The Simple Things That Reset Everything

 

The Simple Things That Reset Everything

Life gets overwhelming sometimes… and what’s weird is, it’s usually the simplest things that bring you back to normal.

Not a vacation. Not some big life change. Not anything complicated.

Just small, random moments that, for whatever reason, hit the reset button.

And the more I think about it, the more I realize it’s not just relaxation…

…it’s catharsis.

But not in some dramatic, life-altering way.

It’s the kind of catharsis you find in simplicity.

At the end of the day, it only makes sense that it really is the simple things that reset everything.

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A Quiet Store, After Hours

For me, it doesn’t take much.

If you gave me a Walmart or Target after hours—just me, the overnight crew stocking shelves, low lighting, music in my headphones… no rush, no noise, no expectations—I’d be completely reset.

Actually, let’s take it way back—make it a Caldor!

There’s something about it.

You’re there, but you’re not “on” for anyone. Nobody needs anything from you. There’s no schedule, no pressure, no sense of urgency.

Just movement. Just space. Just peace.

It’s simple.

And somehow, that’s exactly why it works.

As for my playlist?

I’d probably stick with instrumentals.

• Resonance
• Crystal Skies
• Amber Skies
• Merry-Go-Round of Life
• Blue Fields
• Symphony No. 9 in E Minor
• Megalovania
• John Hughes (the song, named after the person!)
• The entire Scott Pilgrim vs. The World video game soundtrack

You know… the essentials.

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Being Able to Sleep Without an Alarm

There’s something about going to sleep without setting an alarm.

No time to wake up. No responsibility waiting for you in the morning.

Just sleep.

That might be one of the best feelings in the world.

It’s one of the rare moments where your time actually feels like your own.

It doesn’t happen very often anymore once you hit adulthood.

However, when it does happen, it’s one of the best feelings in the world.

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Watching Laser Cleaning or Etching Videos

I don’t know what it is about these videos, but they’re hypnotic.

Something about watching something go from completely worn down, dirty, or faded… to perfectly clean and restored in seconds.

It’s satisfying in a way that’s hard to explain.

No thinking required. No effort.

Just watch… and let your brain breathe for a second.

It’s the sound of the laser.

Something about that sound just scratches an itch I didn’t even know I had.

I could watch those videos for hours.

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The “Perfect Level”

This one goes back a bit.

Back when I was working in a grocery store, stocking shelves.

At the end of every shift, we had to “level” the department.

For me, that was Dairy and Frozen Foods.

And leveling, for anyone who doesn’t know, is when you go down each aisle and pull one of every product to the front so everything looks full and clean.

Simple enough.

But one night, my friend Mike and I decided we were going to take it a step further.

We said, “What if we did the perfect level?”

Not just pulling one item forward…

We pulled everything forward.

Every product. Every spot. Every shelf.

We went aisle by aisle, section by section, taking our time and making sure everything lined up exactly how it was supposed to.

It took over an hour.

Maybe even over two hours.

We were absolutely in the zone.

Every yogurt.
Every frozen pizza.
Every egg carton.
Every shredded cheese bag.

But when we were done…

the entire Dairy and Frozen Foods department looked like it had just been fully stocked from top to bottom.

Everything was full. Everything was aligned. Everything just… looked right.

And I remember both of us just standing there for a second, looking at it like:

“Yeah… that’s it.”

It was simple.

Repetitive. Focused. No distractions.

And for whatever reason…

it was completely cathartic.

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Skipping Rocks on a Pond

This one feels almost too simple.

You’re just standing there, throwing rocks at water.

It doesn’t get much more basic than that.

But for whatever reason, it locks you in.

You’re focused on the angle, the spin, how many skips you can get.

Nothing else matters in that moment.

No noise. No pressure. Just repetition and focus.

The best part?

Unlimited rocks.

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Feeding Ducks at a Local Park

There’s something about this that instantly slows everything down.

You’re outside, there’s no rush, and for a few minutes your only responsibility is tossing food to ducks that are way more interested in it than they probably should be.

It’s quiet. It’s simple.

And that’s enough.

Plus, let’s be real—who wouldn’t want a pet duck?

Also, side note… have you ever seen how swans land in water?

Mind. Blown.

