Let’s get ahead of ourselves
It began in college. Two young men from different worlds came together to learn about life outside their homes, technology and, honestly, to party. One lived on a semi-tropical island, skim-boarded every day, and gave tourists rides around the island on a boat. The other hailed from upstate NY, ran track, played guitar and sang extremely poorly. They both thought Pluto was a planet. The college they so wisely chose was RPI, a leader in engineering and sciences, situated nicely on the hill in Troy, NY. I like to think that Troy was the Ilium in the Kurt Vonnegut books, but that might be giving it too much credit. It was a thriving city during the 1800’s and was a pinnacle of the industry at the time, and could boast being the creator of the detachable neck collar. Our two men happened to enroll in the same major as well as join the same fraternity. It is here that our adventures begin, for each as individuals and collectively, stemming from school and continuing outward all across the world. Interested in the same things in life, they shared classes, made fun of each other for having/not having a girlfriend, partied whenever possible, and always congratulated themselves on selecting the easiest major at such a fine institution. They even had work study jobs together which allowed them freedoms unknown to the average college student, rewarding them bi-weekly with paychecks that reflected absolutely no work done.
Four years came and went. RPI shed its glowing and appealing appearance that was experienced amongst the initial tours, and now appeared less as a prestigious school and more of a soul-less campus that tried effortlessly to squeeze the very last drops of joy from your existence. The winters were brutal. The male to female ratio was 5-1, and the combination of being an engineering school adds an already pre-existing lack of attractive females. Everyone realized they should have went to USC., and knew the diploma was the only saving grace from this being with an insatiable thirst for your youth, bliss and happiness. With graduation around the corner, it was time to make a decision on what to do with their lives. One headed to Texas to utilize his degree in Electronic Media to capture beautiful pictures of the grass he was cutting and the cows he was feeding. Somehow he managed to find internet and kept the world up to date on his manure pile status with his blog. The other moved to NYC to become the web developer he always dreamed of and instead got stuck as a tech assistant at a university job whose primary roles fluctuated between moving heavy boxes of deactivated files and making sure people’s computers had the latest software so they could play the Gospel DVD’s of last Sunday’s Sermon they missed at work.
A year passed.
Life picked up for both of our two characters. Our island friend found a job that paid him for his 4 years of tortured learning and he moved back to RPI where he found an apartment with old fraternity brothers. Mr. NYC upgraded to an apartment that actually gave him a window, was developing dynamic php web pages at work (that wasn’t sermon related at all), and picked up some freelance work as well. They remained in close contact thanks to the internet, chatting on Gmail and exchanging extremely grammatically incorrect tag lines for interesting cat pictures. It was over this year both learned Pluto was not a planet. NYC guy always had this grand vision of starting a web design company with island boy and working on the island lad’s home of Bermuda. Island boy discussed how it was overly difficult for non-Bermudian businesses to succeed due to the fact that the island prefers and selects Bermudian businesses outright over competitors. The only chain restaurant in Bermuda is a KFC that managed to sneak in and set up shop before the government limited outside businesses. With their combined design sense, work-hard/play-hard attitude, and connections on the island, it seemed like Bermuda was the perfect place to start the ideal life; confusing working with playing, blending ideas and margaritas, relaxing schedules and massages, stretching limbs and imagination, and designing and discovering beauty. But we get ahead of ourselves.
Dork.