New Hampshire: The Roots of the Journey of Discovery

When Dani and I became friends, she introduced me to a pretty cool New Year’s tradition she does with her friends. Instead of making New Year’s resolutions, you pick a word to focus on for that year. For 2025, I debated a few words, but there was one clear winner: discovery.

Discovery
the act or process of of seeing, finding, or gaining knowledge of something previously unknown

I am dedicating the entire 2025 calendar year to a powerful journey of discovery. It’s not just a journey to discover the world, but also one to discover true happiness, meaning, and purpose. To finally put closure on all the horrible Arizona memories.

Inspirational Quotes. Powerful Music.

One of the most fascinating aspects of trauma is that it unleashes a fiercely creative side of you. Throughout my life, I have used inspirational quotes to overcome challenges and get through difficult times. I most often turn to writing, photography, and video to scratch my creative itch. However, music has proven to be one of the most powerful outlets for healing the Arizona wounds. As a result, each leg of this journey of discovery will have a lyric and song dedicated to it. There’s no better song to describe the leading up to and the first steps of this journey of discovery than Kenny Chesney’s The Road and the Radio.

Clarity and inspiration
Happiness is a destination that’s hard to find
It may take some time
But in my mind there’s something more
And I’ll open up a brand-new door
And find the strength to close the ones I left behind

Kenny Chesney

To all my friends, family, and loved ones, thank you for the kindness, support, and encouragement leading up to this point. Now settle in and enjoy the ride. It’s gonna take us to some absolutely amazing places.

Rye, New Hampshire

The Beginning

I chose this obscure beach town on the New Hampshire Seacoast as the starting point because it perfectly symbolizes letting go of the past and welcoming in the future. It’s a homecoming to New England, the ocean, and the mountains, a place I can be fully at peace. At the same time, New Hampshire is the strong foundation not only to build this next chapter on, but also to fully flourish and absolutely thrive.

A New Year, a New Chapter, and a New Journey

New Year’s is a time to reflect, to set new goals, to put closure to the old year, and welcome in the new. As I sat on the seacoast watching the waves crash on the rocky shoreline, the sky lit up in brilliant shades of orange, pink, and purple as the sun set on 2024. The warm glow of that sunset offered plenty of hope, that 2025 will finally be the year things start to fall into place. Something about this New Year’s just felt different, like the momentum was starting to build in my favor.

As the color faded from the sky and the cold New Hampshire night set in, an overwhelming sense of calm and peace came over me. For the first time since my life in Arizona collapsed nearly five years earlier, I felt truly at home. Now completely free of my Arizona ties, I found myself looking forwards instead of backwards. There is still work to be done to heal those wounds, but the first pangs of true happiness and passion started to bubble somewhere deep down there as we ushered in 2025. The purpose of this journey is to discover them.

Finding Inspiration on this Journey of Discovery

To harness the full power of discovery requires an element of spontaneity. While it’s helpful to have a general idea of where you want to go, it’s next to impossible to discover anything if you have every minute detail planned in advance. Instead, open your mind and look for inspiration and guidance. It will show you where you need to go.

As I sat on the seacoast watching the sun set on 2024, the New Hampshire license plate kept catching my eye. At the top, you’ll find the state motto: “Live Free or Die.” As George Carlin once famously said, it has to be the most dramatic slogan you can put on a license plate. But unlike Carlin, who went on to joke about being a little nervous about a state that mentions death right on the license plate, we are going to focus on the “Live Free” part.

When you go through any kind of trauma or hardship, it’s almost a natural instinct to question both your freedom and what it means to be free. And that left me wondering: what does it mean to live free? What are you choosing when you decide to live free? How does living free affect your interactions with others? Does freedom relate to happiness or the truth? Because one thing I know for sure is that the current definition of freedom in the United States is deeply flawed.

