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how to be an interesting person

How To Become An Interesting Person

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how to be an interesting person
Standing next to the South Nahanni River in Nahanni National Park, Canada.

Afghan music playing in the background, I sit here writing as a gopher sneaks by. In front of me, Afghan and Mexican ladies dance to both Afghan and latino music. A war is brewing but it hasn’t arrived yet. In fact, It’s probably the only time that innocent villagers hope the war comes. We actually hope that the guns will start shooting and the tanks will roll in at any minute.

We hope for this because this is just a training scenario; a $30,000,000 training scenario for the Canadian military in which I am a simple actor…an “extra” so to speak. There are no cameras, however, and none of us are allowed phones or any electronic devices in the field. It’s relatively top secret and will determine the suitability of whether the soldiers will go overseas or not. I first heard about the exercise back in 2011 when my wife was searching for Spanish-related jobs. Since these training scenarios are to train the military for overseas operations, the villagers cannot speak English. This is why they try to recruit people with a second language. That’s also why I am just an “extra”, adding “population” to the various villages set up across a vast amount of land near Wainwright, Alberta. Definitely an experience to add to your Alberta bucket list!I only speak English and therefore, I cannot speak to the soldiers.
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Operation Cheerio | Rescuing a Cuban Street Dog

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Cienfuegos Cuba
The first park we found Cheerio in.

Back in November of 2017, my wife and I went to Cuba, a place I had long wanted to visit. Its uniqueness, history with revolution and communism, and relatively closed-relationship with much of the world had always piqued my interest. I love visiting places that are so different than my home country. We went for just over two weeks, which proved to be a little too long in the end. Maybe its because my wife is from Mexico, or because we’ve travelled a lot through Latin America, or maybe just due to the overall cost of traveling around Cuba, but we were somewhat disappointed.

We still had a good time. We loved exploring Havana. We loved dancing in Trinidad. We loved meeting locals and hearing their stories, albeit through my wife as I don’t know enough Spanish. But it just wasn’t a place we fell in love with. Foreigners are charged excessively compared to locals. We felt like $-signs sometimes. The food is very bland and for anything more than bland, the prices are on par with Canada, the USA, and Europe. We enjoyed our time there but had no intentions of returning.

But then we did return, thanks to a street dog we named Cheerio. Cuba is full of street dogs – friendly little animals that have been given up by their so-called owners. Forced to fend for themselves, they tend to cherish foreigners who aren’t used to seeing street dogs and therefore show more love and affection than locals do.

Seeing street dogs breaks my heart. After all, it’s doubtful that they’ll live very long. With dangers such as cars, starvation, disease, and “government control”, life on the streets is often short-lived for a canine. I wish I could help them all but just like global hunger and pollution, there’s not too much I can do on a large scale. So, in terms of street dogs and cats, we usually try to give them a treat or some water, give them a little love, and then bid them farewell.

That is until we met Cheerio in Cienfuegos, Cuba. As we walked through Parque Jose Marti, this little dog ran up to us, so excited, wagging her whole bum in the process. It was the first time a street dog approached us so cheerfully, looking for some affection.
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Making Dreams Happen, 150 Days At A Time

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Road to 150

It’s interesting how life works at times. Last year I was miserable. With the local economy crumbling all around me, I felt like I was drowning. I couldn’t find a job, my condo dropped in value by almost 35%, I got hit with a special assessment of $45,000, and had to rent out my apartment at a loss of $500 per month. Life really sucked. While staying hopeful was difficult, I kept telling myself to keep thinking big. After all, I get most of my inspiration from living limitless.

Around Christmas time, I started thinking of what I could do in 2017. With a 9% unemployment rate affecting my city, the chances of getting a decent job were pretty slim. As far as I could tell, this wasn’t going to improve for quite some time. So, I began thinking of other cool things I could do. As a travel writer and photographer who’s always wanted to create a travel show, I began thinking of big ideas. Then, one felt like a home run. 2017 just so happened to be the year of Canada’s 150th birthday. The country was celebrating it in a big way. I have a Canadian travel blog called Must Do Canada. What would be a cool thing to do to celebrate Canada’s big birthday?

