Everyone tells me that they think I should write more often. They seemed to really enjoy my journals. And to be honest, I enjoyed writing them. I just wish I could remember to sit down for a few minutes each day and actually focus on writing. You know the old clicé… life just seems to get in the way. I know it’s a bad excuse.

I felt more motivated today re-visit my journal because of an epic event which came to an end today. My friends, Steven Feigenbaum and Dan Bowen plunged into the Pacific Ocean in San Diego after completing their 3000 mile rollerblade journey across the U.S. It sure brought back some memories as I followed their trip via facebook. The coolest part was when my phone rang in the morning and it was the guys! They just wanted to give me a shout to let me know they were approaching the final destination.

Congrats guys!

You may recall in y last post (yes it was almost a year ago) I made a comment about following my life path which seemed to be taking me towards the health industry. Well, I was fortunate to have a brief period of employment with a natural food distributor. It was a good experience, but it really made me realize that I do not enjoy being an employee. I think my calling is to be self-employed and to help as many people as I can.
Well, the very day I left that employer, an opportunity presented itself to me in the form of education. The Canadian School of Natural Nutrition had a single opening. I seized the chance! What a day! In the morning I was walking out of an office building with no really idea of what to do. And that evening I was sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher lecture about the fundamental of holistic nutrition. If you had asked me the day before what I thought I’d be doing the next evening, I would never have guessed I’d be a student again!

So that gives you a little bit of info about where I’m heading now. I had written before about not going back to school to become a doctor. Well, I’m not going to become a doctor, but I will be a Registered Holistic Nutritionist in a few months! I’m very excited to finish school and begin practicing and teaching people about easy ways they can change their food and lifestyles to improve their overall health.

Watch out Vancouver! My wife and I are going to take this city by storm!

It’s hard to imagine that 2 years ago I was in an old RV on my way to St. John’s to begin my life-changing journey across Canada. Sometimes I still can’t believe I did it.

So I sit in my apartment 2 years later and reflect on what events have unraveled over the last 24 months. Well, it’s amazing what can happen in such a short time. I’ve had a lot of time to think about my future and where I want to head. Some days I wake up with a clear idea of what my goals are. But the very next day I could roll out of bed with complete uncertainty as to what I will be doing in 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or 10 years down the road.

Today I’m feeling pretty good, though. I don’t have an exact idea of what I think I’ll be doing the rest of my life (does anyone really know the answer to this?), but I am fairly confident that it will involve the health industry. No, I’m not going back to school to become a doctor. I do find an appeal to various companies which produce and/or distribute health food and products. I don’t think it’s a big secret that health is a huge part of my life. Think about it… I’m married to a nutritionist, I rollerbladed across Canada for Cancer Research, I lead an active lifestyle. Without your health, you wouldn’t be able to live and experience all the incredible things our world still has to offer!

On a different note, Spring is in full swing in Vancouver now! The cherry blossoms and daffodils have come and gone. The tulips are standing tall. The trees are looking greener everyday. And the seawall is dry enough to skate around!
I’ve been in Vancouver for over 4 years and it still amazes me at the amount of time people spend complaining about our weather. “It’s always raining or cloudy”. Are these people in some sort of daze?? Sure, we have cloudy or rainy days. But who doesn’t have those in the spring? I don’t think I’ve seen a cloud in our skies in over a week! I’ve been out rollerblading in shorts several times in the last couple weeks. I think this spring has been one of my favorites since I moved here! It hasn’t been exceptionally hot, but I’m quite happy with 15 degrees and sunny. After all, it is only May 1! Just wait for summer!

With all the time I’ve been able to spend outside lately, I’m seeing more and more inline skaters around. I’m in a tough place in my life right now with work and finances, but I’m beginning to get back the motivation to develop an annual inline skating event that I have been dreaming about for years. It will happen. I just need to act on my impulses when the opportunities arise. I can’t sit back and wait like I had been doing. If anyone is interested in helping out with something like this, please e-mail me. I have had a few organizations contact me and offer to stamp their name on my event, but they have yet to offer the support and promoting that I need. They expect me to do all the work alone and then throw their name on it for the credit. So as of now, I’m not committed to any particular group. We’ll see how this spring/summer unfolds.