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When a Cat or Dog “Chooses” You

You could be in a room full of people… and for whatever reason, that one cat or dog decides:

“Yeah. You.”

And now they’re sitting next to you, following you around, or just existing near you like you’ve known each other forever.

You didn’t earn it. You didn’t ask for it.

But it feels like you did something right.

I’ve been “chosen” by quite a few cats and dogs in my life.

It’s always a great feeling.

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Looking at Old Photographs

This one hits a little differently.

You go back and look at pictures you haven’t seen in years, and suddenly you’re right back in that moment.

You remember things you completely forgot about.

Where you were. Who you were with. What life felt like at that time.

It’s like time slows down for a second.

I have an entire album I can flip through whenever I want, and that’s pretty awesome.

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Reading Old Conversations

This can go one of two ways.

Sometimes it’s funny—you see how you used to talk, things you used to care about, inside jokes you forgot existed.

Other times, it hits a little deeper.

You realize how much has changed. People, situations, even yourself.

But either way, it pulls you out of everything going on right now… and lets you just reflect.

I look back at some of my early Facebook posts, and I have no idea what I was saying back then.

I’m sure I thought it was “cool” at the time, but looking back at it now?

Mega cringe.

I went through a phase where I ended every status update with the phrase “And That’s Real.”

I just cringed having to type that again.

Sigh.

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Writing and Recording (Without Feeling Like I’m Talking Someone’s Ear Off)

This is another one that probably doesn’t sound like a “reset” at first… but it is.

I’ve always liked sharing my thoughts, my opinions, just how I see things.

But at the same time, I’ve never wanted to feel like I’m talking someone’s ear off.

You know that feeling where you’re mid-conversation and you start thinking,
“Alright, I might be doing too much right now…”

With a blog or a podcast, that pressure just… isn’t there.

I can say what I want to say, get it out of my head, put it into something real—and then it’s up to whoever’s on the other side to decide when (or if) they want to engage with it.

No interruption. No overexplaining. No wondering if I’m dragging something out.

It’s just there.

Simple.

And for me, that’s part of the reset too.

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Why Simplicity Works

None of these things are big.

They’re not expensive. They don’t take planning. They’re not something you schedule weeks in advance.

And yet, they do more for your mental reset than most of the “important” things we stress about.

Because they’re simple.

No expectations. No pressure. No performance.

Just a moment where your mind gets to slow down.

That’s where the catharsis is.

Not in doing more… but in needing less.

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Closing Thought

Turns out, I don’t need much to reset.

Just a quiet place, a simple moment, and a break from everything.

And honestly…

that’s probably more than enough.

This is normally the part where I give my sendoff......

......but if you're still reading this......there's something else.

Something else that gives me catharsis.

It's also something that I keep VERY close to the chest.

You're probably wondering what I'm talking about.

Understandable.

So, if you wish, check out the link below, and as it says, headphones are recommended, and maybe we keep this between us lol

Headphones Recommended

The 10 Versions of You That Exist (And the One You Never Show)

 

There’s a thought that hits a little different once it settles in:

A different version of you exists in the mind of every single person who knows you.

Not in a fake, “you’re being two-faced” kind of way. Not in a manipulative sense. Just… naturally. Quietly. Constantly.

And once you really sit with that, it starts to mess with your head a little bit.

Because think about it.

The version of you that your coworkers know? That’s one person.

The version of you around your closest friends? That’s another.

Family gets their own version.

Teammates, gym buddies, random acquaintances, people you only see twice a year… all of them are interacting with a version of you.

Now multiply that by however many people you’ve crossed paths with in your life.

That’s not one “you.”

That’s dozens. Hundreds. Maybe more.

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You’re Not Being Fake — You’re Being Contextual

Here’s where people get it twisted.

We tend to hear something like this and immediately go, “Wait… so I’m fake?”

No.

You’re contextual.

You don’t talk to your boss the same way you talk to your best friend.

You don’t act the same at a family dinner as you do in a locker room.

You’re not telling the same jokes, using the same tone, or even thinking the same thoughts in every setting.

And that’s not deception—that’s awareness.

You’re adjusting based on environment, comfort level, shared experiences, and unspoken rules. It’s automatic. You’re not sitting there consciously flipping switches like a control panel. It just… happens.

