So I’m sitting in a hotel room at 5 am in Chicago IL, and life is different now.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for me, finishing school, worked till the last day I was there, and spent my final weeks working with my SIFE team trying to ensure that the success I had built is sustainable, because to quote a very dear friend Steve Gibson, “there is no success without a successor” (I don’t suspect he was the originator of that, but that’s where I heard it)

So yeah, my last days were pretty introspective. I found it rather difficult to try and compartmentalize, or place feelings I have for a place whose influence permeates almost every facet of my life. From spiritual to secular, to work success and social life, Hawaii has played a huge role in where I stand today. I really wish I had time to sit on the beach and just be grateful to a place that had done so much for me. But such is my style, work till the last minute and leave wanting more. I find that takes pretty good care of me. :)

In other news, Chicago is looking really good, there’s something fantastic about riding an L train with people and have all 15 students (white kids included) staring out the windows looking at these ‘crazy buildings’ or getting nervous around black people, or hesitantly stepping on to a train/subway fearing the doors will get them. It’s like I have 15 huge children, it’s pretty fun and I have decided I am one lucky dude.

So I interview this morning with my corporate guys, and again later this week, I think my status is that if I get that job, I’ll take the return ticket to Hawaii and try and get some more stuff / rest for a week. If not, I’ll stay in Missouri and get my move on to Toronto or something of the like. I’ll certainly let you know.

But just in way of gratitude, I need to say thanks to the Tueller family, who so graciously took me in as I was living homeless on the shores of Oahu these last two weeks. I am especially grateful for the chance to be around kids again, to camp out in the back yard and have it be amazing, cook bacon over a fire on a tin can even though the stove just beyond the screen door works fine. I’m grateful for the example of family nightly scripture study, and especially for Sister Tuellers cooking. :) Further thanks go to Audi and Holli, we formed a sort of vagabond posse that looked like hippies and acted like college students, it was a nice way to spend the last two weeks of Hawaii, with some great friends. There’s one more I can think of at five am, and that’s Jared Hinton. We’ve played one on one basketball for almost 18 months, every time things got stressful, or so busy I wanted to cry, he’s been there to work it out with me on the court. We’ve played in the pouring rain, we’ve played in gale strength winds, we’ve played night games under stadium lights, and hours past that in the pitch black under the light of the moon. There have been times when that ball has saved my sanity, and Jared, thanks for being there buddy.

Anyway, there’s tons of other folks whom I love from Hawaii, professors, roomies, families, mentors, and friends, and I hope they understand that I appreciate them, and love them dearly. Here’s to Hawaii…. /me drinks a snapple

Now, standby for the next chapter in this Doan saga.

PS - pics will be up under the photo section, if they aren’t yet, here’s one for now. :)

so it’s sunday morning, I’m up early, and figure I could use a quick post. The rest of you guys are getting worse than I am with your never posting. I seriously have been going through withdrawals lately needing online social interaction, it hones my arguing skills, so I think I’ll go find a new online community to invest some time in akin to the kcgeek community of yesteryear. :) Actually probably not, because I really don’t have the time, but it’s a nice thought… you know, having something to read when I want it.

So I’ve been anxiously trying to decide how best to spend my time post university. It’s coming up quick, something like a month and it’s go time. Options are cropping up and I’m giving myself an ulcer having convinced myself that the rest of my life hinges on this decision. I think I’m becoming used to doing that to myself. I am very excited about life after university though, I am sick of feeling like I’m floating and just a part of a four month community. Seriously imagine your life, friends, and resources getting dumped out and rebuilt every four months, it’s attractive a few times, particularly after dating goes bad with a girl and she’s stalking you, or when you realize yer friends are lame, but after a while, it gets old. I’m ready to not be in a college town, seriously.

My biggest love right now is the NCAA tourney. This month is amazing for that reason alone (Easter is normally in april so I don’t feel bad saying that) and I get a TV then both laptops all playing a different game, I feel like I am a sports god of sorts with my head moving from amazing play to amazing play to amazing finish. It really doesn’t get any better than this.

Lastly, Easter, it’s easter sunday, and I miss the home traditions. I miss the million kids running around hopped up on sugar IV’s (aka peeps from Erinn) and crying as they get shafted on the easter egg hunt and we all just laugh at their misguided greed and excitement over 30 cents worth of candy. Now if you’re not from our family, I need to explain a very exciting tradition that our family does regarding the easter egg hunt. You see we used to hide candy and treats in the little plastic eggs you would go searching for and it was great, but problems arose when your children aren’t as smart as you think they are, or if you are a better hider than you gave yourself credit for, because come july, melted nastiness was getting carted around by hordes of very happy ants - a problem for the parents, and we were losing about 12% of the aggregate chocolate haul yearly, just having to be written off to loss and depreciation - problem for the kids. So mom came up with a great idea, cut out little paper eggs and write on there initials that would make them redeemable for real candy. So paper eggs were hidden everywhere, and the parents stand by their cars like proud stall owners at the bazar waiting to wheel and deal (the dealing comes when a parent is praying that the HPB egg, or Huge Peanut Butter bunny, is not found and when it is, alternative bundles are offered to the children who know they’ve got the parents right where they want them, salivating for what they’ve got). It’s a great tradition / solution and served us perfectly for many years. However like many holiday traditions, when introduced to Missouri, are altered slightly. Now, when I think back to easter, it’s with fond memories of children tired of searching the 3 acre plost of knee high grass at grampas come back arguing with people on what the letters on that paper egg really mean (theres a big difference between PB - peanut butter egg and PP - plastic pony) I think those egg hunts began turning into family swap meets though and leaving the tradition of strictly chocolate candy. I mean seriously, finding an AT egg that gets you an antique outta uncle daves truck, or the famous DS egg, a pair of dad’s old Dirty Shoes from the basement…. I mean the ability to get rid of unwanted goods is great and all, but couldn’t it wait till christmas like every other family? Leave it to us I guess. Seriously though, the dinners and the laughter are being missed right now, especially knowing you all will be getting together out there in CA for Jess’s wedding (congrats to her and Tommy) I’ll miss you family, hopefully I’ll get back to seeing you before too long. I suspect summer will hold a weekend trip for me somewhere.