It may be April Fool’s Day, but this is no joke!

I’m back online with a renewed energy and focus.  I’ve been MIA for the last few months.  I apologize to anyone who used to follow my blog religiously.  But the good news is that I plan to schedule more time to reviving the livelihood of SeeTheEnd.

A lot has happened over the last several months.  It’s a bit overwhelming to try and put all my thoughts in writing.  There are so many things that I want to tell you all (and I will tell you everything eventually).  But for now, in order to keep my blogs relatively short, I’ll just start with the most recent and work backwards.

To start things off, I’ll let you in on some news that sounds worse than it really is.  I recently became a victim to this crazy economic recession.  That’s right, I got laid off.  The funny thing about this is that everyone has a knee-jerk reaching to come up to me and tell me how sorry they are to hear that I lost my job.  But in reality, I’ve been happier since leaving my former company than I have been in a long time.  I was not only a loyal employee for the last 4 years, but I was the top sales agent consistently throughout my career with them.  But now that I have time to reflect, I really see how people can easily become stagnant in a workplace.  Everything seems so comfortable, even if you’re not completely happy.  So I have taken this minor set back and am using it to my full advantage.  I’m surging forward and working to pursue other opportunities that will inevitably provide me with more satisfaction than I had previously.  So please, don’t feel sorry for me.  Be excited for me and the changes I will be experiencing in the coming months (no matter how terrifying some of those changes may seem now).

Although I’m very excited to be moving forward, I am also scared (which is a good thing). I have many different paths in front of me to started working down. I’m not afraid of picking the wrong path. Rather, I’m afraid I can’t pick as many paths as I’d like. I consider myself a jack-of-all-trades. My experience is primarily in sales and account management. But I tend to succeed in any environment I am put in. For example, look at my Skate For Hope. Not exactly something that many Sales people would ever consider. But I jumped into this venture with both feet. Failure is not something I accept (with the exception of a few University Engineering courses I took… but that’s another story).

Today I met up with a former client of mine for a breakfast networking event here in Vancouver. I’ve never been to a networking event like this before. I was a bit intimidated for about 30 seconds until I started talking to some of the great people there. As I sat at my table listening to the various speakers, I quickly understood that this was more than just networking. This was a community or a family of like-minded people just looking to help each others businesses in anyway possible. And I was welcomed with open arms. I was able to make a few great connections which may help me towards finding a new career opportunity.

Later in the afternoon, I walked downtown to check out the Massive Technology Trade Show. I’ve been to this venue in the past, but it’s been a couple years. After walking around and checking out some of the vendors for a while, I started to bump into some former colleagues and acquaintances. I ended up staying and chatting with people for a few hours.

All in all, it was a great day for making connections. There’s so much talk about the recession right now. But I believe if you’re determined and don’t buy into all the propaganda fed to us from the media, there really are a lot of opportunities out there. I’m not denying that thousands of people are being laid off. But while many huge corporations are struggling and failing, there are even more smaller businesses thriving.

I ended my day with one of my favorite passed-times. Soccer. Growing up in Ontario, I always associate soccer with the late spring and summer. So to be playing outside in March is still a bit foreign to me. Nevertheless, I’m always up for a chance to play. Tonight was no exception. Sure, it was only about 4 degrees, and pouring rain. But who am I to turn down a match! Most of my team showed up to brave the elements, too. The outcome was not quite as we hoped, but soccer is still fun even when you lose. And I’m happy to say it only took a couple hours to dry out and regain the feeling in my finger tips!

The excuses are over!