Defining Freedom and Independence the Way Our Founding Fathers Intended

The story of New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die” motto dates back to the American Revolution. General John Stark was a New Hampshire-born war hero who led the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War. After inflicting heavy British casualties at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Stark led the colonists to victory at the Battle of Benington. Historians see that victory, which ultimately led to the defeat of the British at Saratoga, as the turning point of the war. In a letter he wrote to Battle of Benington veterans in 1809, General Stark closed with a toast: “Live free or die. Death is not the greatest of all evils.”

Somewhere between ‘Live Free or Die’ and ‘Famous Potatoes’, the truth lies.

George Carlin

When I cut ties with Arizona, I sought a place I could be proud to both live and build a future. A place that defined freedom and independence the way our Founding Fathers intended. New Hampshire gives you all of that. And we’re going to use it to guide us on the next steps of this journey.

Why Are We Embarking on this Journey

Before we set off on this journey of discovery, let’s take a moment to look back and acknowledge why we’re here in the first place. However, you won’t find those seeds here in New England, or anywhere in the United States for that matter. Because they’ve taken root half way around the world.

Bangkok, Thailand

February 2024

At the beginning of 2024, Dani and I set off on a months-long adventure through Southeast Asia. While it was a part of the world we both really wanted to see, we also wanted something that would nudge us beyond our comfort zone and break the day-to-day monotony life in the United States had become. Little did we know at the time it would be sowing the seeds for something much bigger.

The Live Like a Local Challenge

We designed the trip so we would travel together for the month of January and then travel solo in February. As January drew to a close, Dani gave me a challenge. I had 10 days in Bangkok to myself before jetting off to Kuala Lumpur to explore Malaysia. Spend those 10 days living the expat lifestyle. Live like a local.

I got off the tourist track and walked the streets, shopped at the local markets, and immersed myself in local Thai culture. The first time walking into that market where you not only didn’t speak the language, but also couldn’t read it was nerve-racking. But you figure out how to get around the language barrier. And it quickly becomes second nature. Before you know it, you’re falling in love with the lifestyle.

As the challenge continues, you stop being a tourist and just live. I kept that attitude for my entire stay in Malaysia. Dani did the same in Vietnam. A small shift in mindset gave us an incredible glimpse into local life and culture that we would not have seen otherwise. It nudged us out of our comfort zone, but at the same time we were completely relaxed and fully enjoying ourselves. Because we were starting to thrive.

Throughout the Live Like a Local Challenge, you start to discover things about yourself. It pushes you out of your comfort zone just enough to uncover things you didn’t know you had in you, but not enough to make you really uncomfortable. As you overcome those barriers, you not only gain self-confidence, but also start craving to discover what else you’re capable of. And that’s exactly one of the primary goals on this powerful journey of discovery.

Conway, New Hampshire

Cleanse Your Soul in the White Mountains

The color white commonly represents purity, cleanliness, honesty, unity, and new beginnings. Whenever you’re in New Hampshire, it’s hard to ignore the call of the White Mountains. Under a blanket of fresh snow, the White Mountains are the ultimate place to cleanse your soul and clear your mind for the journey ahead.

Out on the Kancamagus Highway, the buzz of activity during fall colors season is replaced by a peaceful calm in the dead of winter. Under the solace of the mountains, the snow, and the river, life slows down. You feel your worries and thoughts start to melt away. While the crisp mountain air refreshes your entire body, the sound of the river cascading through Rocky Gorge dissolves all the stress you’ve been carrying around for so long. You feel a deeper connection to nature, being at peace with the world as your slate gets wiped clean. Looking up at the blue sky and sunshine instills a sense of hope and excitement for both the fresh start and the road ahead.

You emerge on the other end of the 34-mile scenic byway through the White Mountains cleansed, refreshed, and rejuvinated. It may feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders. The sense of calm and peace sometimes seems uncomfortable compared to the chaos of your day-to-day life, but in a good way. You’ve laid a strong foundation for your journey of disovery. Now it’s time to discover the incredible places it will take you.