So when someone says, “This is who you are,” they’re not wrong.

They’re just describing the version of you they’ve been given access to.

After all, people only know what you show.

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Ten People, Ten Completely Different Descriptions

Here’s the part that really gets interesting.

If you took ten people from completely different parts of your life and asked them to describe you in detail, you wouldn’t get one consistent answer.

You’d get ten.

One might say you’re quiet and reserved.

Another might say you’re loud and hilarious.

Someone else might describe you as intense.

Another might say you’re laid-back to a fault.

All of them would be describing someone that the other nine people in the room would think are all descriptions of completely different people.

Then, what if you walked into that room?

All ten people would say, “This is who I was talking about!”

In unison.

Followed by a lot of staring at each other.

In utter disbelief. In silence.

“We all just described different people, didn’t we?!”

…Surprise.

And the wild part?

They’re all right.

Because they’re all describing their version of you—the one they’ve experienced firsthand.

They don’t see the full picture. They can’t. Nobody can.

They’re working with a snapshot, not the entire album.

You’re the only one holding the album—flipping to different pages when the situation calls for it.

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The “Jack of All Trades” Version of You

And then there’s a version of you that doesn’t always get labeled properly, because it adapts so seamlessly people just… accept it as normal.

The one that meets people exactly where they are.

I’ve realized I fall into that category more than anything else. I’m a jack of all trades as a friend.

You want to sit there and do absolutely nothing? I’ll sit right next to you. No pressure, no forced conversation, just vibes.

You want to go get food? Say less, I’m already grabbing my keys.

Need a listening ear? I can listen with the best of them—no interruptions, no “here’s what you should do” unless you ask for it.

Need an in-depth analysis on something? I will absolutely give you a full dissertation whether you were ready for it or not.

Want me to beat an inside joke into the ground until you’re just on the edge of being annoyed—but still laughing? Oh, we’re running that into overtime.

And depending on who you are, that might be the version of me you know.

To one person, I’m the quiet presence.

To another, I’m the guy who won’t stop talking.

Actually… that one might just be the voice in my head, but still.

To someone else, I’m the one they go to when things get real.

And to a few, I’m probably the reason an inside joke refuses to die.

None of those versions cancel each other out.

They’re all just different lanes of the same highway.

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The “You Don’t Get Access Like That” Version

And then there’s the version of me that a lot of people know… or more accurately, don’t know at all.

To most of my coworkers, I might as well be a mute.

Not in a rude way. Not in a “too good to talk” way. Just… silence. Short answers. Minimal engagement. In, out, done.

There’s a handful that have made it into that inner circle—those are the ones who’ve seen the other versions. The ones who know I can talk, joke, go back and forth, actually be a person.

But for the majority? They’ve probably never heard me say more than a few words at a time.

To the point where when they find out I actually do talk to certain people, there’s almost this disbelief like, “Wait… him? Talking? No chance.”

And honestly? That’s intentional.

Because here’s the reality that doesn’t always get said out loud:

Not everyone you meet has your best interests in mind.

And just because you share a workspace with someone doesn’t mean they’re entitled to your time, your energy, or your personality.

You choose who you open up to.

You choose how much access people get.

You choose the version of you they’re allowed to see.

That’s not being closed off.

That’s having boundaries.

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The Version of You That Nobody Sees

But then there’s the version that doesn’t get talked about enough.

The one that exists when nobody else is around.

No audience. No expectations. No need to be “on.”

Just you.

No filtering your thoughts.

No adjusting your tone.

No reading the room.

No playing any role at all.

That version doesn’t need to impress anyone.

Doesn’t need to soften anything.

Doesn’t need to perform.

It’s the version of you that sits in silence.

That overthinks. That reflects. That replays conversations.

That laughs at things nobody else would find funny.

That worries about things you’d never admit out loud.

That’s the only version that sees everything.

And because of that, it’s the closest thing to a “true” version of you that exists.

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So Which One Is the Real You?

Here’s the answer people don’t love:

They all are.

Every version of you that shows up in different environments is still you. None of them are invalid. None of them are fake.

But they’re all partial.

They’re pieces of a larger whole that no single person—other than you—has access to.

And even you don’t fully see it all at once.

Sometimes, you even surprise yourself with a version you didn’t even know was “you.”