Then it hit me. A 150-day road trip. But not just any road trip. A multimedia road trip where we feature iconic attractions, local delights and interviews with everyday Canadians about what they feel makes Canada the great country that it is. This is actually something that I have been asking myself for the last few years. As someone who has spent many years backpacking around the globe, I’ve come to realize that Canada has a pretty darn good reputation everywhere I went. Whether I was talking with someone in Asia or someone in Europe, most people look up to Canada for one reason or another. Some admired our vast nature and low population while others admired our kindness and openness. Some people dreamed of exploring Canada as a tourist while others dreamed of immigrating here and beginning a new life. Regardless of the reasons, it was obvious that Canada had done something right. [Read more…] about Making Dreams Happen, 150 Days At A Time

32 Tips I’ve Almost Learned from 32 Years

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Alas, I am 32, and like most birthdays, I feel the same. However, I have noticed myself feeling more anxious over the last couple of years. It took me some time to figure it out but eventually I realized what the problem is. As a pretty ambitious person, I felt perfect in my early 20’s. After all, failures and set-backs didn’t mean much. I had loads of time left. Now they do mean something, at least to me. One failure feels like 100.

So, in learning to deal with that and to celebrate 32 years of learning about life, I thought I’d write out a list of 32 things I’ve “almost learned” over the last 32 years. I say “almost learned” because I certainly haven’t mastered all of them. I have simply learned them and will continuously try to implement and improve on them throughout life. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

I hope this list inspires you in some way. Feel free to share more tips that you’ve learned in the comment section below!

32 Tips from 32 Years

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Trying Out for an Olympic Team

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Back in the day when I was going to college, I thought it would be cool to try out for an olympic team. I don’t know why I would want to put myself through that, especially with no chance of making a team but it sounded cool. As a Canadian who grew up under the Northern Lights playing hockey, I’ve had many dreams of scoring a goal and helping to win the gold medal for my country.

That of course won’t ever happen BUT as I was walking around the hallways of my college one day, I noticed a poster advertising try-outs for the Canadian olympic speed skating team. Sure, I had never speed-skated before but at least I knew how to skate pretty well.

This was my chance. I jotted down the date (a Saturday morning) and made sure I was ready for it.

Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned. My original plan was to have a good nights sleep but when I came home Friday night, my roommate was throwing a party. Since I wasn’t going to sleep with all the noise, I decided to join in on the fun. Everyone thought I was crazy to wake up and try out for an olympic team. Many were already amazed that I had acted in a movie and it was this night that I realized how different I was from many people. I was a dreamer. Someone wanting to experience life in so many ways.

Saturday morning, I woke up and went to the try-outs. The morning consisted of weight-training and cardiovascular tests. I’ll always remember the bike. The evil bike. A stationary bike hooked up to a TV screen. It was only a 1-minute bike ride racing against the computer but they told me it would be the hardest bike ride of my life. I scoffed at it, wondering how hard 1-minute could really be.

Well, it was hard. Very hard. After a few seconds of warm-up, the tension kicked in and everyone around me started shouting to encourage me to keep going at full strength. By the end of the bike, I could barely walk. I was told to jump on the regular stationary bikes and peddle softly to avoid building up lactic acid in my knees. Everyone else was wiped out too. But before I made it to the other bikes, I walked awkwardly to the bathroom and puked my guts out.

But hey, I did it. I lived!

Next was the on-ice try-outs. I laced up my skates and did numerous laps around an olympic rink. This was difficult but nothing compared to the evil bike. I actually didn’t do that bad, but as expected, I didn’t make the cut. They said my skating was strong but just not strong enough to be olympic-material within two to four years.

So you won’t be seeing me with a Canadian olympic medal anytime soon but I did cross something off my crazy life list. Trying out for an olympic team and with no sleep!

Move into My Own Apartment

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Less than a week after moving to a new city, I found the coolest apartment that I could afford. Since I wanted to live nearby the college I was attending, I would walk the streets all day knocking on houses with rent signs and marking down numbers to call.

Eventually, I got a call back telling me that the current tenants of a penthouse were moving out early and needed someone to take over the lease. A penthouse sounded expensive so that was my first question. I was told $900 for a 2-bedroom. Although this seemed cheap for a penthouse, it was still quite expensive for just myself. I agreed to see it however and as soon as I did, I knew this was the place.

Sure it was old and dated but it was literally one block from college, had a loft-style design, sun windows, three balconies, two bathrooms, and a fireplace. It was also spitting distance to the most popular student bar in the neighborhood. Done.

Not only was that the start of two incredible years but it also lead to another incredible story of how I met one of my best friends. While I was walking the streets looking for rentals, a car pulled up and a the passenger asked me what I was doing. When I explained the situation, he said he was also looking for a place and to call him if I needed a roommate. Eventually, I did call him and we met for a beer. This lead to one of my best friendships to date. It’s not very often, you meet a good lifelong friend walking up and down a street!

You never know what’s going to happen. That’s the beauty of life. Follow your dreams and keep an open mind and a good attitude. Big things will happen.

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Moving into my own apartment was one of my bucket list items when I was younger. Of an initial list of 100 amazing things to do before I die, I’ve now completed all of them! Check out the list. The List 2.0 is even crazier and it’s coming soon.