I’ve been completely consumed in wedding planning over the last few months (as you may have noticed by the lack of journal entries).  Just to put it in perspective, I didn’t just have one ceremony to plan, but I had 2!!  Crystal and I had a lavish ceremony and reception at a beautiful golf course in Ontario for all of our friends and family to attend.  But we also wanted to do something more intimate.  So I arranged to have a resort in Thailand provide us with a quiet, beach ceremony during our honeymoon.  So only a few days after our big, expensive wedding in Toronto, we were walking back down a sandy isle to another alter where we essentially renewed our vows.  This time, there were no friends and family present.  Just my gorgeous bride and I.  And to make it even more special and intimate, we did not tell our friends and families that we were doing this.

I’ll go over the details and post some pictures over the next little while.

For now, I’m excited to say that I can regain my focus on the development of annual Skate event to benefit cancer research.  So keep an eye out and be in touch if your interested in helping in any way.

Ok, I must admin, I’m not keeping this journal up-to-date as I had intended.  Life just seems to be throwing me a lot of challenges, chores and tasks.  It’s been difficult juggling everything and maintaining my sanity!  Fortunately I’m already insane, so I don’t nee to worry to much about losing my sanity.

First thing is first…  I want to welcome Daniel Gregory White to the world.  My sister gave birth to her second child (my first nephew) last week.  He’s healthy, happy, and just about as hairy as his Daddy!  I’m pretty excited to finally meet him when I head to Toronto in September.  Crystal gets to meet him next week when she goes home for a week.

I’ve been trying to network and plan some sort of event for this summer.  It’s been slow going because of my hectic schedule, but I still want something to develop.  As of now, there is no official sponsor to the event.  I will be working to put together an formal business proposal for the future of the Skate For Hope.  I know it will be a long road, but I believe with a bit of help, I can put together the largest in-line skate event in Canada.  I visualize people flying in from all corners of the world to participate.  Realistically, I don’t think this will happen this year.  But I know it will happen eventually.

I’m also happy to say that some of my injuries have been healing.  Although i still have not been scheduled for the ankle surgery that I need, my knee seems to be better.  I’d say I’m running at 95% now.  Just a bit more conditioning and I’ll be good as new.  I even got to test it out on the soccer field this past weekend!  Now, if only my cardio was back in top form.

There’s been many small tasks I’ve been juggling including website building/maintainance, wedding planning, and everyday chores like cleaning, cooking and still trying to have a social life.  It doesn’t sound like a lot, but there’s only so many hours in a day, and I spend the majority of them sitting behind a desk at my office.  At least the summer is on the way!  I’ve even been able to rollerblade a few times already.  Can’t wait for the really good weather to roll in.

An interesting weekend, to say the least.

All the wedding planning has been pretty stressful. More so for Crystal than myself. The colour scheme and bridesmaid dresses seem to be giving her the biggest headache right now. So to help alleviate some of the frustration, Crystal wanted to take a trip across the boarder to Burlington, WA to have a look at a bridal shop. I reluctantly agreed to wake up at 6:30 am on a Saturday morning and drive her down so she could see some dresses and try some on. I didn’t mind too much since it was spitting a bit of rain as we headed down Granville Street towards the U.S. What else would I do on a rainy day?

As we sat in line waiting to cross into Washington, the clouds slowly started dispersing. Maybe this was a good idea after all?! Maybe the States will have better weather today. By the time I pulled into the parking lot at David’s Bridal in Burlington, it was just about 10am and the sun was beating down like it was the middle of summer! I made the commitment to watch Crystal try on dresses and snap some pictures of her so she could analyze the colours and styles later. But after 2 hours of sitting in a bridal shop with a bunch of women, I was ready to get out into the sun.

At noon, we were considering heading back to Vancouver for the rest of the day. But I suggested we take advantage of the gorgeous spring-like day and drive the extra hour into Seattle. We stopped for a bite to eat where Crystal was able to find a gluten-free dessert to help easy the wedding stresses. When we finally got downtown Seattle and parked near the aquarium, it was nearly 3 o’clock. But the sun was still beaming down. We walked through the city and explored Pikes Market. We picked up some souvenirs and watched a beautiful sunset behind the mountains on the horizon before hopping back in the Honda and heading for Canada. It took me a little longer than expected to manipulate my way through the confusing streets of Seattle and get back on the I-5. But eventually I got us home.

