Category: Old Stuff

Links to all the old categories from GBOAT days long past

FICTION Y'ALL

The Offer

The sun was out only what seemed like seconds earlier, but as soon as Thomas stepped onto the restaurant’s patio, the day was overcast and he couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t a good sign. Before he could turn back, though, he heard his name called out from the corner of the patio and felt compelled to follow the voice he heard.

There was only one person out there with him. A person much younger than he expected, which he thought was odd because he didn’t know who he expected at all. A person he had never seen before. And although he had never seen him before, the stranger felt somewhat familiar, as if he knew Thomas well regardless of how well Thomas knew him. It was because of this feeling that Thomas decided it was worthwhile to ignore the dark skies and ignore the fact that he had no idea who the stranger was and went to have a seat across from him.

“Alright, I’ve seen the movies,” Thomas declared as he took his seat. “I know how this works. I press a button and get rich but somebody dies or something, right?” Continue reading “The Offer”

Real Talk, Storytelling

What Brothers, Both Human And Furry, Do

In March of 2011, well before Jeff Goins ever told me I was a writer and a few months before The GBOAT existed, I sat down and wrote some thoughts about the passing of a dog. I’ve thought before about sharing it before but never have gotten around to it. So here you go. Enjoy.

I come from a family of brothers. I know that’s an obvious statement, but I feel like the brotherly bond is sometimes overlooked. It is an association that is always there. All my time in Clinton, I got comments like “Oh, you’re Anthony’s brother!” or “Hey, I have your brother Nathan for a class this semester” or “Yeah, you’re Adam’s older brother, right?”. In fact, just the other night I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in a few weeks. The first thing he said was “Are you kin to the sports radio guy Anthony Craven?” Anthony can live a few hours away, but I can’t escape his power.

Because that’s what brothers do: we have a constant association with each other. A constant bond. Age, location, and even species can’t get in the way. Continue reading “What Brothers, Both Human And Furry, Do”

Real Talk, Useless Observation

The Greatest Advice Of All Time, Pt. 2

I touched on it last week, but 2008 wasn’t a great year for me. It’s really strange to realize that 2008 was five years ago. Five whole years have passed, and so much has changed since then. Five years, but it seems like just yesterday. All still so fresh in my mind.

I was a fresh faced (read: my beard wasn’t all that great) 20 year old going into his final year of college. At the start of 2008, things were going pretty well for me. I had a cool girlfriend, was looking forward to a summer internship with some local radio stations, and was a fairly popular dude on campus. A foundation had been laid for 2008 to be a great year. It was a year full of promise. Full of opportunity.

Of course, I wouldn’t be writing any of this, or probably have this blog at all, if 2008 had ended up like that. Instead, 2008 sucked. Hard. Continue reading “The Greatest Advice Of All Time, Pt. 2”

Sportz, Storytelling, Useless Observation

Coming Up Short

It still makes me physically ill to think about. Four years later, and really the moment took all of two seconds. But whenever I recall it, my stomach turns and knots up and I want to puke.

I’m of course talking about a football game. One game. One play, in fact. One second in the sixty minutes that make up a football game that four years later still hurts. Continue reading “Coming Up Short”

Real Talk, Useless Observation

The Greatest Advice Of All Time, Pt. 1

Okay, this post will be a little bit different. It’s not a story to tell or a confession to make. I don’t know what it is or why I’m writing it. Could be that I feel like it is important to know and that I could share. Or more likely, I’ve seen enough in my 25 years of life to make things seem more like a Tolstoy novel than the life of a community college employee. Either way, here goes nothing.

Somewhere circa 2008, I had a bit of a reawakening. I was scrambling around, trying to find my footing and worried that my entire future and everything I thought I knew about life had just been taken away from me. It was a time of my life that involved a lot of anger, bitterness, frustration, and more than one moment where weakness took me down to the fetal position on the ground with nobody around to pick me up.

Things kinda sucked. I guess that’s what I’m saying.

During that time, though, there were two particular phrases that I heard that hit me upside the head, along with one unique truth I learned, and those three things changed the way I look at the world. I figured since they hit me so hard back then, I should revisit them and share them with you. So here’s the first one:

Avoid Unnecessary Expectations Continue reading “The Greatest Advice Of All Time, Pt. 1”