so I haven’t had time at all to keep up on life and the like, until today! I figured out something amazing, I came home right after school and meetings finished, so I got home at 10, I grabbed some water, read my mail, then at 10:30pm I layed down for a nap. I set the alarm, layed down, and was up at 2am. I wrote a paper, surfed the net (oh sweetness that used to be, I surfed the internet!) caught up on all my news feeds I’ve missed so dearly, replied to emails (some) graded papers, and am now getting ready to write up my report and then expense report for my trip to Chicago. So now I am here, I’ll write this and get the creative juices out so I can write a nice dry report for the center and they won’t think less of me.

So last week, like Monday, I finally got progress out of the Center for International Entrepreneurship. (CIE) The center is a great idea, but I got a taste of what its like to work with a great and slow taped up policy heavy administration. I mean, I’m excited for the potential of this place more so than our decision maker it seems, which is weird. But I digress. So we’ve found this organization called C.E.O. or Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization, and they were having their national conference this last weekend. I got things all setup, and the guys from CEO up in Provo were probably the most gracious and accommodating group of fellas I’ve encountered to date, as they let me bunk in their room, gave me some of their swag to wear, and pretty much let me tag along the whole weekend. We had a blast.

First, the conference was good. You can tell they’re all entrepreneurs though, cause it’s probably the cheapest production I’ve ever seen. I mean, all but one of the keynote addresses over three days were done without any media support at all. No power point, no projector, no wireless mic’s, I mean we’re paying a decent chunk of change to get out there, and this is an organization heavily funded by those who have walked its halls and gone on to greater things, I’m just saying we could spend some money and make it great, eh’? Even for having an off year, with a few of their big names canceling, some others pulled through, and all were really interested in the success of everyone else. Ideas were flowing, people were improving ideas and relationships were forged. Good stuff and great networking opportunity. I think the biggest asset of this conference was simply being submerged in entrepreneurship for a weekend. I had more ideas and thoughts come to me as I sat there, eating, drinking, sleeping business, it was very worthwhile in that regard. They are weak in their competitions though, and have a relatively arbitrary judging process which is frustrating. In order for them to continue to be an asset to entrepreneurs, they are going to need to step up their game, challenge them, make teams work and come together as they attend this conference.

second, after the day’s activities, we would strike out as a group of fellas out to see the town. We ate some amazing pizza, (seriously, this was the biggest surprise, I thought pizza was pizza, but this is chicago style, and amazing) we saw some sights and walked the town. It was fun riding in my first US cab, walking around a big city again (Laie is nice, but its fun to hustle and bustle) and in the process, we ran into some great characters. Me and Ryan, a fella from Provo, were lagging behind the group as we walked to dinner one night and crossed the street into the arms essentially of this enormous black guy, the guy was huge, my height, and probably 4 of my weights, a monster. So Ryan, being very interested in people it seemed, jumped up next to him and got a cameo shot of him and this guy, we were laughing, asked this guy his name and he said “Bear” like the big black guy in Armageddon, I never found a name to be so fitting as it was then. We laugh a bit more, and then turn to go and Bear pulls his ploy, “can you help a brotha out? I just need some food for my family, a few bucks?” naturally, we’d heard this a few times, and successfully weeded through all the schmucks making a living off of begging by offering to buy them food instead, well Bear readily accepted this offer, and wondering where this would take us, Bear led us to a little pantry shop down the road. Ryan and I walked in there and looked around, then asked Bear what he wanted, anything in the store we said. Bear led us straight to the deli, and requested some smoked turkey sliced, needless to say we were a bit surprised, but amusedly we inquired “you got turkey?” then Bear adamantly corrects us “SMOKED turkey” he says, the lady finds the corresponding pressed meat and pulls it out and asks “how much?” to which Bear replies “10 bucks”, “5 dollars” I interject, Bear then turns and gives us that kind of “you kidding me” look only a monstrous black guy can give when dealing with dinner, and Ryan and I defensively throw out the poor student card and finally talk him down to 5 bucks. Bear gets his meat, and we parted ways grinning ear to ear, cause seriously, who begs for smoked turkey?

Well also we were able to hit up a broadway show, Wicked. This was a highlight. I wasn’t planning on going, but Travis was winning in an elevator pitch competition and wasn’t able to attend so I got his ticket through the grace of God. :) We went and saw this all star performance, and I fell in love. It was amazing. I seriously don’t get giddy about musicals very often anymore, but this one was wonderful. And so well done, it made me miss my starlight theater days. :) Oh, did I mention it was in the historic oriental theater? :) Yeah.

So that was my chi town extravaganza, thanks to Scott and Gary, the faculty and advisors for BYU Provo that were so accommodating, Derek, their CEO president who was assertive enough to help me get my trip planned out in time to make it possible, and all the fellas, LaDon, Travis, Tyler, Ryan, Mike, and Jamon, you guys were great.

CEO here we come. (yeah, that’s my end of the bargain, start a chapter out here, that’s aight, I’m not doing anything from 2:30am to 7am anyway. :)