This morning I had a much-anticipated appointment to get the results of my CT scan of my ankle. It was a quick appointment, but extremely eventful. Doctor McKenzie walked into the room and said to me “Well, we finally hav a diagnosis for you. And I find it absolutely remarkable that you were able to rollerblade across Canada on this ankle!”

It turns out that I have 4 pieces of bone fragments lodged in my ankle. The largest of the 4 pieces is about 7 mm big! So these things have just been floating around in my ankle joint for the last year! Unbelievable! The good news is that my talus seems to be find. The pieces of bones should be able to be easily removed and I will be back in top form. The bad news is that it requires surgery to remove the fragments. I have yet to meet with the surgeon, but it sounds like it’s a very basic procedure and I would only be on crutches for a day or 2. I may even be back on the soccer pitch within a few weeks! Now, I hope my knee isn’t as serious.

What better day to start writing again than Valentine’s Day?!

OK. I know you’re all disappointed in my apparent lack of effort in journal writing. But I assure you that it has been 100% unintentional. My life has just been a whirlwind since being back in real life.

Just to give you an idea of what has been happening, here’s a quick run-down:

When I returned to work in October, my job was not solidified. I knew before I began this journey that although my company was supporting my decision to embark on this adventure, they could not guarantee that they could hold my position for when I returned. I appreciated their honesty and accepted their terms. So I was happy when they offered to bring me back. However, when I returned, I was put back on a 3 month temporary contract. Since I had left, they had begun training a new employee for my position. But the company had big expectations for growth. So they decided to welcome me back in anticipation that my department would need the extra manpower. From October to January a decision would be made if the company still needs the extra hands. As January approached, my nerves were growing anxious. I was confident that I was performing well, but you never know what the top dogs are thinking! I’m happy to announce that the 3 month temporary contract has now resulted into permanent employment once again! It would be great if I could focus 100% of my time and effort on SeeTheEnd, but realistically I have to earn a living somehow.

In the late Fall, many people contacted me with a common question…. “Do you still rollerblade everyday?” The short answer is No. Not because I don’t enjoy it. But because I don’t enjoy skating in the rain if I don’t have to. And for those of you who know Vancouver, we see plenty of rain!

So what am I doing to stay in shape? Well, my indoor soccer team was happy to see me return to action this past Fall. Sure, it’s only once a week, but the cardio workout I get is incredible! It also helps that I walk to work everyday. That’s about 5km a day!

For those of you who know me well, I’m one of the easiest going, relaxed guys you’ll ever meet. So to keep me on my toes, I have an unusual tendency to introduce various stresses in my everyday life just to see if I can handle them. As November marched on, I started to feel like I was getting to comfortable with everyday life. I needed a new spark. And there was only one thing that made sense. But the thing that was on my mind had been brewing for quite some time. And to make it more stressful on myself, it was something I had to keep a secret until just the right moment. On the morning of my Mom’s birthday (Novemeber 23), I unveiled my master plan to the world. Just before heading to work for the day, I pulled Crystal aside and asked her to be my wife! And so the next chapter in my life begins! What could be more stressfull than planning a wedding?! Oh wait…I know. How about trying to plan a wedding in Toronto from Vancouver! I’ve really out done myself this time! I caught Crystal (and everyone else) completely off guard because we were all focussed on my Mom’s birthday. Within a matter of weeks, we were on a flight back to Toronto to begin the wedding planning. Now were back in Vancouver working on the remaining details from the opposite side of the country. I never seem to do anything the easy way!

On top of everything else, I’ve also been working to find the cause of some ankle pain I’ve been having. I can’t recall if I mentioned this before, but before I began my skate last May, I hurt my ankle playing soccer. It never really healed completely, but I made the decision to go ahead with the journey regardless. I didn’t want to worry anyone, so I kept it to myself. And honestly, skating didn’t seem to aggravate it. But now that I’m back playing soccer and walking everyday, I seem to have a lot of discomfort again. So I’ve been to see doctors, physiotherapists, acupuncturists and specialists. I’ve been in for x-rays, bone scans and CT scans. So far there has been no official diagnosis, but I will be getting the results of a CT scan in the next few days. To make matters more complicated, I was just recently involved in a knee-on-knee collision during my last soccer match. I’m hoping I don’t have any ACL damage. Form what I’ve been told, you usually hear a ‘pop’ if you do serious damage to the ACL. So I’m crossing my fingers on this one.

