Too Long; Didn’t Read.

This started off as an Instagram post, but the caption ended up too long. Which is why I started this writing thing in the first place.

If you’ve been reading my stories at all this year, there’s been a lot of discussion (by me. I’m discussing with myself) about racing. Racing dirtbikes, to be specific.

The jist of those conversations was “I don’t need to race. I enjoy it. So keep doing it.”

And yet, here we are, October, 10 months into the year (wut…*swigs beer* so yer tellin me… october is the tenth month? sayitaintso) and I have done:

1 MRANN race
2 Hooligan races, with plans for a third
1/2 of a long distance race

???

That’s not a whole lot of racing, for someone who says he actually enjoys it.

We get it, Matt. Your riding buddies including your ex gf are all out racing and having a blast and you have FOMO bc you’re stuck adulting and doing navy stuff so you can’t race. aNyWaY…..

Got me thinking about what I’ve been doing instead.

It was actually the other day when I started planning out my 2022 calendar that I actually did this. And it was quite therapeutic and useful. I wrote out everything I did in 2021. I’m trying to plan out my next year so I don’t miss out on fun stuff with people I care about. I have a list of people I wanna see and ride with and hang out with and stuff. And events. and Goals. And hopes and dreams and stuff.

Well, in order to realistically figure out what I wanna do next year, I should for sure take a moment to list all the things I did this year. It was pretty cool. Because I was all sad I hadn’t really done much this year, getting stuck in Virginia Beach with the stupid navy for 66 cumulative days seemed to take up a ton of my life. The list of things, I won’t really dive into it with you specifically, but it was actually more than I’d thought. I bought and custom built a bike, I saw Maui for the first time, I saw NYC for the first time in my life! I went to see my family, I met up with a childhood friend from high school, and I went camping with some of my best friends!

Listen to me, me.

YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO DO ALL THE NOTHING YOU WANT.

I cannot stress this enough. Ever. You just aren’t going to have enough time. You can spend Every. Single. Weekend. camping all over the state of Nevada and California and race every race and you will still be pissed you didn’t get that promotion, or set up your garage the way you like, or clean out that section of your storage unit, or fix your credit, or see your extended family. It sucks but the last 4 years I have learned that it doesn’t matter how hard or fast or how many events you pack into your 2018, you will always give up on some things.

So please. Go sit down at your desk. I promise, it only takes a few minutes, unless of course you get distracted. Go over and write a list down. Of all the things you did. Today. Last week, This year. In the past 5 years. You’ve done so much. You are so busy, and you’re always going.

One of the reasons I actually considered not racing anymore was because I would travel so far, to these really beautiful places, but at the time I was in race mode, and I was so focused on not dying and riding fast that I never got the chance to stop and look at the amazing views.

That’s definitely what’s happening here.