I burned down a house my sophomore year of high school.
It was the day before homecoming. My buddy and I were out exploring the 40 acres of no man’s land behind our school, like we had been for weeks. After football practice, we would off road in his truck and look for something adventurous to do.
One afternoon, we stumbled on a house tucked away in the woods. It was big, completely trashed, and clearly abandoned. Animals or squatters had wrecked it.
My buddy had a massive tow chain and a bright idea. We tried to pull the house down. Spent hours going at it, but it would not budge.
So the plan shifted. We decided to clean it up and use it as a party spot after the dance. We swept the floors and burned the trash in the fireplace.
What we did not know was that the chimney was clogged with debris. It caught fire after we left.
That night, we pulled into the school parking lot and saw flashing lights just down the road. Six fire trucks were parked at the edge of the school property, right near the woods.
Everyone at the dance was talking about it.
I told my buddy to keep quiet. He did not. The story spread like wildfire.
By Monday, I was called into the principal’s office, questioned by an arson detective, and sent home on indefinite suspension.
Looking back, it all makes sense.
When young men have no outlet that speaks to them, they look for something to break. If we are not positively channeling our inner angst, we will destroy just to feel the rush of being alive. We will chase fire just to feel something.
It has taken me years to learn this, but it still shows up in my life.
If I don’t have a goal that matters, something that gets me out of bed, I start to unravel. I self sabotage. I pick fights. I drink too much. I waste time. I wreck the things I care about.
And I know I am not alone in that.
This is not just a me problem. It is a pattern I have seen in so many people I care about. We are built for challenge, for purpose, for motion. Without it, we rot. Not all at once, but slowly. Quietly.
And then suddenly, everything burns.
That house was not the first thing I burned down.
It was just the first thing everyone saw.
Field Tip:
Dehydrate hamburger meat before your next backcountry trip. Use the leanest beef you can find, cook off the fat, and dry it out. It will look like brown sand and weigh next to nothing. Take a couple pounds with you and mix it into ramen, macaroni and cheese, or whatever needs protein.
Mindset
Entropy is the default of humanity. If you are not creating, you are slowly falling apart. Build your body. Build your mind. Build your dream. Even if you do not know what the dream is yet, start small. Small steps lead to big results, if you stay the course.
“People, like bicycles, tend to stay upright when they are moving forward.” — John D. Rockefeller
What are you actively building right now that will still matter in ten years?
My first ever wilderness hunt, circa 2018. A friend invited me on a turkey hunt, and I knew from that moment that hunting would consume my life forever more. It was also the first time I’d ever shot a compound bow, as you can see from the shit eating grin on my face.
