I enjoy spending time outdoors by running, hiking, backpacking, and camping. When I'm not outside, I like to have an adventure of it through meaningful conversation, personal discovery, creativity, and deep thought!

Craig, Old-Timer Mindset 

My Story
Through my childhood and during my young adult life I have had a deep desire to experience many new and exciting things. Whether playing a variety of sports or going on small explorations around my hometown community, I felt a sense of meaning when having an adventure. The size of the adventure did not matter.

Fast forward to post-undergraduate life as a retired Division 1 track & field athlete, the adventure of structured athletics was non-existent. 

A sedentary desk job coupled with a young adult lifestyle during an ongoing pandemic weighed heavily on my mind. Where was my sense of adventure? With that question in mind, I decided to try dispersed camping in a local National Forest 60 miles east of Charlotte, North Carolina. I was afraid while "sleeping" alone on the side of a dusty forest service road. I felt at home in that discomfort.

Camping, hiking, and backpacking became my primary source of adventure for the following months and I could not get enough. I wanted more adventure. I craved it. I became a student of my hobby and it felt healing.

Through personal reflection and discussion with those who I held close, I began to discover that an outdoors lifestyle was not the sole contributor of my happiness. It was a mere vehicle transporting me to a place of  mindfulness. I became vigilant in how I was expending both mental and physical energy.

My grandpa passed away not too long thereafter.

An old-timer.

Around that same time, I opened up an old voicemail file I had saved from my Uncle Mark who had passed away in 2019 after fighting a battle with cancer. I wanted to hear his voice again. In that voicemail he left me in 2015 he said:

"I know you are having an adventure of it...". I had been dealing with a nagging injury during my first semester of college competing on the cross-country team and it was only years later where that simple phrase resonated with me.

How is it possible to have an adventure of an injury? Growth mindset. That is a key component needed to experience healing. That one phrase acknowledges struggle, but frames the struggle in a more positive light. It all boils down to one thing.

Mindset.

An "old-timer" is someone who has weathered the storm. Someone who has undoubtedly experienced their fair share of struggle. An old-timer sees things from a different perspective, they see their experience in a different frame of mind. Time has nudged them to reach that point of clarity. They are the veteran. Wise, stubborn, a mentor, leathery, and possibly a lone wolf. Their youth may have escaped them, but they make a choice to keep their youthful mind.

Simply being old doesn't cut it. Having grit does.

If anyone "has an adventure of it" it's the old-timer!

If you are an old-timer, you've chosen that mindset. You have that fire within you. If you are not an old-timer yet, let me ask you. Will you have the mind and spirit of an old-timer? You have a choice.

Lead a life of adventure through your thoughts and actions or lose connection with your youthful mind.

Don't just let yourself become old. Embody the youthful mindset of that old-timer we all admire.

Have an adventure of it...old-timer.

​-Craig, Old-Timer Mindset