunking with the county judge and other awesome friends. = revolutionary, hopeful that I can remain ‘cool’ as I grow old.

- Dancing with old ladies at a local block party back home. = realizing the effects of alcohol on mature adults.

- Building a giant hour glass to be placed on UK’s campus.  This might sound like work, but I have the most amazing friends who helped with it which resulted in a project that was actually tons of fun. = realizing that good friends are invaluable.  Thanks Tyler, Justin, Marty, Rachel, Vanessa, Rachel, and Alyssa.

- Attending Big Blue Madness. = best basketball practice one can ever watch.

- Meeting people like the Mayor of Lexington, President of the University of Kentucky, Founder of Exstream software (recently bought out by HP) and having amazing conversations = incredible learning experience for a 26 year old.

When I started writing this blog over a year ago, I wrote this, “My name is Brian Raney and I like life.  The favorite thing about my life right now is that I don’t have anything in my life I dislike.”  That is still true…but it is actually better than that.  I pretty much love everything in my life right now. 

So, how did it get that way?  When did I change the measurement of fun from dinner and a movie to random nights of kickball and an 80’s dance party.  When did the bar get raised from hanging out at the club to having our own rock band party?  I think the answer is in the people.  I am a firm believer that your behavior is a reflection of the people you have around you.  I have written about this several times already on this blog.  Surround yourself with awesomeness and you will do something awesome.  And that is really all there is to it.  The last year of my life I have surrounded myself with the coolest, most fun, awesome people I can find.  Really, all of this awesomeness is thanks to them.  And now I am asking, no actually I’m begging and pleading, that all two or three of you out there that might read this blog entry do one thing - surround yourself with awesomeness and realize that life is meant to be great.

As my glove cools off I begin to slide down the rest of the rope and eventually drop into the river.  It’s then that I realize that Luke’s ‘last words’ to the camera just before the short-roping high bridge adventure was true – “It’s moments like this that make life truly worth living.”

 …to read more about the short-roping high bridge adventure click here - http://tynan.com/shortroping.  This is a blog written by a guy named Tynan who came to speak about “living life awesome” at a UK eClub event.  While I don’t necessarily agree with all of the entries Tynan writes about on his blog, two things are for certain:

1. He lives an exciting and interesting life.
2. He is a much better writer than me, which is why I am letting him tell the story of our short-roping experience.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 5:19 am and is filed under Personal Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.