Reflections From A Precipice

Today is my last day in Denver, Colorado. After nearly 7 years in the great American west, I am moving back to Washington, D.C. to be closer to friends and family and to continue my work in cybersecurity. But in making this journey back East, I wanted to share some learning with you that I’ve accrued after more than half a decade in beautiful Colorado.

Throughout my life here, I have taken the time to write phrases at important milestones. For me, this collection is a powerful set of words that are not only a reflection on my past and time here but are a guide for meaningful living in the future. I hope that for some, these may provide the sort of clarity and inspiration that they have provided me.

1. Nature is more amazing than you could ever realize. Spend time in it. Remember that you are a part of it.
2. Integrity is the one unassailable indicator of a persons character
3. Collaboration amongst honest, thoughtful, and motivated people is a force more powerful than anything else made by humankind
4. Above all else, people want to feel pride and to be respected for their inherent dignity
5. The vast silence atop a mountain, in a forest, or down in a canyon is the most powerful sound in the world
6. If a person is selfish, there is nothing that you can do to right the rotting seed of their character
7. A person who cannot show compassion for you does so because they have insufficient compassion for themself
8. The desire for liberty can move mountains
9. Empathy is a key that is overlooked by most but one that can open nearly all doors
10. No person is only one thing at any moment in time — they are a complex sum of moving parts

Colorado has helped me connect with something powerful inside myself. That ethos of our independence and vigor has helped me to see great beauty, embrace challenges, and believe in the greatness of America again. The experiences I have had here, the people I have come to love here, the pain I have felt here, and the earth beneath my feet here — they all go to making me a better man.

To all of you whom I have had the pleasure of spending my light with, thank you for the opportunity to strive, to seek, and to find. You have helped me to never yield.

While I may find myself in many places around the world, my heart will forever be at home in Colorado.

Onward.