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The Weird Kind of Freedom in That

Once you accept this, something shifts.

You stop trying to control how everyone sees you—because you realize you can’t.

You stop over-explaining yourself—because no explanation will ever cover every angle.

You stop worrying about being “misunderstood”—because that’s literally unavoidable.

People will always know a version of you.

Never all of you.

And maybe that’s not a flaw.

Maybe that’s the design.

Because at the end of the day, the only person who ever gets the full, unfiltered version… is you.

And if you’re being honest with yourself in that version—

then every other version out there?

They’ll fall into place exactly how they’re supposed to.

Thanks for reading this folks!

Until next week!

Things That Make No Sense But Everyone Just… Accepts

 

There are a lot of things in life that, if you stop and actually think about them for more than five seconds, completely fall apart. But for some reason, we all just collectively agree to roll with it like nothing’s wrong.

And I don’t mean big, complicated societal issues. I mean the everyday stuff—the things we all experience constantly and never question out loud.

So here are a few that have been bothering me.

Maybe quite a few.

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The “Reply All” Person at Work

There is always one.

You send an email that clearly only needs one response—maybe two at most. Somehow, this turns into a 14-person group discussion where everyone feels the need to chime in with “Thanks!” or “Got it!” like we’re all tracking a group project in 7th grade.

At what point did we all agree that every email needs to become a full-blown conversation thread?

Just reply. To the person. Who sent it.

I know—it makes too much sense. Just go with it.

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The Last Pump Squeeze at the Gas Station

You know exactly who you are.

The pump clicks. It’s done. The car is full. But no—now it’s time to gently squeeze out that extra three cents’ worth of gas like you’re extracting the final drop of toothpaste from a tube.

For what?

Do people think they’re beating the system? Like ExxonMobil is sitting there like, “Wow, they got us again.”

Meanwhile, you’re just standing there forcing gas into a tank that already said, “I’m good.”

Other people are waiting to get gas, you just got all of yours, I promise.

Get back in your car.

Drive. Away.

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“We Should Hang Out Soon”

Yes, we should!

But no, we probably won't.

And we both know it.

This is one of the most socially accepted lies of all time. Nobody has ever said “we should hang out soon” and then immediately followed through with actual plans.

If you're one of the few who DO follow through, hello, my kindred spirit!

But let's keep it real here. 

Most of the time, it’s just a polite way of ending a conversation without committing to anything.

At this point, it should just be classified as a formal goodbye.

I'm sure we'll run into each other in another 5 years!

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Apartment “Luxury” Labels

Every apartment listing is “luxury” now.

Does it have:

• walls?

• a door?

• running water?

Boom. Luxury.

Meanwhile, the “luxury” includes paper-thin walls, one working outlet, and a dishwasher that sounds like it’s about to file for divorce.

But hey, they put stainless steel on something, so now it’s upscale living.

Besides, as long as ONE of the three communal washing machines work every other Tuesday, what more could you really ask for?!

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The 10 Items or Less Lane (That Nobody Respects)

This one is incredible.

There is a clearly marked lane. It has one rule. Just one.

And yet someone always rolls up with a full cart like they’re testing the system to see if anyone will stop them.

Nobody ever does.

The cashier doesn’t say anything. The people in line just stare into the distance like they’ve accepted their fate.

We’ve all just collectively agreed this rule is more of a suggestion.

This is why Self Checkout is the way.

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Group Projects (From School to Real Life)

Somehow, this system followed us into adulthood.

You have a group of people. One person does 80% of the work. One person does just enough to say they contributed. And one person completely disappears until the very end and goes, “So what are we thinking?”

And yet… this is still a thing.

At no point did anyone step in and say, “Hey, this clearly doesn’t work.”

We just keep doing it.

I had a group project in high school for my “Speaking, Writing, and Research” class.

Groups of four—we had to create a “radio play.”

We had to come up with a storyline, a timeline, make our own commercials… it was involved.

The group got one grade, regardless of who actually contributed.

My group consisted of myself, two other people who didn’t do a single thing, and a foreign exchange student who didn’t speak a word of English.

I did it all.

I voiced all the different characters that I created. I came up with three original commercials. I made the timeline. I did the entire presentation. I did everything.

They just got to put their names on it.

