The Life I Might of Had ... 10/16 - 10/24 Days 289 - 297

Hello Hello Hello... and welcome.  I hope you enjoy whatever words find their way onto this blog.  I am still trying to think of them, so while I do, I am going to stall for a minute and remind you of a few reminders! :)

Ustream Chat This THURSDAY October 27th, 7:30pm PST.  As always I appreciate everyone who makes an effort to join in and I really appreciate those of you who stay up past your bedtimes, or get up extra early to participate.  It means a lot.  I really do enjoy spending that hour with you all.

The Sunrise/Sunset album is continuing to build.  We are getting more amazing pictures from around the world nearly every day.  As a reminder, please make sure you check the list to see if it is a region we do not have before you post your photo.  Also please label it: Date, sunrise or sunset, where in the world it is (please include the country and if it is a state, province etc... as is listed on the master list).  Remember it is just me doing it on my end so the more detailed you are the less work for me which I really REALLY appreciate.

And my apologies for delay's on shirt orders.  I have been a little slower than normal, but am working diligently to make myself more efficient :)

I am constantly watching people.  I like what I can learn in my day to day observations of humanity.  As I watch, I often find myself wondering: "What is their life like?"  "Are they happy?"  "Do they want more out of life?" "Are they settling for less than they are capable of?"  "If they are not happy, why?  Is it because of money, relationship, health... any of the above, all of the above?"  The list goes on and on and on - I have a busy brain that wonders lots of things.

As I watch people I often reflect on my own life -

This weekend I took a road trip about 250 miles north to Santa Cruz, California.  Why Santa Cruz... well, I have never been, I love the movie "Lost Boys" which was filmed there, I wanted to go, and more significantly, I am at this point in my life where I am spending a lot of time reflecting.  I have been asking myself questions like "What would my life be like if I never came to Santa Barbara?"

Once upon a time I was not the Jesse Brisendine you all know now.  I used to be the shy-est, most insecure, most self-conscious person you ever met. This is no exaggeration, let me give you some examples:

In High School, the first week of my Freshmen year I broke out in hives I was so nervous about starting high school.  I heard horror stories about Freshmen getting picked on and "canned."  I felt I surely would be the victim of such attacks.

I used to wake up every day and spend my time in front of the mirror telling myself "I am so ugly," and "I am such a loser."  In fact I was so worried that people would see how ugly I was that I used to spend, no exaggeration, upwards of 30 minutes every morning picking my nose.  I was so terrified of having boogers because I felt if I did, it would be one more thing that would enhance my "ugliness" and people would see it and they would hate me because of it.

In college I can remember sitting in Psychology class my Freshmen year and a girl tapping me on the shoulder asking if I knew when a test was, I was so shy that I turned bright, BRIGHT red and broke out into a cold sweat trying to answer this girls question.  I could go on and on with more examples and where this all originates from, but that is another blog.  I just wanted to provide you with some background info.

When it came time to go to college I knew that if I was going to have a chance at life, I needed to get out of my hometown.  I did not like it there and I always felt like I never fit in.  I have family that lives in southern California so I was familiar with it growing up as a kid.  Santa Barbara was where I wanted to go as I would have the closest proximity to them while still being near to my beloved Ocean.

I applied to the Universities of California at Santa Cruz, Davis, and Santa Barbara.  Davis because I had a couple of close friends there, Santa Cruz as a backup, and Santa Barbara because, well it is Santa Barbara.

When acceptance letters came out, they were mailed out over about a 6 week (if I remember correctly) period of time.  I got my acceptance to Santa Cruz on about the first day.  I received my rejection letter from Davis at about the 3 week mark.  At 5 weeks I still had not heard from Santa Barbara.  Two other girls, who had been accepted, had already received their's weeks earlier.  I was resolved to going to Santa Cruz.  I still held out hope for a miracle that Santa Barbara would come through, but that hope was fading.

At 18 years old I did not have anything resembling the positive attitude, or the wisdom, and belief's that I share with you all now through the 1000 Challenge.  It was quite the contrary... I was negative, insecure, sad, and anything but sure of myself.

With a heavy heart I resolved to go to Santa Cruz -- justifying it to myself that I would be closer to home so I could visit more often, even though the last thing I wanted to do was go back to my home town.  On the last day of the 6 weeks, I received an acceptance packet in the mail from University of California Santa Barbara.  I accepted that day.

