What are your past/present/future lives?

Last weekend we had dinner with some friends and someone asked the group ‘what are your past lives?’ The questioner said that years ago he had a colleague who worked as an accountant and seemed like an ordinary guy. He invited this colleague out to go skiing once and as they started their first run of the day this guy sped toward the first jump, laid out for a perfect backflip, and landed like it was nothing. You never know what past lives are waiting to be discovered in everyone around you.

It was the perfect dinner question and I’ve been thinking about this concept of ‘lives’ ever since—past, present, and future lives.

I would love to know how you would respond to this question—what are your past/present/future lives?

Lives

It has to be lives—plural. We live many lives, some we choose and others choose us. The trick is learning to move between them and give space for the right ones to mature.

Past lives

What constitutes a past life? There’s no official definition. But I’d say it was something you dedicated significant time and energy to, achieved some degree of competence in, and whose culture you absorbed and embedded yourself within. 

One question you can ask people who were around during the original Hotmail and AOL time is—what was your first email address? In my case, the answer will also tell you about one of my past lives.

[email protected]

I played french horn for eight years and LOVED it. I did marching band at Clear Creek High School before we moved to Singapore. I remember doing Pines of Rome for our marching band show my freshman year and then West Side Story and Scherezade in later years. Learning new horn solos each year by Strauss, Mozart, and Saint-Saens. Oh what’s that, you’ve never heard of any of these songs or composers? Check out my Spotify playlist and soak it all up. When we moved to Singapore I participated in cultural convention at SAS which gave me a chance to connect with musicians throughout the region. Such great memories!

Elder Aldous. From 19 to 21, I served a volunteer mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in England and Wales. I learned a lot about myself, what I believe, and the value of serving others during that time.

When I was a sophomore in high school a kid moved into our school who knew a little bit of breakdancing and hip-hop dancing. Fun fact: I was part of the group that won the talent show my sophomore year when we performed, N’Sync’s, It’s Gonna Be Me.” If for some reason you’d like to see me in a bedazzled bandana, click here. This was just the beginning of my dance life. I dove right in when we moved to Singapore and my counselor suggested it as a great way to meet girls. I performed in the shows each semester and this kicked off years of hip-hop and breakdancing. I danced with a crew while I was in university called GroundHounds (here’s a clip of me from one of our battles). I also did some hip hop dancing with a group called One Soul and tried out for SYTYCD a couple times. I learned discipline, made long-time friends, and learned a lot about what it takes to dedicate yourself to a passion.

Blickenstaff’s! I took a job working on the floor of a newly opened toy/candy shop and not long after I had the opportunity to run the business. I traveled to New York, Nuremberg, London, Amsterdam, Prague, and more to do the buying and inventory. And, near the end of my time I got to see a line of items I pitched the owner on come to life. We went to Guangzhou for manufacturing and then New York City to see one of our items draw attention at the New York Stationery Fair. I loved pretty much everything about this job!

Team-building

We do something in our leadership team and our communication department meetings where one person will share a 10-15 minute presentation about their journey to becoming who they are today. This has given me a peek inside the past lives of my colleagues and I love it. I think every team should do this activity. It has been one of the best things we’ve done as a team. Message me if you’re interested in learning more.

Present lives

I’m the communication director at one of the largest single campus American schools in the world—Singapore American School. I have the best job. I work with an amazing team, get to do ridiculously fun projects like our school magazine, tons of videos like daily eagle, 60-second selfies, and more, create amazing ad campaigns with Scott Woodward, and am pushed daily by the sheer volume of communication work that needs to be done in a community that serves 10,000+ people.

I’m an early morning seminary teacher. Twice a week from 6:00 a.m. - 7:00 a.m. I get to spend time with the high school students in our church. I did seminary when I was in high school and I love being with these kids today. This volunteer opportunity is one of my favorite ways to connect with our youth. I’m in awe of any high school student willing to get up and go to “class” before they even get to school.

Future lives

You never know what the future will be but here’s a few lives I’d love to explore.

Children’s book author. I love children’s books and have wanted for a long time to take the things I love reading and repackage them into kids books. I’ve begun exploring this path and have initial drafts of some stories about a queen who likes to teach her people using quirky challenges and then another one about a bowl obsessed with perfection who ends up broken. I signed up for a one-year writing program that starts soon and can’t wait to workshop these to see if there is any potential. Give them a look and let me know if you have any feedback or know anyone in the publishing industry :)

Artist/Entrepreneur. I’m not really an artist but I’ve been making these custom mattes for years now to capture the highlights of certain trips, weddings, and also as farewell gifts for families leaving Singapore. We take tons of photos when we go places but often leave them in some type of digital storage. If you’re going to spend all that time, money, and energy on a meaningful trip, you should keep the memories somewhere they can be constantly enjoyed. We choose an image from each trip that captures a meaningful moment and then I take all of the little things that happened (places we stayed, ate, visited, as well as things people said or did) and I letter those words onto the matte. Which then leads to something like this….

Someday I’ll figure out how to do this at scale and I'm thinking the name of the business will be Frameworthy.

Forever lives

Husband and dad are part of my past, present, and future and are the roles I value most. Leah and I just did a full family strategy planning session a few weeks ago and it was so fun to talk about where we’ve been, where we’re at, and where we think we might be in the future. 

This was definitely one of the most fun questions I’ve thought about so far this year. Please leave a comment sharing your answer to any of these—what are your past, present, future lives?