I’m Rich: In Everything but Money

I admire my father. He’s a hard working provider who never longed for wealth or fame. He has a master’s degree and was a collegiate athlete. He even kicked the world record field goal in 1969.

What I admire most about my father is his contentment. I’ve always been a dreamer, thinking about toys, motorcycles, airplanes, giant mansions, and fast cars.

My grandmother always said,

“you’ve built your dreams in the sky now you must build the stairs to get to them.”

I grew up 10 miles outside a small town in Mississippi on 2 acres of land, our piece of a Spanish land grant my family received in 1795.

I’m deeply connected to my home in Mississippi.

My father comes from an even smaller town than I, and his life path was dictated by one simple thing: food.

He comes from a very simple background: dirt-poor southern Mississippi. His father was a barber, his mother a stay-at-home mom, and they had five kids.

My father played high school football because they fed him after school. When looking for colleges to attend, he went to the one that fed him the best. After playing at Ole Miss, he didn’t go pro. He joined the Navy because they gave him a bed and three meals a day. After the Navy, he went back to school on the G.I. Bill to get his master’s degree and worked at the police station because they brought him free food. At each step along the way in his life, his decisions were motivated by where he could eat. He never longed for wealth and riches; he never cared and was always content.

Of all the lessons I’ve learned from my father, the greatest one is to be content with what you have and to be grateful.

I admire my father for his contentment. Even now, in his old age, he’s completely content, tending his garden and watching football.

Channeling my father, I want to discuss a few areas of my life that I consider myself rich:

My Family

I am beyond blessed. I have an incredible wife, an amazing stepdaughter, and a six-month-old son who is awesome. They all bring me great joy in life.

For a lonely sailor, I spent many years drifting at sea, both figuratively and literally. I couldn’t ask for a better family.

Work-Life Balance

I teach at a preschool. My class consists of 3 to 4-year-olds to whom I teach English.

They are incredible.

The complexity of the human mind, even at three years old, baffles me. I’ve learned so much from my students. Every day, they amaze me. They are brilliant, complex, and sometimes naive. They are kind of like adults.

What I love about them is they’re all in the moment. They play, they fight for toys, they start crying when they’re close to nap time, they laugh when music comes on, and they get huge smiles when they see people they love.

They embody the ideal of mindfulness, and that pulls us teachers into the moment, and I’m grateful for the experience.

If you would like a fun read about the different lessons I have learned teaching 3–4 year olds read this:

I ride my bicycle to work. When I don’t ride a bicycle, I ride my electric motorcycle. I enjoy both of those activities. I consider myself blessed.

Health and Fitness

I don’t remember where I read this or saw it, but someone said at some point that,

our 30s are the most important years to invest in our health. They lay the foundation for our old age.

I’ve stayed active throughout my 30s. I’ve had highs and lows. I gained a lot of weight during Covid, but I’ve been able to burn it off and keep it off. I have wrote multiple articles about health and fitness and they are my passion. If you would like to understand my perspective on health and fitness check out one of these articles:

Quality People

Outside of family, I’ve been blessed to meet genuine, salt-of-the-earth people throughout my professional life.

“There are good people everywhere you go, you just have to find them. There are assholes everywhere you go, and they usually find you.” -Mr. Willie

When I sailed, I made good friends that I still stay in contact with to this day. One of the captains I sailed under has become quite the mentor, and we speak regularly to this day.

“If you wait until you are ready for your next promotion, You waited too long.” Captain Winter

Here in China, I’ve am blessed to work with some amazing teachers. My Chinese coworkers are incredible, hard-working, good people. They spend all day caring for other parents’ children and then go home and care for their own.

My fellow foreign teachers are great as well. I am blessed with some great coworkers who have become good friends.

Hobbies

I have a few hobbies, and I have the opportunity to indulge in them weekly. I’m able to go to the gym two times a week. I ride my bike every day. I get to write whenever I want,

and I tinker on my website during nap time at work.

My Muse

I want to end this by talking about someone else that I deeply admire: my wife.

She comes from nothing. She was destined to work in a factory. Her parents did not prioritize her education, but she fought for it.

The only reason she went to college is that she befriended the factory owner she worked at and convinced them to sponsor her for college.

She has accomplished more in her life than I can imagine.

I do not come from money. I come from a middle to lower-class Mississippi family. My mother was an entry-level accountant, and my father was a high school teacher and football coach. But we had a lot more money than my wife and her family. We were rich, relatively speaking.

My wife has gone on to build her own business. She owns her own apartment. I met her while she was traveling in the South Pacific. One of the most valuable lessons she’s taught me has reinforced my father’s contentment. She constantly reminds me that we don’t need money.

We have everything we need. We have each other, a roof over our heads, good food on our table, and love in our hearts. Those are the true wealth of this world.

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