Welcome to Here In The Highlands
Since 2008, my singular goal in life has been to create one that I love - one from which I’d no longer need to escape. By then, I had been practicing law for more than a decade, and all of my hard work should’ve produced just that. Instead, I had evolved into a disheartened, unfulfilled, and overworked Washington lawyer. For the most part, I had done what was expected of: graduate college, attend law school, secure a job at a prestigious law firm, and hob knob in Washington politics. I won’t bore you with my resume because you can access it on LinkedIn, but suffice it to say that I tried a lot of paths to happiness within the construct of being a lawyer. I had never sought anything else since the time I had earned my law degree at the age of 23.
2009 was a pivotal year. I was serving as General Counsel for the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission where our main focus was to construct a $750 millions sports stadium to bring the Washington Nationals Major League Baseball team back to town. We were successful in that goal. Opening day of the Washington Nationals Ballpark happened on our watch. My career as an attorney, along with the skills I had acquired over the years, had culminated in that project. So, I should’ve been thrilled. But I wasn’t. Also in 2008, my mother would be diagnosed with an incurable and aggressive brain tumor called glioblastoma. She was immediately scheduled for brain surgery, which consumed my thoughts and being. My mom wasn’t even sixty yet, and in otherwise perfect health, so her illness was a shock that hurt deep to my soul.
In the upcoming days in the space, I’ll go to great depths about what I experienced during that time of my life, and the years that followed, and what I learned by living through it all. For now, I’ll share that my mom’s tumor returned a couple of years after her first surgery. She underwent a second which was unsuccessful. She died on December 1, 2012.
But even before she died, my mom’s illness had already triggered a new awareness and momentum in me, starting in about 2009. The ballpark was on track to open in 2009, so I decided to leave the DC Sports & Entertainment Commission not long after opening day. The months that followed kicked off a series of key life events (which I’ll share in future posts) that led me to an audition at Berklee College of Music, the premiere college for contemporary music performance not on in the United States but in the world. Music changed my life.
In the spring before my mom died, she told me “I’ve done everything that I wanted to do with my life.” From that moment on, my goal became ensuring that one day I’d have the ability to say the same.
My mom and me on January 20, 2009 at the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Here In The Highlands is a compilation of what I’ve discovered since those trying times. I believe that the world becomes better when individuals experience what makes them happy and when we create a life with fewer regrets. It begins with a trigger that leads to a courageous journey into one’s truest self. It evolves into acceptance, momentum, and a better life. The result is more joy, peace of mind, and a purposeful and content state of being. We call this The Highlands state of mind. We’re all about creating a better life which is a sustainable life - one where you exist not only to survive but to thrive.