The most recent project I have taken on to keep occupied has been to rebuild a great website. My friend, Christine, started the website www.CancerGrief.com. Since I work in the industry, I offered to help her out and make some changes and upgrades. Hopefully the changes will save her some time and money so she can put more effort into pursuing the motivation behind the site! It’s a wonderful site helping everyone and anyone who has been affected by cancer. Stop by her site and drop her an e-mail if you have a minute.

At any rate, you can see that I’ve been keeping myself busy. There’s still a lot of details I’ve left out, too.

I’m still hoping I can develop the Skate For Hope into some sort of annual event. If anyone in or near Vancouver is interested in helping to organize a rollerblading event for cancer research, please contact me directly.

Well, time is really flying by!  It’s October already and I’m back at work!

It’s a strange feeling being back behind a desk after being on skate for the last 4 months.

It will likely take me a few days to get back into the groove of things.   But when I do, watch for new changes to this site.  And be ready to hear about my plans for next year’s event!

I promise to start ‘journalizing’ gain soon, too.  Keep checking in.

By now you’re all foaming at the mouths waiting for more stories from me. I’ll do my best to continue writing journals to keep everyone up to speed on the developments on the Skate For Hope and the other wacky aspects in my life. Over the last week or so, I’ve been incredibly busy trying to easy back in to civilization and living a regular life. But I think it’s safe to say that my life is far from regular. I’ll spend some time filling you in on what has happened over the last several days such as having Adam here for the week, bumping into Gene Simmons, getting back into soccer, flying to Vegas, and much more.

So don’t forget to keep checking in on SeeTheEnd.com. I may have completed my trek across the country, but the journey will forever continue.

The day has finally arrived. My journey across Canada on in-line skates is coming to and end. But the battle against cancer remains.

I couldn’t let myself get too excited, though, because I still had some skating to get done. I strapped on the blades on the north side of Nanaimo pretty early today since I had to be at Departure Bay ferry terminal by 8:00 am. When I rolled up to the docks, it felt like the crew was already expecting us. They put us in a separate lane and explained that we would be the last vehicle on the boat so that I wouldn’t affect traffic when we depart in Horseshoe Bay. I was hoping to have some time on board to catch up on journals and pictures, but when the Captain announced that I was there, my morning just got busier. During the announcement you could sense that everyone was listening intently and trying to figure out who I was. My Dad was about 30 feet away from me chatting with some people and began yelling “Stand up! Stand Up!” I rouse to my feet and gave a bashful wave as everyone around turned to look and applaud. Almost immediately people began coming up to me and hand me donations.

Once the congratulations died down, I had the chance to meet a few interesting people on board. An incredibly generous and caring family from Aruba spent some time talking to me and asking about my journey. Then Bill Robinson introduced himself to me. He told me about an organization he started called Hidden Heroes. It is basically like a leadership camp for children in BC. He then asked if I would consider being a guest speaker at the camp. I’d love to, Bill.

When the ferry floated into Horseshoe Bay I waited patiently with my skates on as all of the cars departed. Finally I was given the ‘All Clear’ and was permitted to roll down the ramp onto the mainland. I hadn’t been on the pavement for more than 3 seconds when a policeman on a motorcycle pulled in front of me to begin my escort through West Vancouver. After another 35 meters, I looked to my right and saw 3 smiling faces watching me. Eugene, Ryan and the one and only, Adam didn’t want to wait at the Inukshuk for me. They came right to the ferry to participate in the final convoy of my journey.