So yeah—unless I get to pick my own group, I hate group projects for this exact reason.

Side note: the same people who contribute nothing but their name on the “group project” are the same ones who want to “split the bill evenly” at the “group dinner,” even though they bought WAY more than you did.

That’s when you say, “No, I’m paying for exactly what I bought.”

So the same rule applies: unless I get to pick my group, I’m not doing the group project… and I’m most certainly NOT doing the group dinner.

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“Estimated Delivery Time”

This one feels personal.

You order something online, and it gives you a very confident window:
“Arriving between 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM.”

4:01 hits… nothing.

Now we’re just guessing. Could be 5:00. Could be tomorrow. Could be never.

And the worst part is, you rearranged your entire day based on that estimate like it actually meant something.

Just tell me, “At some point, it will get to you,” and we can both move on.

I could’ve gone bowling. You stopped me from bowling.

Or disc golf—it’s finally starting to warm up around here. I could’ve been playing disc golf.

Then when the package finally arrives, there’s still a good chance it gets left at the wrong door.

Like the time Amazon clearly left my package at the wrong door, and I had to send them a picture of my apartment door to prove that the picture they took was NOT my door.

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The Unspoken Rule About Not Taking the Last One

This might be the weirdest one.

There’s one of something left—food, snacks, whatever.

Everyone sees it. Everyone wants it. Nobody takes it.

Why?

We’ll let something sit there for hours—sometimes days—just so we don’t look like that person.

At some point, it just becomes a standoff over something nobody wants to be judged for.

That’s why you take the last TWO at the same time… so there is no “last one.”

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The “Open 24 Hours” Place That… Isn’t

You ever pull up to a place that very clearly says “Open 24 Hours”…

…and the lights are off.

Doors locked. Nobody inside. Not even a “be back soon” sign.

So now what? Is it closed? Is it secretly open? Are you supposed to knock like it’s a speakeasy?

At that point, just change the sign. You had one job.

I still miss 24-hour Walmarts too. Shopping at 2 in the morning is a level of peace I may never experience again.

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Phone Calls That Could’ve Been a Text

If your entire phone call can be summarized in one sentence…

why are we on the phone?

“Hey, just wanted to let you know I’ll be there in 10.”

That’s a text. That has always been a text. That will forever be a text.

Instead, now we’ve got:

• a greeting

• a pause

• “what’s up”

• “nothing much”

• and somehow a 2-minute conversation about absolutely nothing

Just send the message and let us both move on with our lives.

I like my phone calls like I like my interactions with strangers—only when absolutely necessary, and brief.

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The “Do Not Use” Machine That Everyone Still Tries

You ever see a machine—vending machine, self-checkout, whatever—with a giant sign on it:

OUT OF ORDER
DO NOT USE

And what do people do?

Walk right up… and try to use it.

Like maybe they are the chosen one. Maybe it just needed the right touch.

Then it doesn’t work (shocking), and now they’re standing there confused like the sign personally lied to them.

Then there’s the last-ditch “There should be some kind of sign here” statement to save face.

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The Weather App Confidence

Your weather app will look you dead in the eye and say:

“0% chance of rain.”

And then 15 minutes later, it’s pouring like the sky has a personal issue with you.

But tomorrow? Oh, tomorrow it’s back to being confident again.

“Partly cloudy.”

Based on what? Vibes?

And we all still check it like it’s a reliable source.

At this point, just grab a jacket and an umbrella and keep them in your car—now you’re covered.

---

“I’ll Be Ready in 5 Minutes”

This has never meant 5 minutes.

Not once in human history.

It’s nothing more than a placeholder. Always has been. Always will be.

“5 minutes” is one of the most flexible units of time we have. It can mean:

• 10 minutes

• 20 minutes

• “I haven’t even started getting ready yet”

And we all just… accept it.

We don’t question it. We don’t challenge it.

We just mentally add 15 minutes and move on.

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The Seatbelt Ding That Feels Personal

You start your car, haven’t even had a chance to breathe yet—

DING DING DING DING

Relax. I’m putting it on.

It’s like your car doesn’t trust you—like it’s already assuming you’re about to make the worst decision possible.

Give me a second. We’re in a parking lot.

The car is still in park.

I bet even if you buckled the seatbelt before turning the car on, it would STILL beep sometimes.

