Keagan’s World

Happy New Year y’all!

I hope everyone had as fantastic of a weekend as I did—though I find it hard to believe it gets much better than watching your alma mater (Wow that’s weird to say) send Bama packing in OT for a ticket to the natty 🤭 For those of you who missed the game it went something like this:

Unfortunately, we did not capture the moment when Milroe dolphin-dived into the rear-end of his o-linemen to end the game, but calling our reaction pure elation feels like an understatement. So sick.

The only thing that made the experience even better was being alongside 6/7 of my college roommates and other friends in a last little hoorah before I temporarily immigrate to Argentina. Truly such a great weekend to cap things off… and yet it almost didn’t even happen.

Well it woulda still happened. I just wouldn’t have been there. So it almost didn’t even happen in Keagan’s World.

Until like a week and a half before, I was going to be a party-pooper and not go because I didn’t want to spend NYE-level money. The crew planned for an open bar setup in downtown Chicago with the additional purchase of a table, and the thought of throwing $120 to go to a regular-old bar was really tough to swallow (not to mention gas, food, and other expenses just to make the trip). I would MUCH prefer a house party or even a random crappy dive bar with no cover.

But then my friend Sachin put me in my place.

_*Sachin*

He and I had been playing phone tag since early November to catch-up since it had been awhile, and we finally got ahold of each other just before Christmas. We were talking about what each other were doing for New Year’s Eve, and I told him about the plan and how I wasn’t wanting to drop the money. As I continued to be a BMW, as Brian Dehaan coined it, he cut me off and just was like “dude, but c’mon… it’s NYE, and spending it with your buddies is worth it.”

I want to preface this by saying I recognize how blessed I am to have the financial standing to be able to take this stance, but I knew immediately he was right. This was going to be my last chance to see the 1020 guys before I left. I wasn’t paying to go to the bar on New Year’s… I was paying to spend time with some of the most important people to me in the world. And that is something priceless.

If you know me well, have engaged in a spontaneous 1-on-1 conversation with me, or poked around this website enough, you’ve probably seen or heard me say something about how “the people matter more than the experiences themselves”. It’s one of the deepest rooted philosophies I hold in how I live my life. You could be on your hands-and-knees scrubbing floors in an abandoned warehouse in the heat of summer, but if you’re with great people, you’re going to have fun doing it. Take an old job of mine for example (shoutout WMGI):

I worked at a garage installation company two summers in a row before and after my freshman year of college. Frankly, the first summer sucked. I dreaded waking up, lived for the weekend, and tried to get left off the schedule whenever possible. At the end of the summer, I chucked all my gear in the trash and said “Sayonara! Not gonna miss ya” (of course privately to myself and not to anyone in particular). Then I came back.

So that was awkward.

But to my surprise, summer #2 was one of my favorite summer’s ever. Even in spite of Covid. I was still dreading waking up obviously, but I was having fun and picking up as many extra shifts as possible. It was so weird. It was the same job, the same hours, same expectations, yet I was all of the sudden enjoying work. The only real tangible difference I could find was the people I was working with. They were easier to get along with, everyone was happier, and we just jived. There’s even some days where I miss it and those fools.

I mean c’mon if simply changing the people could lead to me enjoying grinding concrete and painting floors for 10 hrs/day, something has to be there, right?

The people are what make the experiences, not the activity itself.

Sachin just had to remind me of that.

And that’s why I added the Pals page to this site, something I want to introduce to y’all. Some of you have been ragging me (in light-hearted fun I know) for not adding you to the page, which means even more of you are DEFINITELY silently judging me for it 🫣 I’m here to explain!

The Pals section is intended to be a catalog of people I meet throughout my travels who have a hand in building the awesome experiences I am blessed to have. So to my dear friends reading this I want you to know that your lack of presence on the page does NOT mean I do not love you. I do. I promise.

Like my boys at 1020.

Many of you know I’m not the most vulnerable, emotion-sharer in the world. I tend to show rather than tell. But I want you guys from 1020 to know I love y’all. As a collective, you have had a profound impact on my life that I know won’t ever go away. I appreciate you all so much.

Is $120 a stupid amount of money for a bar? Probably. But do I regret it? Not at all.

Because, to me, that’s a small price to pay to be with amazing people and create amazing memories.