Choosing my Experience

When I was 17 I took part in a program called rising star. One of the ongoing themes throughout the program was "choosing your experience". They would put us in situations that most sane people would consider to be quit annoying, like sitting us down in chair with blindfolds on and then leaving us there for an undetermined amount of time, and the whole point was that we could choose to enjoy the moment or be angry. Personally I think it was a pretty drawn out way to teach us that concept but I guess they did a good job of it because here I am 10 years later and I still think of it often.

I’ve known since then that our perception of a moment, of our life can determine how we feel. I can choose to see my life in a positive way or I can key in on things that make me unhappy. About a year ago I was talking about just this thing with my brother-in-law Nate. I was telling him about some struggle I was having and how I knew I should have a better attitude and he told me I should be an Erikan, not an Erikan’t. It totally stuck. I know it’s weird but I think of myself as two different people sometimes, Erikan and Erikan’t. It helps me choose to be happy, because that’s just what Erikan does. And that, I hope, helps you understand why I chose Erikan for the name of my blog. This blog will be about me with stories from my real life (what else would it be but real?) that I hope will bring happiness into the life of those who read it.