Changing the past.
A story about the worst day of my life.
Almost 20 years ago now, I was an incoming freshman at the University of Florida.
Greek life was a big thing at UF, and I had been courted all summer by undoubtedly the best fraternity on campus.
All summer, I eagerly anticipated rush week and my imminent future with them.
As Monday and Tuesday of rush week passed without a bid [offer to join] being extended my way, I realized what was going on—Wednesday was my 18th birthday, and they were waiting for that momentous occasion to extend the bid.
My anticipation grew stronger, building up this epic day in my mind.
When Wednesday rolled around, I got a call.
“You’ve been balled [rejected].”
I knew it had to be a joke. They wouldn’t do this on my 18th birthday.
But it wasn’t.
I was devastated.
What I had built up in my mind to be the best day of my life instantly became the worst. My 18-year-old mind couldn’t possibly conceive of anything worse.
EDITOR’S NOTE: What a privilege to have been able to consider this the worst day of my life at that time.
I wanted to hide, wanted to drop out of school, wanted to give up. It felt like life was over.
I realize now how ridiculous this sounds, to be dramatizing a fraternity bid into a life-or-death situation. But it was everything to me at the time.
The next day, my friends talked me into checking out another fraternity. It was inarguably second-best, but maybe with my friends, it would be okay.
We walked in Thursday night, all got invited to join within 5 minutes, and all accepted.
Two years later, an older member of my fraternity was seeking interns for a new streaming service called Grooveshark. It was Spotify before Spotify was a thing, and it became my first job in the music industry at 20 years old.
Within three more years, that job led to a new job with Skrillex, one of the most in-demand artists in the world.
Within one more year, I found myself on stage at the Grammys while he accepted three awards, making six total [and nine today].
I was incredibly fortunate to be able to work so closely with one of the most gifted creative minds of our generation for six years; some of the most formative years of my life and career. This experience taught me an immeasurable amount about music, life, art, relationships, and more, and also opened countless doors for me on my path ahead, both professionally and personally.
In 2014, our publicist Kathryn Frazier told me about automatic self-transcendent meditation.
In 2017, I traveled to India to deepen my understanding of Vedic knowledge and ultimately left the label on a spiritual quest later that year.
Over the next five years, I was able to support myself financially as a music industry consultant, thanks to the knowledge and experience I had gleaned from that key role and save up enough money to train as a teacher of Vedic Meditation when I met my guru a few years later.
Teaching Vedic Meditation is now the bedrock of my life, and Vedic knowledge has illuminated for me all of the answers to life’s questions and then some.
And none of it would have happened if I had gotten what I thought I wanted—acceptance at that first fraternity in 2006.
Through this subtle shift in perspective, made possible over time, I’ve been able to re-contextualize the past.
What seemed like the worst day in my life back then seems like the best day now.
There’s a whole Vedic science around this covered in much more detail on the Exploring The Veda advanced knowledge course series.
Can you think back to any similar situations in your own life which may have new meaning now?
Let’s discuss these and other ideas during Collective Effervescence, our online group meditation series, this Sunday March 17 at 9AM PT / 12PM ET / 5PM CET (note that it’s currently Daylight Savings Time in the US). Drop in for meditation only (first 30 min) or stay for discussion + Q&A on this and other life topics from the Vedic perspective. Join the WhatsApp group to receive reminders 24 hours before each session, or use the below links to have all upcoming dates automatically sync to your calendar.
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Today’s record is Best Day Ever brought to you by the late and great Mac Miller, who my aforementioned friends and I saw for $0 at a tiny college bar in Orlando that wasn’t even sold out in 2011 before he became one of the most influential rap artists of our generation and unfortunately joined the 27 club in 2018—the same year I started my Art of Areté program at IMS Ibiza created to support the mental health of artists and industry.
Fantastic post! I had to miss your group today, but I love hearing about your experiences. Mb you should write a book ..a la Light Watkins 🙌