I was curious to see Santa Cruz as I wondered what it was like and thus I wondered what my life would have been like had I gone there instead of SB.  As I walked, drove, and explored around Santa Cruz I took in as much as I could; the culture, the people, the beach scene, the weather, and of course the campus.

As a tourist, I loved Santa Cruz.  The weather was amazing when I was there.  The town is easy to get around and felt like I knew my way around by departure time Sunday morning.  The Coast line is spectacular and had an extra beautiful shimmer to it due to the warm sunshine shining down on it.  And of course the Redwood trees.  Nothing reminds me of home more than the Giant Redwood Trees.

These beautiful ancient trees can be found only in a very few places in the world, one of the largest concentrations of them is in the area where I grew up.  As a kid I never appreciated how majestic they are as I now do as an adult.  These trees were everywhere including the campus of UC Santa Cruz.

I drove through the campus and as I looked around tried to imagine myself walking through the campus there as opposed to Santa Barbara.  I wondered if that shy, insecure kid, would have been as terrified in Santa Cruz as he was in Santa Barbara.  I wondered where I would be in my life had I gone to Santa Cruz - had that acceptance letter never come.  Would I be doing the same work I am doing now?  Would I of had the same life experiences?  Would I be doing the 1000 Challenge?

The answer I finally settled on is, "probably not."  Beyond the answer though is an even more important point I want to make - I am at a place where I really love my life.  Sure I do not have everything figured out - I still have the same "issues" as everyone else: relationships, work, health, bills to pay etc... What I have figured out though is a more empowering way as to how I approach these issues, for example - I have about $20,000 in debt a lot by some standards, small by others.  I used to be the guy that stressed over the money all the time, it does not do any good, trust me I have tried it.  What does help is to do your best to pay what you can and focus on LIFE, not debt, not bills, those things are not life, they are just things, part of the process.  It will not go away stressing about it, I have tried that too. :)

You see, my life today is a direct product of choosing Santa Barbara over Santa Cruz and I am thankful for the life I have and the opportunities I have to live it as best I can.

The reason for all the above, for my nostalgic trip down memory lane, for my Santa Cruz vs. Santa Barbara analysis is this: me, you, every single one of us are exactly where we are supposed to be at this point in our lives.  Why?  I cannot answer that, only you can answer it for yourself.  What I can tell you though is that every decision you have made, every experience you have had has lead you to this moment right now.

Think about it:  Many of you who read my blogs and follow the 1000 Challenge do so because you want to be inspired, you want to make changes in your life.  Well, you would not be here reading this at this moment wanting to make changes, had everything in your life not happened.  You see all your experiences, all your ups and downs, all of them have put you here reading this right now.  Some of you want to make changes in your lives, some of you want to take your lives to the next level, some of you enjoy looking at the pictures, some of you just enjoy my bad jokes (that was a joke!).

I had an amazing time in Santa Cruz and left it smiling at it's beauty, excited for when the day comes that I might return there for another visit, and grateful that I chose Santa Barbara.  Even more than that, as I was driving home last night, I could not help but be grateful for all the life experiences I have had, all the ups and the down, all the good's and the bad's for they have all prepared me for this exact moment at this exact time in my life.

And the experiences I will have the rest of today and tomorrow and the next day, will all prepare me for all the moments to come.

The cool thing about all of that is the majority of the moments... I get to choose how I will live them.  I get to choose my attitude, I get to choose my perspective I look at things with, I get to choose the effort I will put forth in any endeavor, I get to choose if I am going to smile or frown, I get to choose to laugh or not to laugh, I get to choose to hang out with people who enhance my life or to hang out with people who don't.  I have a zillion choices that I can make moment to moment that can either enhance my life or not.

The same goes for you.

Enjoy the pictures,

Carpe Diem,

Jesse

The importance of playing 10/8 - 10/15 Days 281 - 288

October is halfway over... yikes!  And I thought Halloween was the scariest thing happening in October!!!  And with a decent amount of travel planned for November, I feel like the last 77 Days of the year are going to, no pun intended, fly by.

A few updates:

Sunrise/Sunset project is going awesome!  Thank you everyone for participating and an extra big thanks for getting your friends involved.  Please keep following the list, it helps me a lot: Sunrise/Sunset List

I am looking forward to doing another ustream chat here in the next week or so.  I'll update facebook as soon as I figure out a date and time.

