Welcome to The Second Half

“You may ask yourself ‘Well, how did I get here?’”

“Once in a Lifetime” – Talking Heads

The phrase “How did I get here?” went through my mind a number of times as I contemplated starting to write and creating a blog.  Naturally, that phrase turned into a lyric.  You see, I love music – whether I am wearing headphones or not, there is always a song in my head.  Thus, David Byrne’s voice was asking me what the heck I was doing.

The literal answer to the question above has nothing to do with my love of music, but my love of movies.  It all started with an idea from my 17-year-old daughter Kara at Thanksgiving dinner.  “Dad, you should start a movie blog.”  This was a few minutes after she was teasing me for going to a movie on a Monday at 11:00 AM.  She didn’t seem interested in my rationale that I really wanted to see The Irishman on the big screen and since her mom had no interest in seeing it, I thought it made sense to go while she was at work.  After her teasing, we were discussing movies we’ve recently seen and ones we were planning to see.  As I was making a few comments about some of the movies, she offered her idea and now, here we are.

My backstory

It probably makes sense to ask why a 47-year-old father of two is going to the movies on a Monday morning.  In April 2019, I left my job as a financial executive with a leading health care company after seventeen years.  Including my time at a previous employer, I had spent 25 years in accounting and financial planning and analysis.  I had a phenomenal experience, especially my last four years, when I worked in a senior role on two very large mergers (one that happened, one that didn’t).  When the second one was complete, my company had been bought and I started asking myself if it was time for a change in my life.  While I loved the team that worked for me and (mostly) had a great time every day, I was feeling restless to do something different.  Was it a mid-life crisis?  Who knows – how does anyone even define that term anymore?

So, I decided to leave voluntarily and, after an orderly transition to my successor, take some time off before deciding on what to do next.  It was very tough to leave my team behind – they were a great group, but I knew deep down that I was making the right decision.  I was repeatedly asked what I would do next and I honestly had no idea.  I received some great advice from Les, a good friend and colleague of mine.  He said, “You just finished the first half and it’s now halftime.  So, enjoy the break and then figure out what you want to do for your second half.”  Hence the name of this blog. 

I thought about consulting, working at a small company or a non-profit, tutoring, teaching.  A lot of thoughts have crossed my mind, but nothing jumped out at me and said “Yes, that’s what you should do next.”  Early in my “semi-retirement” (that’s what I’m calling it), I was fortunate to meet with a recruiter who gave me some great advice.  He told me to do what makes me happy, let things evolve and that I’d know it when I found it.  He’s actually more than a recruiter – I think of him as a life coach and I am fortunate to have him in my network.

Fortunately, I never panicked during my time of thinking through what’s next.  My wife Jen and my kids, Ryan and Kara, have provided fantastic support to me.  The time away from the corporate grind has brought me closer to my family and I’ve been able to devote more time and energy to getting healthier and doing things that I enjoy, but never had time to do.  The hardest part of the first few months was answering the question “What do you do for work?”  But I got used to telling my story.  Most people get it and when I see someone genuinely happy for me, it feels good.  Not everyone understands, but that’s ok.

Why writing?

My wife reminded me that I thought about writing a long time ago, but I completely forgot that I even had the idea.  This was long before the explosion of online media, blogs, and self-publishing.  I wrote a little bit in high school and college and liked the challenge of trying to convey a cohesive set of ideas to someone.  I thought that maybe someday I would take a shot at writing short stories.  After starting my career and a family shortly after, those ideas faded away, but what never left me was my love of stories, regardless of the format.  Besides the obvious stories in books, I’ve always been amazed at the ability of talented filmmakers and songwriters.  They can combine lyrics and music together or a screenplay, images and music to create something beautiful that will impact people.  I often wondered how someone could be so creative.

I wouldn’t describe myself as creative, but my family is just the opposite.  My wife has an eye for fashion, created incredible family photo scrapbooks over a twenty-year period, and creatively solves life’s everyday problems without breaking a sweat.  My son is a very talented guitarist, keyboardist, and songwriter, who recently recorded and released a self-produced EP with his band.  My daughter is a singer who has also self-recorded her own songs and will be majoring in graphic design when she starts college in the fall.  On the other hand, I’ve always been a numbers guy – from studying accounting in college through my entire professional career.   Although I was always immersed in numbers, I could also tell a story.  Oftentimes, I’d need to brief executives on a financial plan or analysis to let them know what was happening with the business and my recommendation on what I thought we should do.  So, maybe I could try writing?

What to write about?

When my daughter offered her idea, I started seriously thinking about a number of topics I could write about, but the idea of starting with movies interested me the most.  I loved movies growing up, and not just the popular ones at the box office.  My mom was a big movie fan and we used to watch the Oscars and old movies together.  This was in the early 1980s, in the days when having HBO was kind of a new thing and trips to the video store were a regular occurrence.  Over the years, I did my best to stay current with movies, but I found myself with an ever-increasing Netflix queue and watching the Oscars each year having only seen one or two of the nominated movies. 

This past summer, I was looking for new podcasts to listen to and discovered The Big Picture with Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins from The Ringer.com.  Each week, they discuss their thoughts on recent releases and movie news, debate top five lists, and Sean conducts interviews with filmmakers about a recent release.  This is a great podcast for me, as I have also always been interested in how movies are made, both the technical aspects and the business specifics.  The Big Picture provided me a long list of movies to see this past year and rekindled my passion for great films, leading me to this blog idea.  I am almost certain my writing will be influenced by Sean and Amanda’s styles, as well as Bill Simmons, the head of The Ringer.com and a columnist I have been reading since the early 2000s, and Alan Sepinwall, an excellent television critic with Rolling Stone that I frequently read.

So, as I embark on this new idea, I will start with thoughts on movies I’ve recently seen.  I am also very passionate about music and am an avid reader, so I will likely write about those topics as well.  In the back of my mind, I’m thinking I will expand beyond the world of music, movies and books to other experiences in life.  I’ve learned a lot in my career and in over twenty years of being a husband and a father that could provide some interesting topics.  I also think this could be a good reason to learn about new experiences and topics in the world.  And who knows, if I do decide I want to get into writing fiction, this could be a great opportunity to learn how to be a better writer.

So, expect a movie-focused start to this blog, but expanding to other areas as time moves on and we’ll see where this goes.

Thanks for reading and until next time…..