Things I Learned in Indiana

As my time in the Hoosier state begins to draw to a close, it’s time for me to look back on this last year or so and reflect on what I’ve learned. This is a ritual I often do when I move from one city to another. It’s good to reflect and figure out what, if anything, you’ve learned in a certain era of your life. If we don’t learn anything we often repeat our mistakes and God knows I sure don’t want that.

So here are a few things that come to mind when I think of

THINGS I LEARNED WHILE I WAS IN INDIANA

1. Small towns aren’t necessarily bad; I’m just not a small-town guy.

2. If you show interest in a girl and your friends warn you that she is ka-razy, they’re not just speaking figuratively. Trust me.

3. If you don’t stand up for yourself, no one will.

4. You can inherit a lot of things from your parents, both good and bad, but you can also choose what traits and/or habits you do and don’t want to carry on in your own life.

5. When you’re away from home for 15 years you don’t realize when you go back people will be 15 years older than they were when you last left. Sometimes that’s a lot, sometimes it’s not, depending on the person. Sometimes you’re impressed to see how much someone has grown, and sometimes when someone is “all grown up” it’s a little depressing if they’ve grown too much to have fun.

6. If you offer yourself to someone and they don’t take you at face value, there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s on them.

7. I would rather be hurt than hurt someone else.

8. Blood is thicker than water, but friends can sometimes be thicker than blood.

9. Gas prices are way too high.

10. If there’s a local coffee shop in your town, swing by there instead of Starbucks. For real.

11. You can find humor in anything. Anything. You really have to look for it sometimes, but it’s there.

12. If you’re good at something, find a way to do it.

13. If you’ve wronged someone, talk to them about it. Admit your shortcomings and ask for forgiveness. It’s so much better than staying up at night thinking about it.

14. If you’re going through a desert, keep walking. The oasis you finally reach will be more than worth it.

Eat Your Heart Out, John Cougar Mellencamp

I was born in a small town…

…and then I moved away and lived in a bunch of big towns and then moved back to a small town and am really getting a kick out of it. So many things I probably saw a million times but never noticed. Just a completely different outlook.

I was talking to my buddy Dan in NYC and he told me he was getting visions of Doc Hollywood in his head. It’s not that bad, but you can see it from here.

First of all, everyone waves. After spending time driving in LA traffic and walking the streets of New York I have grown accustomed to making eye contact with no one. And now all of a sudden people want me to wave at them. I don’t want to wave at them. I just want to go.

So, Indiana friends, if you see me in a car and wave at me and I don’t wave back, don’t take offense. Chances are, I didn’t even see you.

I also found out that the tousled just-got-outta bed look that was so prevalent in NY and Nashville is just that here in Indiana. It looks like you just got out of bed. And that’s not a good thing.

This morning as I walked outside to head to work with Dad he said “You look terrible!”

“I do?” I asked.

“You look like you just woke up! You didn’t shave! And why don’t you comb your hair!” (Granted, without being able to hear his inflection he probably comes off sounding like a grumpy old man and that’s totally not who he is; we Placencias are known for giving each other a hard time for anything we can think of).

We then went to have breakfast at a small local restaurant and the Police Captain (an old friend of the family) came in. Dad said, “You remember my son Ed, don’t you?”

And without pausing, the guy looked at me and said, “Sure I do. It looks like you shaved with a Hershey bar.”

And people wonder why this smalltown kid grew up and got into comedy.