I am planning a cool event for 11-11-2011 and will need everyone's help.  I will post all the details of it in the next couple of weeks.  It will be a great time :)

When I started the 1 Year 1000 Challenge I had a bunch of goals associated with it.  The biggest one being, getting back to living life, and learning how to live it to the fullest.  I feel like I have done it and I love the way I am living my life right now and the course it is on.

When I got back from Utah last Sunday someone asked me, "how was your vacation?"

"Vacation?" I replied...

You see the question puzzled me, here is why:

Vacation, as is defined in the dictionary is: freedom or release from duty, business, or activity...

Vacation = freedom???  I understand the definition, but this is a perfect example of a change that has occurred within me.  I love my work, I love my life, and I love the people in it.  Why would I ever want to take a vacation from that which I love?  To me making a three and a half day 1,200+ mile road trip is not vacation that is just how I want to live my life.

I had never been to Utah before because it was "so far away."  These were actually my own words.  When we were there a lady asked us where we were from and then said, "wow California, you sure are a long ways away from home."

Are we really?  NO!  We got on the road for that trip at 3am on Thursday morning, why?  Because I want to maximize my time not just in the day, but in my life.  If I waited to leave at around, say 7am, I would no doubt encounter traffic which will then in turn make my travel time much much slower.  By leaving at 3am I can be 98% certain that I will have zero traffic because I know the majority of people will not get up that early to travel or go to work.  And since there will be no traffic, I can make the drive much faster, AND when we got to St. George we had enough time to spend all day site seeing.  Had I left at 7am I would not have been able to see Zion in the same day.

I still drove the same 480 miles, but by choosing to give up a little sleep and get on the road a little earlier, you get a lot more back.  What would have been a 9 hour drive with traffic was about a 6 and 1/2 drive without.

Give it a try your next road trip.  We all have experienced "sleep," meaning we all know what it is like to sleep.  But have you ever tried getting up even earlier to go someplace you are excited to visit.  You may be a little "sleepy" as you travel, but I guarantee you will not be regretting the lost sleep when you arrive at your destination hours earlier with more time to play.

Play... that leads me to something else:

Another goal I have with the 1000 Challenge is to learn more about people, humanity as a whole.  In that quest, I have been to more parks, festivals, museums, and cultural gatherings than at any other time in my life. In fact I was at one yesterday, the Santa Barbara Beer Festival, and someone came up to me and said, "I see you at every festival."

I was at another park on Tuesday.  As I sat there I started watching some kids play.  For some reason, this particular group of kids really got me to thinking.  They were not on the play ground, they were just running around in the grass, playing.  They had come to the park to play.  To them, Parks = Play.  HMMMMM....

When does it happen in life where we as adults lose the association of Parks = Play?  When do we stop looking at parks as an opportunity of fun and play; and start looking at them as just places, as "just another park?"

As kids it does not matter if we are swinging on the swing set, sliding down the slide with our arms in the air, smiles on our face, or if it is just an open field; to kids parks are an un-ending possibility of fun and adventure - kids live to play.  Adults, what do we live for?  And why do we no longer live to play?

I know, I know, we grow up, responsibilities, bills to pay, families to feed, etc... Those are all important things and a very big part of life and what it means to become an "adult," but why can't we still play amidst all of that?  Why can't going to work still be an adventure.  Even if we do not like our job, why can't we like the opportunity we have to work?

Sure there are bills to pay, but there are ALWAYS going to be bills to pay, so lets accept that and move forward.  Why don't we?  Why do we instead insist on every time the phone bill comes we are "re-shocked" as if we have never seen it before.  We know it is coming, we know how much it is going to be, so why continue to give your precious energy to dwelling on it?  And here's the even bigger question:  If you continually find yourself dwelling on the phone bill and any other regular bills, what does that do for you?  Does it make the bills better?

I would wager, No.  So why not try changing it?  Why not re-direct that dwelling time into more play time?