Just before heading thorugh West Vancouver towards downtown, I had to make a quick stop at Trolls Restaurant to meet up with a few members of the Vancouver Torrent In-line Skate club. 3 of them decided to join me for the last leg of my trip. So off we headed across the rolling hills of Marine Drive with a dual police escort. I think the hills would have been tougher for me, but I had a pretty big surge of adrenaline to keep me going. It also helped having a crew of people to skate with.

The group grew even larger when we arrived at Park Royal mall where we were joined my several other members from the Torrent including Conny who helped set it all up, as well as my friends Kirsten, Pat, and Dave. Crystal also hopped out of the RV with her skates on for the final haul into Vancouver. It was pretty impressive to see about 20 or so skaters huddled around and then funnel down the road and over the Lions Gate Bridge. Once over the bridge, some more friends, Kevin and Jay, joined the procession on bicycles. Like a swarm of bees, we all followed the police into the heart of Stanley Park and around Prospect Point. We eventually met back up with Georgia Street and took over a traffic lane on the busy street. Cars were bumper to bumper, so our momentum was creeping along at a slow crawl. We worked our way up Georgia to Richards Street (ironic, I know), went one block south to Robson Street where we hung a right and headed back down towards Denman Street. The exposure was incredible. People couldn’t help but notice us. There was clapping, cheering, honking, sirens and flashing lights. With a final turn onto Denman Street, I was now heading down the last few hundred meters of a historical journey. I could see the bright red Boston Pizza tent down by the Inukshuk and crowd of people anxiously waiting for me to roll in. And then, just as quickly as I took my first few strides in St. John’s, Newfoundland, my trip came to an end at English Bay.

There was more cheering and clapping from an amazing crowd consisting of friends, family, colleagues, sponsors and strangers. The Deputy Mayor of Vancouver was there to congratulate me in my efforts. So many people from Hostway Canada were on hand to witness my finale. Hostway has always been supportive, but it was incredible to see so many people out to greet me. I posed for a few quick photos before removing my skates and plunging head first into the cool waters of the Pacific Ocean. Sure, it was cliche, but I bet if you skated across the country, you’d have the same urge.

The ‘Thank You’ speeches were filled with tears, embraces and surprises. In a moment like this, you might feel prepared with words to share. But when it comes down to it, nothing can make you ready for the flood of emotions that come gushing out. I tried my best to recognize and acknowledge everyone who played an important role in the Skate For Hope. But I’m sure I missed someone. To anyone I forgot, Thank you. The crowd listened as I spoke, the deputy Mayor spoke, my parents spoke, Robbie (Hostway) spoke and Andrea (Boston Pizza) spoke. But I was at a loss for words when Andrea and Brian walked over to me from the Boston Pizza tent and handed me a giant novelty check in the amount of $5000. The support they have provided across the country has been wonderful, and this was just icing on the cake.

After some mingling, chatting and pizza, another big moment was awaiting me. I was finally going to my apartment! As comfortable as the bed in the RV was, I’m really looking forward to sleeping in my own place again! But my work was far from over. I still had to unload everything from the RV in lug it up to my apartment. Once I felt confident everything was out, I took a peek in my living room which looked like a bomb had gone off. There was skate gear, clothes, shoes, papers and parcels everywhere. It’s a good thing I don’t have to go back to work until October. I think it’ll take me a month to organize everything.

Adam, Ryan, Eugene, Crystal, my parents and I went out for a celebratory dinner before heading to the Rivers Reach pub in New Westminster for the after-party. As I walked around the pub talking to friends I hadn’t seen in months, part of me began feeling like I had never left. I especially want to thank Jordan for putting together the wrap-up party. You went above and beyond any expectations. The posters, the table settings, the food, the balloons and even personalize donation envelopes. It was truly remarkable. And thank you to the Rivers Reach for hosting the event and the surprise donation, as well. This was exactly what I needed to conclude my journey.

Having Adam with me at the end of this trip made the entire struggle worth every grueling stride. 10,000 kilometers. 4 intense months. 1 amazing country. And countless lives changed forever.

The Skate For Hope is far from over. It’s only just begun. Together we can fight cancer one stride at a time and we will See The End