The Rolling Stones were right.

“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.”

Home March 2015

Three months ago, Koh Tao was only a figment on my imagination.  Reality was this snowy shore that I called home, wanting to submerge myself into the icy waters of the north atlantic.  Fearful of hypothermia and skeptical that the water would never become warm enough to swim, I decided enough was enough.  I can’t speak for all of man kind, but personally, my patience wears thin quickly.  Why is it fair that out of twelve months, I can only truly enjoy five of them?  Was I nervous to make an island my new home?

Home May 2015

Uhm….. No

Its not a fallacy that home is where you make it.  For some people, home might be the busy streets of New York, or the unforgiving mountains of Alaska, or an island.  I was tired of working the classic nine to five, going home, eating (usually more than I should have), going to sleep, and repeating that routine six days a week.  I was really only able to enjoy myself one day a week, on my day off.  However, even then, can you really enjoy yourself with one day off?  You work your ass off all week, bending over backwards for some asshole boss, but wait! Finally the weekend has arrived!  Great, now you have to play catch up with all of the shit you weren’t able to do because you had to go to work, after that you finally get some time to yourself.  so what do you do?  Maybe you crack open a cold one, mess around with some friends.  Son of a bitch! Its already Sunday night…time to go to bed.

Island time is a real thing.  Its a comforting feeling to be able to leave your phone at the house, not worry about being late, or waking up and deciding how to spend your day rather than looking at your phone and seeing what dreadful endeavors await you.

Yesterday, do you know what I did?  Let me outline it for you…

06:00- Woke up to watch the sunrise

07:30- Had some breakfast, even took some time to role-play that my dumplings were at war with my eggs (it was a futile effort by both parties, as both wound up in my stomach)

08:30- Did cannon balls until I realized I was no longer 16

09:00 to 14:00- Explored the island waters on a private long-tail boat and snorkeled away the majority of my evening

It was after this point I began to lose track of “Island Time”.

I ate some more food and retired to my chambers where I slept for a couple hours (Cassie says I slept for twelve hours, but who knows, as far as I’m concerned she wasn’t there).

Yes… the road to happiness is paved with blood, sweat and tears.  For Cassie and I, that road was months of hard work and meticulous planning.  Did it pay off?

You bet your ass it did.

– Mike