“I was sitting in the lobby of an ominous medical facility, waiting for a therapist (and complete stranger) named Sam. The magazines on the coffee table were all out of date. The air smelled like industrial carpet cleaner and surrender.”

“I drove a forest-green Dodge Neon with hideous white hubcaps and a crumpled roof, thanks to heavy snowfall from the previous winter. If my therapist saw it he would think, “Oh . . . that’s his car. No wonder he’s depressed.””

“I had quickly amassed an impressive collection of those wings-pins that the airline gives children when they fly by themselves. I was already twenty-plus flights in, and I was already like a burned-out air marshal with a sweet tooth.”

“My amazing gran, Edmay, and I had a very important bond. When she came to America to visit, she flew solo. So we were both unaccompanied fliers. I was an unaccompanied minor, and she was, I liked to think, an unaccompanied senior.”

“My mom, Jackie, was an immigrant to this country. My whole life she kept her refined South African accent. Growing up, my mom would enthrall my sisters and I with stories about her life growing up in South Africa.

My dad, Tim, was also exotic. He was from Fresno.”

“Winning this 4th-grade spelling bee would be my shortcut to universal acclaim and guaranteed popularity. When the big day arrived, I wore my luckiest sweater. It said “Princeton” on it. No one in my family had ever gone to Princeton—my mom got it at Goodwill. I liked it mainly because it had a tiger on it.”

“My mom was a warrior against my asthma right alongside me. She was what people in our small, rural New York town called “nutty-crunchy,” and she was determined to find some healthier treatment options to offset all the medications.

First, she found me an herbalist. His name was Herb. Of course it was.”

“When we went camping, my parents first had to find a park ranger and identify where an outlet was in case they needed to plug in my breathing device. It must have been great for them to really relax in nature.”

“I needed to laugh, both at my asthma and at myself. I didn’t know then that developing a sense of humor would eventually become a superpower and a secret weapon. I hadn’t yet realized that by choosing to embrace “being” the joke, I had gained the power to control it rather than be its victim.”

“I assumed our 6th-grade teacher was going to read our answers privately, but then she collected our questionnaires, shuffled them up, and redistributed them among the other students to be read aloud.

I thought, “I have got to start listening to instructions more carefully.””

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!

Going to a Christian high school was a confusing time…

Trying not to love Nirvana while desperately wanting to look like Kurt Cobain.

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!)

Perhaps not the only kid crying at the pool, but probably the only one crying because he’s convinced there are sharks in it!

Documented proof of my lifelong irrational fear of sharks in swimming pools!

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.