I’m an experience guy I guess. Think assets are obviously important, and at one point was a major focus. I always enjoyed working, even as a kid growing up. Got my first job that wasn’t picking black eyed peas or related to hay at 12yo for a family friend that had a gun shop and shooting range. Worked for various gun shops and dealers strait through till I finished college. Couple years later went back to law school at SMU and worked hard. Hated living in the city the past couple of years and wanted to become a small-town lawyer, but I did well in school and was encouraged towards big firm practice. I admit the money was also attractive, so I bit.
Still being an experience kind of guy, and knowing the kind of schedule that was ahead, I skipped my graduation and went to Alaska for 10-days just to bum around, fish a bit, see a couple placed I’d read or heard stories from my father. It really look me for a spin, and before I left, knew I’d be back. The firm I’d accepted a position with had given me a generous singing bonus, enough to live off for a few months, study for the bar, and then take a longer, more extravagant vacation than I’d ever otherwise consider. It was encouraged even, since you wouldn't have that kind of freedom with your time any year soon. So I took the Texas bar exam, went to my grandparent 65th wedding anniversary party in Austin, then snuck back to Alaska for all of August and most of September.
I caught wild trout, some huge, grayling, a lot of silvers all on the fly. Wader boots never dried in almost 2-months. Traveled all over the state. Fell in love with Alaska. Decided again, before I left, I’d be back. Promised myself, by the time I was 45, I’d either live tin Alaska or at least on the cusp of the leap. The flew back to Dallas and went to work. Practiced with some wonderful and talented folks. Great quality and complex work, big clients, wonderful experience. Traveled all over the country. Still felt a little like drowning puppies for satan at times, but Satan paid well and I was gaining experience. Mi was on partnership track, great salary, great bonuses, yada yada.
Then one year, not that much later, the world seemed upended, seemed like people I loved were just dropping like flies. I had a great year, but if you were close to me, the same might not be true. My absolute best friend since grade school, true partner in crime for most foolish shenanigans including skipping across states one spring break when we were 16, and somehow not getting caught kind of friend. Just a few weeks before we were supposed to take a motorcycle trip was killed on his new motorcyle. Less than 2-months later another close friend, and rising lawyer with whole world ahead of him, shot and killed himself, while I and two other friends were waiting on him to meet us for dinner. Another close father-like figure died on his motorcycle not even a month later…they believed he had a cardiac issue, lost consciousness and just left the roadway. Skip forward two months, and a close friend and his father who we all played cards and bbq’d together every weekend, they are at my house as it was my turn in the rotation. His father starts feeling tired, decided to call it a night, so his wife takes him home, maybe 3 miles away, his son stays and continues with cards. Maybe 45-minutes later and his mom calls my house, she ran out to pick up dinner and beers, comes back home and he had passed away in the moments she was gone.
By late September that year I attended four funerals for folks I truly cared about and were in my close circle, the oldest not even 65, two not even 35. I was at a loss and starting to really consider priorities and what really mattered to me. Shortly after, my uncle had finally gotten checked out for some ongoing headache/eyesight issues, and of course it proved an inoperable brain tumor which he learned about and lost his life to within the same month. Driving home from funeral number 5, I decided I might not wait until I was 45 to move to Alaska. Hell, I realized it’s not beyond possibility that I don’t make it to 45. So if it was truly important, I needed to make it happen.
By the end of that year, I accepted an appointment from the deputy attorney general for the State of Alaska as a prosecutor, and committed to working for the state for at least two years. Sounds cool, but what it really equated to was more than a 85% pay cut accompanied by a significant increase in the cost of living. Essentially financial suicide. Surprisingly, my wife remained on board with the idea. She even encouraged it. I sold off a few Harley’s and our house, made decent profit on all of it, even an old Brunswick Centennial pool table I saved from a hotel bar in Atlanta and was only about 25% of my way to refurbishing it, sold almost immediately for way more than I paid for it.
I rolled out of Texas in my Z71 pickup, back seat packed with guns and fly rods, campershell packed with a small dresser, one chair and a bunch of suits. A wife that would meet me in a few months when her school year finished. I made it to Ketchikan before a firm I worth with during law school learned I’d left my firm and wanted me to come work for them. Didn’t ask any details, just chatted a bit with the one partner as I was pretty close with him and talked life goals, family and ended the call. Next day in Juneau (taking the ferry up) he calls me again as the main partner was upset that he didn’t even tell me particulars. So he lays it all out, and I was shocked, flattered, and scared at the same time. Had he caught me just a couple weeks earlier, I likely couldn’t have said no. It was more than 2.5 times what I was making before with likely 100% bonus…but I’d never be free. I’d rarely ever see home. Graciously passed and promised if things didn’t work out, if I returned to a Texas, he’d be the first call I made. Then shared the story with my wife…who proved less supportive of the move upon hearing. She wanted me to get off the ferry…now…and board the next one headed south. To call them back and say I’m on my way.
I couldn’t do it. I’d committed to this plan. I’d committed to a position. I’d liquidated everything to make it happen, and my dream of returning to small town life and to do so in Alaska was here. I just couldn’t. She agreed.
So the move happened. That was January 2006. My ex-wife filed for divorce 3-weeks later. Never made the trip herself, unsure if she ever even intended to, but was the right decision for her, and us.
Since then, finished my stint with the state. Started my own practice, small town law, small time living, but decent. And have had more free time to enjoy the quality of my life than I ever would have otherwise. Absolutely, 100%, worst financial decision ever, but so happy I made it, and if I had it to do over again, just hope I’d remain committed enough to do follow the same path.
I’ve caught so many huge fish from free flowing, wild and unstocked rivers. Killed so many huge big game animals up here, and trekked through some of the most gorgeous wilderness, with breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, from high mountain saddle camps, that it’s truly proven everything I’d ever hoped for and more. So while I appreciate some assets, I’ll take experiences first, even some with built in strife…some suffering makes the reward all the more important. And I’ll likely retire much, much later in life if I prove fortunate enough to live that long, and I like it that way, since I plan to screw off and enjoy as much of my life along the way as possible.