I think I just answered one of my questions, why do we, as adults, stop playing?  The answer: because we choose to.  At some point in life we decide it is more important to try to impress someone than enjoy ourselves.  At some point in life we decide it is better to "act cool," than it is to just be our-self.  At some point in life we decide that we would rather stress and dwell over and over and over and over and over and OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER again about the same things rather than just get over it and go back to playing.  If a kid throws sand in another kids eye, the recipient of the sand is upset about it for 5 minutes then forgets all about it and goes back to playing with whoever threw the sand.  If someone throws sand in our eyes we hate them and then create this story in our head's about how that person is the "worst person in the world."  We then take it a step further and blame that person for the traffic we encounter on the way to work, the fight we get into with our spouse.  That person becomes the reason why our mortgage payment is late and the reason why we didn't get enough sleep and are "sooo tired" today.

Why?  When you read the above it seems so over dramatic to the point of being silly doesn't it.  Do me a favor, spend some time in a park this week and just watch the kids play, you will learn a lot from them.

I have wanted to see a rattlesnake in the wild ever since I was around 4 years old and my Dad showed me this rattle from a rattlesnake.  I remember I used to go back and pick it up and shake it and imagine running into one and how cool it would be.

I wanted so badly to see one that I have spent time on almost every hike I have been on saying, out loud mind you, "here rattlesnake, here rattlesnake."  I then whistle for them as if I am calling a dog.  My friends at first hearing this thought I was on drugs.  After I explained to them the story they just thought I was nuts!

On Wednesday I saw my FIRST EVER RATTLESNAKE in the wild!  I was so excited.  I yelled out loud, "Holly S**T, A RATTLESNAKE, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!"

 I had always imagined myself being so scared at the first encounter, but I was actually quite the opposite.  When I saw it, it immediately began to slither away and I was so afraid I would not get a picture that I forgot all about being scared and instead focused all my energy on getting my camera out, FAST!  Needless to say I got my camera out and proceeded to have a 15 minute photo shoot with my new friend.  As I took picture after picture I began to hear the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin's voice in my head.  I recalled every safety tidbit he ever mentioned about rattlesnakes: their strike speed, how much space they can cover in a strike, etc...

All of this was important information and kept me at a safe distance during our photo shoot.  Once I began to hear Steve Irwin's voice, in his heavy Australian accent, saying "Look at this little ripper, get a stick."  I decided that since my khaki pants had been left at home and since I am no crocodile hunter, that it was time for me to leave before I did get a stick and got to close trying to get the snake to pose for more pictures.

I was so excited the rest of the day.  I told every person I talked to all about it.  They did not fully get why I was so excited to see the snake, but all of them loved hearing the story.

So why was I so excited?  Well for me, seeing a rattlesnake in the wild has been a dream since I was kid - a childhood dream.  And it is one of the few dreams I had when I was a kid that I never gave up on.  Finally realizing that dream 20+ years later... I can't tell you how cool that was.  And what was even cooler was I reacted like a kid would.  Pure excitement, uncontrollable joy, so much so that I had to share my story with everyone, including all of you.

The moral of these stories and this blog:  never give up on dreams.  Sure you can change them, modify them, evolve them, but never stop dreaming.  And WHEN you realize those dreams, celebrate them as if you were a kid.  Remember a kid lives to play, why should we adults be any different?  All we really are is grown up kids...

Enjoy the pictures,

Carpe Diem,

Jesse

The Hero I Never Knew I Had 9/30 - 10/7 Days 273 - 280

A few quick house keeping things before I get to the blog:

1.) Don't forget Ustream chat Sunday, October 9th, 7am PST. I am holding it early Sunday morning in hopes that more of our friends from around the world will be able to join in.  My fellow PST members we all can get up early on our Sunday.  I look forward to chatting with you all on Sunday.

2.) The 1000 Challenge challenge of filling up the big list of sunrises and sunsets is going strong.  PLEASE PLEASE please only send in pictures that have not yet been crossed off on the list.  The reason being: again it is only me doing everything on this end.  Each picture takes time to update and update the list, so please help me manage my time and check the list first before you send in a picture.  The list can be found here: Sunrise/ Sunset master list

3.) I just wanted to say thank you for all of you who follow along.  Your support means the world to me.  An extra special thanks to those of you who are not only following along, but taking the concepts, ideas, and little life lessons I try to impart through the 1000 challenge and are putting them into practice in your own lives.  You all are truly a source of inspiration to me.  Thank you everyone!  I can never say that enough... Thank You THANK YOU! :)

I had a blog that was about 70% of the way done that I was planning on posting today, and then Steve Jobs died.