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The “Seen” / Read Receipts Anxiety

Technology really decided we needed to know exactly when someone saw our message.

For what?

Now it’s:

• “They saw it 3 minutes ago…”

• “Why haven’t they answered?”

• “What are they doing that’s more important than responding to me?”

Meanwhile, they’re probably just… living their life.

But no—now we’ve turned messaging into a psychological game for no reason.

Also, just drop everything and respond to just ME, everyone ELSE can wait!

---

Elevator Buttons

That “close door” button?

Be honest… that thing doesn’t do anything.

You can press it 17 times, hold it down, hit it with extra force like that’s going to speed things up—

the door is still going to close whenever it feels like it.

But we all press it anyway, like we’re helping.

The same goes for the crosswalk button.

It’s just a fidget button.

---

“Free Trial” That Needs Your Credit Card

Nothing about that is free.

If I have to give you my credit card, set a reminder to cancel, and monitor my account like I’m tracking a suspicious transaction…

that’s not a free trial.

That’s a timed trap.

And somehow, we’ve all just agreed this is normal.

That’s why you use a prepaid card with next to nothing left on it to sign up.

---

The “One More Episode” Lie

You already know how this ends.

It’s never one more episode.

It’s:

• “one more”

• “okay, THIS one is the last one”

• “alright, now I’m committed”

Next thing you know, it’s 2:30 in the morning and you’re negotiating with yourself about sleep like it’s optional.

This is me—once I find a series that clicks, all pacing attempts go out the window.

I need to know how the cliffhanger is resolved.

---

Closing Thought

There are so many of these that once you start noticing them, you can’t unsee them.

It’s like we’re all just following a set of unwritten rules that nobody agreed to, nobody enforces, and somehow everybody understands.

And honestly… I don’t know if that’s impressive or concerning.

Probably both.

---

What are some of the “things that make no sense but everyone just… accepts” that YOU have noticed?

I’d love to hear your observations, so let me know!

Thanks for reading, folks.

Until next week!

The Ultimate Photo Album!

 

Back in September of 2007, I had a random idea that at the time felt small, almost like a little personal experiment. I was using a Kyocera Jet cell phone, which by today’s standards might as well have been a potato with a camera on it, but it planted the seed for what has quietly become one of my favorite long-term projects.

The original idea was simple:
Take a picture with everyone in my phone contacts.

At the time I remember thinking to myself, “If I know someone well enough to have their phone number, I should be able to get their picture too.” It seemed logical. Phone number equals real person. Real person equals photo opportunity.

But after thinking about it for a bit, the idea evolved.

Instead of taking a picture of the people in my contacts, it suddenly made more sense to take a picture with them.

That small change completely transformed the project.

Because once I thought about it that way, the next step came almost instantly:

Why stop at just my contacts?

If I know someone — a friend, a coworker, a teammate, a family member, someone from my past, someone I haven't seen in years — why not try to get a photo with them too?

And just like that, the goal became:

Take a picture with as many people that I know as possible.

But the real meaning behind the project came less than a year later.

In June of 2008, one of my best friends, David Woodman, passed away.

Two months before he died, I had taken a picture of him on that same Kyocera Jet phone. But I never got the chance to take a picture with him individually for what would later become the Ultimate Photo Album.

I had already come up with the idea for the project while he was still alive.

But life doesn’t always give you the timing you expect.

After David passed away, that missed photo stayed with me.

For a long time, I wondered if the project had quietly turned into something else. I started questioning my own motivation behind it. Part of me thought maybe I was trying to fill a void that could never really be filled.

Was I trying to somehow make up for the one photo I never got?

Was I taking pictures with everyone else because I couldn’t take that one?

At times, I honestly worried that maybe the whole thing was selfish.

But eventually, I realized something important — and unfortunately, it was a lesson that came the hard way.

You never know when you’re seeing someone for the last time.

Not in a dramatic way. Not in a way that announces itself.

Sometimes the last time you see someone just feels like another normal day.

And sometimes, a photo ends up being one of the only things you have left to look back on.

That realization changed how I looked at the project.

The photos weren’t about replacing a moment I missed.

They were about making sure I didn’t miss the moments that were still possible.

That’s why the picture matters.

