Lately I’ve been struck, yet again, with how weird and wonderful life is. It can change so drastically, so quickly. What did my life look like just a few months ago? It looked like trying to schedule myself around a food service day job that was so stressful it was silly. It looked like perpetual annoyance for a multiplicity of reasons. It looked like an ever-accelerating heart rate.

Now, I’m self-employed. I do music, I tutor, I babysit. My world is remarkably stress-free. I just can’t get over how fucking enjoyable my life is. What happened was this: I became surrounded by wonderful people. My world is full of fantastic people. I can take no credit for this. I have no idea how they found me, but I’m glad they did.

This, I realize now, is what needs to happen: the surrounding of oneself with people who are beyond good for oneself. You need the people who understand you: the people who care deeply about you and the work you do. The people who, just by existing in your life, make you want to be better and do better and do more, but not because they’re actively pushing you do anything. These are the people you want to impress, but not because they expect to be impressed by you.

A couple weeks ago I went to my previous place of employment to get some paperwork completed, and on the drive there I started experiencing an all-too familiar grinding anxiety. It’s the reaction that place has always elicited from me. I spit on anxiety’s grave. It’s just not fun, you know that. And this is why I did it; this is why I become self-employed: I wanted to enjoy life more.

I’m so excited to be proud of what I’m doing. I’m so excited to be working, musically and otherwise, with marvelous folks I love being around. These people are the bomb. Find these people.