Yesterday, Thursday, I was really sick.  I NEVER get sick!  I think I must of had a migraine, I am not sure as I have never had one before, but I woke up with a pounding headache, and my eyes hurt so bad it felt like someone kept punching them.  I could not look at my phone, my computer, or read anything as the light from the monitors and text on a white background caused more pain.  As the morning went on I started to feel more and more nauseous until finally I started throwing up.  I have not thrown up since August of 2007, that is how rare I get sick, I can actually pinpoint dates!

One of my friends even said, "you are sick, but you do not get sick... what is going on?"  That's true, I don't.  I decided several years ago that I was going to abstain from the participation in illness.  Meaning that when the annual "oh my God, it is flu season" discussions started up I was not going to even begin to entertain the thought in my mind that I might get sick.  And when other people around me caught a cold, I decided I was no longer going to focus on "so and so is sick, I sure hope I do not get sick."  Which of course I always did get sick.  Instead, when so and so gets sick, I now focus on how healthy I am and how strong my immune system is.  Skeptics say I have just been "lucky."  I say it works, and even if I have just been lucky, what harm is there in trying??????

Anyways, somehow this migraine found a chink in my armor and was able to keep me down for most of the day yesterday.  With nothing to occupy my time other than my thoughts, I had a lot of time to think.  I found a great deal of my time was spent thinking about Steve Jobs; who he was and what is the legacy he left behind. I spoke with one of my friends about this last night, telling him I was having a real hard time with his death, and I did not know why.  My friend, who at times I refer to as my "Jedi apprentice" for his growing wisdom, responds with a very "Jedi-esq" ... "that's because he is a dreamer Jesse, just like you.  There are not a lot of you out there."  Wise words my young apprentice, wise words indeed.

I am a dreamer.  I dream big dreams for myself and I dream even bigger dreams for humanity as a whole.  The 1000 Challenge is a personal challenge I started for myself, I wanted to challenge myself to live life in a way I have always wanted.  To experience it to the absolute fullest.  What it is has grown into is something much beyond myself.  It has grown into an opportunity for me to not just teach, but to actually show people from all over the world what I think is possible for each and everyone of us in terms of living the life of our choosing.

I do not think any of us are meant to settle for a "well i guess this is as good as it gets life."  On the contrary, I think "to settle" is a bad phrase, one that should be eliminated from all of our vocabularies.  We are not meant to settle, we are meant to thrive, to live and soak up each and every precious second of life.  That is what I believe we are meant to do.

Sure we are going to have bad times and challenging times, but rather than let those times dictate our life, we instead use them to learn and grow and then use them to direct the course in life we choose.

I had and I still have not read a great deal about Steve Jobs.  Hence the title of this blog "The Hero I Never Knew I Had."  As my thoughts drifted more and more to what Steve represented to me, represented to the world, I started to realize just how much respect and admiration I have for this man.  As my friend so accurately stated it: He is ( I use "is" here deliberately as I believe legacies live beyond us and thus someone is never truly gone) a dreamer just like me.  And so from one dreamer to the other... I offer my obituary, my attempt of a tribute to Mr. Steve Jobs.

Apple co-founder, Pixar co-founder, entrepreneur, innovator, visionary, and dreamer Steve Jobs passed away quietly on the morning of Wednesday, October 5th, 2011, ending a long battle with Pancreatic Cancer.  When he passed, "He was surrounded by people he loved."

Steve was no different than you or I.  Born in 1955, he was given up for adoption and taken in by a family from a modest background.  After graduating high school he enrolled in college and quickly dropped out after just one semester, shunning the ideology that you NEEDED a college education to get ahead in life.

Instead, Steve began exploring, began dreaming... dreaming of the possibilities that man kind could create through technology.  Short on funds, he would often sleep on the floors of friends apartments, and recycle Coca Cola bottle's for money to buy food with.  In a situation like this, most people would begin to feel sorry for themselves.  Most would focus on how the world seemed like it is against them, how they just can't catch a break.  Steve was not most people, Steve had a dream.

