Where It All Started...

I don't recall ever wanting to be an Astronaut or a Cowboy, I may have, for a time, wanted to play in the NBA, but that might have been my only far fetched, self-proclaimed career title. In middle school I put minor effort, and research into being an Oceanographer. But the oceans too deep. And JAWS ruined the idea of even wading in the man made lake a few miles from my childhood home, if I couldn't see the bottom; let alone whatever extremes I would have to consider when you consider the ocean! So, I settled, or I had thought I settled, on the next obvious career path: a psychologist.  

I majored in psychology, after graduating from Boerne High School in 2003, at The University of Texas at San Antonio. But my mind began to wander, and aside from questioning the idiosyncrasies of our education system, even at the college level, I began questioning the idea of medicating psychological disorders, and often caught myself getting stuck in the conversation of, "Well, certain disorders maybe..." And then that bleeding into the concept of dependency and withdrawals. And that's all at the psychiatric level. I began noticing the desire for the majority of the population to want to be medicated instead of putting a little time, and work in, which is where I would have come in. So, instead, I pack up my car, and begin driving hapless across the country.

But before that impulsive - yet, ultimately the best decision of my life; sometimes - drive across country I worked for several months at Borders Books, Music & Cafe. I discovered the bookstore! Sure, I had been to bookstores before, I've been an avid reader, I loved to learn, and to escape. I remember one afternoon, on shift, I was shelving in one of the departments next to a couch on which sat two men, whom, before that day, had never met. And they were talking about a particular current event, and bringing up references from various books that they had read, while each sat with a book in their hands, and it was the most comfortable, and intelligent disagreement that I had ever witnessed. I interjected on occasion, and I realized something about bookstores that day: bookstores are so much more than a place filled with objects, and names, and dates, and even ideas, bookstores are a place for people to interact, and to learn, and to feel comfortable, while also allowing themselves to be vulnerable. One of the last great places on earth were our trust for humanity outweighs our uncertainty, and our fear. 

I didn't decide to open a bookstore right then and there, but I did recognize something about the bookstore that I hadn't before. And I did know that I wanted to be a part of this world.