Welcome to Epic Tiny Victories!

The site of my very first therapy session.

Would you want to go into this building and talk to a total stranger about your worst thoughts?

My green Dodge Neon with white hubcaps and a crumpled roof… an under-the-radar reason I was depressed.

An early Frequent Flyer! (aka. a burnt-out air marshal with a sweet tooth…)

If I was an Unaccompanied Minor, then she was an Unaccompanied Senior…

My amazing gran, Edmay.

Here are my parents, age 27, in love, still kids themselves, about to give marriage their best shot!

Have I mentioned I won my 4th-grade spelling bee? In mom-jeans?

Yeah, I have asthma. I’m still doing gym class — got a problem with that?

Other times it did, in fact, look more like this.

(That box is called a Nebulizer and it pumped steam into my lungs and sounded like a generator on a construction site!)

This cool kid went to middle school, and made it about two hours before he revealed he was clown in his local church! It did not go great 😅

Here they are. The world-famous (but long defunct) Clowns for Christ. When we didn’t perform at nursing homes, we also performed at 5Ks!

In case you worried that Clowns for Christ didn’t have a clear message, we did! It was something to do with Envy. Not sure of the specifics, but I’m guessing we were against it!

Spending a lot of time on my hair and not enough time on my mental health.

The mythical sign over the City of Angels… almost covered by daily smog.

Finally in the land that Braveheart depicted (while teaching nothing accurate about the place). Doing my best to understand the language 😅 and loving every minute of it!

Me and 3 of my 4 backpacking buddies! Day 1 of our trip, geared up and ready to go starting in Oxford.

(L-R) Eric, me, York and Brian. Matt is taking the photo.

Feast your eyes on a group that dressed for the Running With The Bulls, but had to walk across a French town first, looking like a cult or a boy band.

In a way, this picture defies description! And yet, it demands one! Here is me as Dakota Joe and my trusty puppet-sidekick, Denver!

My first ever article was about my experience visiting Jamaica on a hurricane relief trip.

It’s no big deal, duh, but I’ll never forget seeing my name on the byline for the first time!

Here are the two movies I brought up out of nowhere in my FIRST EVER therapy session. Sorry Sam, thanks for not freaking out 😅

Slowly waking up the idea that the world I understood was not as I thought…

A prolific writer slowly realizing no one will see these because of a fear of rejection. But don’t worry, change is coming!

Performing at the Flynn Theatre after one stand-up comedy course. So yeah, still pretending to be a comedian at this point!

My very first paycheck from doing stand-up comedy.

A newspaper had to tell me I had a good hook for teaching finance…

I had to make sure you saw this, so you know, like I did, that beyond a shadow of a doubt there is a giant squirrel outside a campground in the middle of Vermont.

I didn’t have any pictures of me telling stories, so I decided to share the photo from a pretty good joke in the story: the time when I was a kid and my parents dressed me up like this for a parade. This photo is the only moment this day I’m not crying about having the wear this.

Doing the comedy! It’s a lot of fun, but also, your exposure to the effects of people yelling at you is quite high.

My actual setlist from the show where I met Lindsey for the first time. Good thing I was funny (or maybe this would be a very different book!)

Documented proof of my lifelong fear of sharks in swimming pools! (Now defeated!)

Professional speaker for hire - will travel and make you laugh when possible. Bringing humor and honesty to a challenging topic.

This story meant something to a lot of people!

Artist: Donald Suthard

Illustration of the story by elementary school class in Houston, Texas.

Shared with me by their teacher Jane Rucker.

This copy of the story is framed and kept on his wall! The story still chokes him up.

Shared with me by James Ellard.

Having grown up reading stories in Reader’s Digest, you never think someday YOU will the contributor with a sketch of your face!

She was worth all the vulnerability 😅 Because when you know, you know.

This is what a stadium of 18,000 people gathered to listen to you speak looks like.

This is a great chart to explain “The Dip.” It’s what happens to most of us when we attempt a big project / start a business / try something difficult! Mental health challenges love this part!

It turns out I had undiagnosed ADHD for decades! Here is handy visual for that — a write-up from an exasperated teacher on my 2nd grade report card!

Here is my family photo from Lindsey and my wedding day. Only took 35 years to get one! (Also, I’m not crying YOU’RE crying!)

This is what a wedding officiant in a bolo tie looks like!

Thank you John McConnell ❤️

A full wedding party group hug!

It was an amazing feeling to write a book and know it resonated with a lot of people.

Also, this picture from a reader might be overpromising!

The Great Wall of China - the reward at the end of an unforgettable adventure into the unknown.