I’ve done a lot of things in life. Learning how to write a bio or answering “Tell us a little bit about yourself” are not any of those things.

Drafting a compelling personal narrative that’s easy to follow and comprehensive is a daunting task and until the day that I deem an autobiography is worth publishing it is a task that I am still going to duck. Even in this ‘About Me’ article I’m going to head a little to the left and just pass on by.

How am I going to do that? Well, I’m going to provide a bunch of random facts about myself.

• I’m currently a bike mechanic because one day over a beer a friend asked “How do you feel about coming to work at the bike shop?”
• I’m a sporadic saxophone player currently wailing away in the basement when no one is home because raising three kids leaves little energy for late nights playing at the bar.
• I got really into photography for a year and somehow still, if only to myself, I identify as a photographer.
• I’m going to finish my novel, I promise.
• I love classic Sci-fi novels. Also vintage bikes. If anyone has mashed those together I need to know.
• I’ve been a marketing director and vice chair of a young professionals group.
• I’ve been the president of a not for profit community festival board of directors helping revive it from the death grip the pandemic tried to strangle it with.
• I can drive a tractor and just about any other kind of equipment you can find.
• I take great pride in my ability to back up a trailer and drive a stick shift.
• I’m a mechanic’s son which means I know enough to do a lot of mechanical work myself but more importantly that I have a dad who can bail me out when I’m in over my head.
• I’ve worked freelance marketing on and off for a couple decades now and typing that makes me feel way older than I am.
• I am simultaneously really good with computers while also being a complete old man who can’t work his phone properly.
• I just got out of a 10 year relationship with a contracting company.
• I was a business owner for 15 years in total.
• I love Adam Savage and Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I too share that boiling over of joy from learning new things and sharing them with uninhibited passion.

…And Now For a Random Anecdote

For a six year stint fresh out of highschool I moved to London Ontario and became a personal trainer. After the first three years working for a corporate gym I went out on my own and began training clients out of their own homes. I found myself very lucky to acquire some well-to-do clients through a series of referrals. It’s surreal to say that my day typically started by driving 30 minutes out of town and through a back service road onto a golf course where on the 13th hole I would pull up to a mansion on a man made lake. This one particular day my client told me we could not train in the home gym because they had a guest staying in the room next to it who was sleeping off some jet lag. We trained in the basement that day. When I left she casually mentioned that Sean would be up soon and they had a busy day ahead.

I know, boring anecdote so I can brag that I trained rich people. Don’t worry, it gets mildly better.

I drove 45min to my next client who happened to be friends with the first client. I buzzed myself through the gate, drove past their helipad which was installed solely for their friend to use, let myself in the side entrance, fended off the meanest two wiener dogs to ever live, walked past the wine cellar and started setting up her home gym. (Sidebar: At one point her husband started to workout there and I still can’t get the mental image of his combover, mustache, undershirt, boxers and dress socks held up by garters flailing on a Pilates reformer out of my head). At the end of the uneventful session she asked me if I trained her friend that morning. When I replied yes she asked if I got to meet Sean. When I said no she said something along the lines of “What a shame, she didn’t let you meet James Bond.”

How I ended up in a position in life in my early 20s where I was training people who were best friends with celebrities and owned golf courses and helicopters I don’t know. I found myself a couple years later moving back up to my hometown in Northern Ontario to start a family near my parents and in-laws and every once in a while looking back and wondering where that life would have taken me if we didn’t want to move back home.

…But here’s the thing, the world houses an infinite amount of variety to experience and to share and for better or worse I’m here to chase that dopamine high and ride it through every new obsession that comes my way. Hindsight is 20/20 and nostalgia paints the past through rose coloured glasses.

Who Am I?

I prefer to call myself “The Serial Polymath” but in moments of self deprecating humour I will also throw out “The Patron Saint of Mediocrity +1”. I’m trying to learn how to, in the words of Adam Savage, not let “perfect be the enemy of the done.” I value proficiency and understanding over mastery and the freedom that allows me to diversify and learn even more. I want to absorb more of the world than I have previously allowed myself to and I want to share more and pass along that passion and knowledge to others.

Most importantly I don’t want to hold back on anything. I want to share my current obsessions before the buzz wears off and right now what that means is, hitting submit on this article and not worrying about its perfection.

Final Thought

I’m eccentric, I’ll post what I want.