Every single time.

---

The First Wave

The earliest photos in the project — what I now call the first wave — were taken with a digital camera.

Those photos all have a very specific look to them. They’re almost all horizontal, which was just the natural way people held cameras at the time.

And perhaps most importantly…

I still had hair on my head.

Which, for the record, I miss to this very day.

But that’s part of the fun of looking back through them. The photos don’t just capture the people I took them with — they capture the era too.

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The Current Wave

Fast forward to today, and the current wave of photos are all taken with my iPhone.

And like most photos taken on phones now, they’re almost always vertical.

There’s another noticeable change too.

The hair that once lived on the top of my head has now migrated south and taken up permanent residence on my face in the form of a full beard.

So when you flip through the album, you can actually watch the transformation happen in real time.

Hair on head → hair on face.

Life comes at you fast.

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When the Album Became an Album

For years, all of these photos lived digitally on my computer.

Folders. Files. Organized, sure — but still just digital pictures.

And eventually I had a realization.

I can’t call this thing “The Ultimate Photo Album”…

…and not actually have a photo album.

That felt like a pretty big oversight.

So I went to my local CVS, printed every single photo, bought a physical album, and started placing them inside.

And honestly, that’s when the project really came to life.

Seeing them as real photographs instead of files on a screen completely changed the experience.

Now it actually feels like something you can hold. Something you can flip through. Something you can revisit years from now in the exact same form.

Even better, the album I bought has slots for both horizontal and vertical photos.

Which creates an immediate visual contrast when you flip through it.

The first wave: horizontal photos, younger me, hair still on my head.

The current wave: vertical photos, taken with an iPhone, and the hair now firmly living on my face instead.

It unintentionally turned into a timeline.

Of technology.
Of friendships.
And apparently, of my hairline.

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18½ Years Later

Now here we are 18½ years later.

Even with more than a decade where I put the project on the back burner, the album now contains photos with 243 different people — and that’s not even counting group photos.

Two hundred and forty-three individual people who at one point stood next to me and said, “Sure, let’s take a picture.”

And that’s the part that still amazes me.

I genuinely can’t believe how many people have said yes.

There have been times where I reached out to someone thinking, “There’s no way they’re even going to respond.” Maybe we hadn’t talked in years. Maybe I felt like the request was a little weird. Maybe I figured they’d just ignore the message.

But I also knew something else.

If I didn’t ask, I’d always wonder.

And every time I took that chance and asked anyway…

They said yes.

Every single one of them.

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The Project Keeps Evolving

Because so many years have passed since the earliest photos were taken, the project has recently started evolving in another really fun way.

Not only am I still actively pursuing brand new photos for the album…

I’ve also started reaching back out to people that I already took a picture with years ago.

When I see them again, I bring our original photo with me and ask them to sign it.

Then after they sign it, we take a brand new picture together.

It creates this amazing full-circle moment.

One photo capturing the moment from years ago…
A signature acknowledging that moment…
And a brand new photo capturing where we are now.

It’s become one of my favorite parts of the whole project.

And in a weird way, it also solved a regret I had for years.

I never bought any of the yearbooks when I was in school.

Which meant I never got the chance to have classmates sign them like everyone else did.

But now?

Having people sign the photos we took together has basically turned this into something even better.

It’s become my Ultimate Yearbook.

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Why It Matters

This project doesn’t really have an ending.

There’s no final number. No finish line. No moment where I can say, “Alright, I’m done.”

Because as long as I keep meeting new people, reconnecting with old friends, or crossing paths with someone I haven’t seen in years…

The album can keep growing.

And after nearly two decades, that little idea that started with a Kyocera Jet phone camera in 2007 is still going.

But more importantly, it became something else too.

It became a reminder.

A reminder to take the picture.
A reminder not to assume there will always be another opportunity.
A reminder that moments with people matter more than we realize while we’re in them.

The Ultimate Photo Album is now dedicated to David Woodman.

Because while I never got the individual photo with him that I wish I had…

His memory is the reason the project means as much as it does.

And after all these years, I’m still amazed that 243 different people have said yes to being part of it.

It’s pretty incredible what can grow out of a simple idea.

Especially when people are willing to take a picture with little old me.

As always, thanks for reading this folks! 

Let's do it again next week!