Another Year Around the Sun
Today, December 7th, I woke up a year older, but more importantly, a year more aware. Birthdays used to feel like markers on a calendar, reasons to eat extra dessert, or days to answer the flood of messages on my phone. Now, they feel like something much bigger: a reminder that each day we wake up gets to be a gift, not a guarantee.
This past year was full of movement, change, and quiet moments that asked me to slow down. It started with new beginnings at Crux, continued with hard choices, and a new chapter rolling on different wheels. And through it all, the message was the same: don’t rush through life. Notice it.
A New Path at Crux
The year began with a fresh start—a new role at Crux. New people. New challenges. New opportunities to build, learn, and stretch into something I wasn’t before. I walked in knowing what I could offer, but also curious about who I’d become in the process.
There’s something powerful about being handed a chance and saying, “I’m going to earn this every day.” The last year taught me to embrace responsibility without sacrificing the parts of life that breathe color into it.
Chasing Fresh Air
Whenever work got heavy or my mind got loud, I found myself back where I always do, outside. The van took us to the familiar quiet of Alabama Hills, where the rocks glow gold at sunrise and the wind sounds like it’s whispering reminders you didn’t know you needed. We wandered into the Sierra, deep snow still clinging to the peaks, air so cold and clean it forces you to slow down and fill your lungs with intention.
The van wasn’t just a vehicle. It was perspective on wheels. A place to breathe, cook on an open flame, make coffee in the cold, and watch the world turn without rushing to keep up.
Goodbye to VanView
Selling the van wasn’t easy. People see a build like that and think you’re giving up a dream. But sometimes letting go isn’t losing, it’s honoring what served you and making room for something new.
We didn’t sell it because we were done adventuring. We sold it so we could keep going. So we could build again. Learn again. Explore another version of the same story. Life asks us to evolve, and we listened.
Enter a New Chapter: The Truck
And then came the truck, the beginning of Chapter 2. A Toyota Tacoma. Mudbath color. Ready to get scratched. Not as polished as the van, not as comfortable, not as “complete.” But that’s what makes it special. It’s raw. It’s becoming. It’s teaching us patience again.
We’ve started slowly, racks, tires, gear choices that feel intentional rather than rushed. It’s not about building something “Instagram-worthy” overnight. It’s about building something that fits the pace of our lives now.
The truck isn’t here to replace the van. It’s here to carry us into the next season. One built on curiosity, not comparison.
A Year of Learning How to Breathe
If there’s a theme to this birthday, it’s the importance of slowing down. Not just physically but mentally. To step away from urgency. To stop mistaking productivity for purpose. To stop viewing time as something to beat, and start treating it as something to appreciate.
This year asked me to:
Take deeper breaths
Reflect more often
Choose intention over speed
Appreciate the quiet moments between big ones
Treat every day like the rare chance it is
Life doesn’t need to be crowded to be full. Sometimes a cup of coffee in cold mountain air says more about who you are than a packed calendar ever could.
Another Year, with Gratitude
So here’s to today. To waking up a year older, still curious. To taking the scenic route, even when the shorter one exists. To vehicles that change, but values that don’t. To work that pushes us, and trails that slow us down just enough to enjoy the view.
Another year around the sun means another year to get it right, whatever “right” looks like. I just know mine will involve more campfire warmth, more dirt on tires, more slow mornings outside, and a whole lot of gratitude for the chance to keep going.
Thanks for being here for the journey.
Cheers to a new year, a new chapter, and the lessons waiting on the trail ahead.