By the time he was 25 years old he was worth over $100 million dollar's, having launched Apple into the forefront of the home computer industry.  By the time he was 30 years old, he was fired from the company he helped create.  Again, most would fault the world, fault other people; most would focus only on the situation, being fired from their job and now facing un-employment at the young age of 30, but not Steve.  Saying, " The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything.  It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."  Where there is "perceived" failure, there is really opportunity.  And that's just what Steve did, he seized the opportunity to create.

And create he did: NeXT Computer and Pixar are just two of the more noteable creations that came during this time period.  NeXT software eventually became the software that powers the "I-Tunes" store, among many other applications.  And Pixar, well in case you have never heard of movies like the "Toy Story" franchise, "The Incredibles," and  "A Bug's Life," to name a few... those were all Pixar creations.

All of this lead to Jobs eventually being re-hired at Apple in 1996, 11 years after his dismissal.  What happened between that time and the present is well documented.  In fact, many of you are probably reading this blog on an innovation that came out during this time: "Ipod's," "Itunes," "Iphones," and "Ipads" are just a few of the highlights that have contributed to making Apple one of the most profitable companies of the modern era.  The technology that Apple created during this time period has changed our world and changed the way we interact with one another.  It's cutting edge innovation gave us all the above, but more importantly, it forced the competition to accelerate their innovation game.  By doing his best,  Steve forced others to do their best.

What would a great leader, a great visionary, a great dreamer's story be without adversity... in 2004 Steve faced the greatest test of adversity in his life, the diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer.  As fate would have it he had a rare form of Pancreatic Cancer that was operable and thus curable via surgery.  He had the surgery, and in a 2005 commencement speech to the graduating class of Stanford University, Jobs said: " Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.  Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."  We are all going to die one day...  don't wait until death is knocking on your door to start living.

It was in this same 2005 speech he also said, "sometimes in life, life is going to hit you in the head with a brick, don't lose faith..."You have got to find what you love..."the only way to do great work is to love what you do."  "If you haven't found it (what you love) yet, keep looking, DON'T settle!"

Don't settle... wise words to impart on a world that is all to quick to settle for second rate living.  Sure not all of us may not be CEO's of companies we co-founded, or multi-billionaires, but those two things do not equate to happiness.  Doing what you love, in any aspect of your life, that is what leads to happiness.  And if you are working at a job you may be less than fond of, make the best out of it.  Resolve to go in and give your best everyday... that knowledge leads to not necessarily a love of the job, but a love for the work you do.  Steve kept working at Apple until August of 2011, when he was finally to week to carry on his day to day duties.  Less than two months later he is dead.  Why stay and work, knowing that your days are rapidly coming to a close.  He certainly did not need the money.  And if he quit earlier, everyone around him would certainly understand the reason.  So why stay?  The answer: Steve loved what he did, and he wanted to continue to contribute, he wanted to continue changing the world until he was no longer capable of making the change at the level he wanted to.

And finally, from that same 2005 Stanford University commencement speech, Jobs said, "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life... Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become.  Everything else is secondary."

People are always going to talk, society is always going to have their opinions of what you "should" be doing. At the end of the day if that is not what feels right, if that is not what makes you happy, if that is not what makes you wake up in the morning wanting to Carpe Diem, then what is the point of it all?

Steve ate a flawless diet, he took care of himself, and he had all the access to the best medical treatment available, but in the end, this larger than life figure still died, just the same that all the rest of us one day will.  You see, as I began this obituary, Steve Jobs is no different than any of us.  He is a mortal, just like you and I.  What sets him apart, what causes us to morn his loss is that he gives us hope.  We see in him a quality which we all wish to indoctrinate into our own lives... we all wish to live our lives pursuing our passions... we all wish to live our lives giving and getting 100 percent out of each and everyday.  The only thing that stops us from doing this is our-self.

We are not all destined to be political head's of state, professional athletes, or CEO's of multi-billion dollar companies, but each and everyone of us was born with the capability of greatness.  This I think is Steve Jobs greatest legacy he leaves the world with today... we are all capable of greatness.  It is instilled inside each and everyone of us, and it is up to us to discover what that greatness is for us.  Greatness is there, it lies in a place deep inside of you... a spark that is just waiting to turn into a flame.  Only you can add fuel to the flame and cause it to burn brighter.  Only you can uncover, nurture, and live your greatness.  The power lies within YOU!

Thank you Steve for leading by example.  May the next generation of dreamers pick up where you left off.

Enjoy the pics,

Carpe Diem,

Jesse