Every journey begins with the first… word.

It’s been over six years since I first wrote the opening words down for my book. I never would have guessed writing a book would take this long, but then again, I never would have guessed as to why I had to wait until the age of sixty-five to retire to begin to live the life I really wanted to live. But as I have realized as the book nears publication, it has never been about the amount of time something takes that makes it worthwhile or not. Rather, it’s been the experience along the way and the people I have met, that I truly remember and am thankful for.

Philosophical Engineering

The Traditional Song and Dance I was told to play along to, consisted of studying hard to get a degree, finding a secure and stable position at a company to get a job, and falling in love quickly out of college to get married. Society has been imposing on me for years as I came to realize that day in a parking lot called “X-lot” at the University of Connecticut, what I was supposed to be doing with my life. What I was supposed to “get” out of life.

That realization, marked the spot where I began asking myself all sorts of questions. I felt for the first time, very unfulfilled with all the hard studying, job applying, and dating I had done. Questions were coming up in my head, that weren’t ever asked on any exams I had ever taken. Like, “Why did I have to study about the economic system of Tunisia when I hardly even understood the United States?” Or “Why did I have to search and interview for a position to lock myself in a cubicle for forty years?” Or “Why finding my soulmate was so critical right after college?”

Not once have I thought getting a degree, job, or married to be negative things. In fact, they have been beneficial in clarifying my overall goals in life. What I discovered in trying to answer all these questions, was that “getting” that degree, job, and marriage title weren’t what I was really working towards. And it was my mentor Dan, that began to show me the difference.