Journeyman Stories

I just met an amazing person. This man is almost 76 years old and his name is Jack. He is such a funny character and above all he is an incredible performer. He climbed the CN Tour in less than 33 minutes and 23 seconds. Why do I mention this specific time? Simply because that was the time it took me to climb the Tower (in other words, Jack was faster than me!!!). This thing is HUGE. It’s 1776 steps, over 150 floors. What a challenge! This is my forth time climbing the Tower as a fund raising event for the United Way. For the second year I was the team captain (I guess I was not chosen based on performance). This year was the year of all the records. We had a record breaking 22 members on the team, we raised over $2000 (for the first time) and the fastest member of our team made it to the top in 15 minutes and 6 seconds (another team record, obviously not my record). To top it all off, we had Jack as a team member, 76 years old! We thought he was the oldest guy in the entire event unt...

I am sitting in front of the TV watching an old movie featuring Steven Seagal but my phone keeps beeping and interrupting me. I have no choice but to stop the movie and see why the phone keeps going off. You see, I have turned my phone into a tool to remind me of what needs to be done and when. Every time the phone beeps, I know something requires my immediate attention, so I make sure to check to see what it is and then proceed to do it. It could be a phone call that I need to make, or just a reminder that I have to write my blog (see, it’s working. I am writing my blog now). Hold on, this movie I am watching is getting really interesting. I might have to get back to you later. Wow! What an intense movie! Well, where was I? Oh my phone. It had to come down to that. I had so much to do last week that I missed a bunch of the things with which I had tasked myself to complete. I ultimately had to come up with a system to remind me of what needed to be done. My phone came in handy. Now it’...

What a month of travel! This has been my schedule for the last three weeks: Three days in New York, one day in Niagara Falls the following week, and three days in Montreal last week. In a few weeks I will be returning to New York. The trip is already booked . My manager at work told me that if I keep living the life I am living now, there will be no space for a wife (I am hoping to meet my future wife on the road lol). Talking about marriage, I was in Montreal performing double duty in a wedding (as the best man and the MC). I guess it is the next step before my own wedding, don't you think? Johnny, my best friend was getting married to another best friend of mine (I think they were made for each another. They are both my best friends). Johnny is lucky to have her as his wife. She is an amazing lady. I know she is lucky to have Johnny in her life too. It was both an emotional and great event. I was there when the relationship started and I was there to witness the beginning of the...

I am glued to the TV zapping between two channels watching both the Colbert Report and the Cosby Show. I am also trying to finish some work from last night (talk about multitasking). To my great surprise, as I flip back to the Cosby Show, guess who I see? Myriam Makeba, the late great singer from South Africa. She was playing herself on the Cosby Show. Needless to say the Colbert Report had to wait (good thing I was able to catch the same episode last night). Of course I am a big Myriam Makeba fan (and so seem to be all the people on the Cosby Show). She started to tell them how beautiful the continent of Africa is. She described Africa in such a poetic way that made me a little teary. Oh how she made me miss home! All I could think of was “why did I leave my country?” In my eight years in Canada, there has been a few times where I wanted to pack and go back home for good. Funny enough, those moments hit me when I don’t seem to see any results in what I am doing. Chasing the American d...

I remember writing my first essay ever way back in Grade 10. The essay topic was “life is a journey”. Did the teacher know at that time I was going to be The Journeyman? I doubt it. I don’t even remember what I wrote but my teacher’s remarks were that it was too long. Life is really a journey and it is up to us to decide how we are going to take it. The good thing is that life has plenty of surprises. Throughout the course of my life I have learned to let go of expectations of how life unfolds and live in the moment. Do you remember my blog from a few weeks back where I mentioned the movie “Evan Almighty”? I kept thinking about it since then. In the movie, Evan, a newly elected congressman, based his campaign on his slogan “We’re going to change the world”. Because people needed change, he got elected. He thought being a congressman was going to be a piece of cake until he started facing real challenges. It takes a great deal of work to change the world. I took time to reflect on a few...