Welcome to life...

Today is the day we start. As with most things, I like to start with a story.

In high school, we all thought about college as the big leagues. Once we got there, we would be "in it". Life would really start. That, to many of us, was when we would become "real" people. I think to most high-schoolers this sounds quite compelling and exciting. All this hype has created a kind of reality that college life is expected to live up to. Through summer, from graduation day to the first steps on campus, we twitched with energy. For some, we made it well through our first semester before we realized something was terribly wrong. It wasn't apparent at first because the college hype was still there and we were clinging on for dear life. If you're like me, and I think you probably are, you woke up one day with this terrible feeling that something was wrong... and ignored it.

I did this because I had so heavily attached the quality of my life and my relationships with other people to succeeding in the "system". Now is the part where many rebels start taking drugs and drinking heavily, and possibly starting a rock band, but none of those things ever strongly appealed to me (well, maybe the rock band). No, I didn't turn to a life of excess, but I did quit school.

Its worth taking a moment here to mention that the social ramifications from friends and family can be quite real for taking this step and I had my share of them. But from the moment I clicked the "Submit" button to drop my courses, I felt true and utter freedom.

Back to the life of a college "dropout". Not only did I not turn to a life of excess and rock, I got a second job, started catching up on bills, and did possibly the most important thing I could have done for myself: self assessment. It was during this period that I began to discover my true passions for design, art, creation, and what I truly feel will make an effective entrepreneur. It led me to discover many authors that I've come to love and areas of knowledge that they not only don't teach you in college, but that actually are counter-intuitive to their system.

Now this first blog post is probably a mishmash of ideas and strings of arguments that make little to no sense so let me paraphrase:

• The higher education system is one system
• The higher education system is not all-encompassing
• There are alternative ways to learn about any given area
• The collegiate system does not and cannot teach you who you are, nor can it teach you what's important to you.
• If you feel lost and confused other people will blame you, but I don't, I understand that you fell into the same trap I did and I'm here to tell you that there is light at the other end of the tunnel and there are multiple paths to success

Many points contained within will require further converstation. I know that you'll follow me as I explore these ideas and where they can lead us. I know because self growth and fulfillment matters to all of us. And we all deserve it...

Ryan