Mr. Markham

“It’s easy to get trapped by what people expect out of you or want you to do, even if you don’t necessarily want them yourself. Society is tough. I mean, the pressure to fit in, in high school or in college, to go into a different career path that might be more prosperous in the sense of higher learning. Of course, it’s ourselves, right. That put this [pressure] on there. It’s easy to get trapped in by what people expect out of you or want you to do, even if you don’t necessarily want them yourself. [There are] people whose opinion that I really felt like I wanted to think highly of me. Looking back now, in high school and some into college, you’re just like, those aren’t people that I necessarily value or respect as what I want [for] my life or what I want to be as a person. The people that really do matter to you don’t put those pressures on you. My wife, you know, I think that’s one of the things that would mark our relationship so well is this idea that I feel very comfortable being myself around her. And I think that’s one of the reasons we have been so successful is that we do feel safe and comfortable with one another. I’ve gotten a lot of good advice from a lot of really important people in my life, and this is actually an odd spot for it, but there’s a book called East of Eden by John Steinbeck. And it’s this really great tale of Cain and Abel retold in a modern version, so to speak. And one of the central themes of that book is the idea that it is up to you. That it’s not your circumstances. It’s not your background, that you have the decision making ability within you to have control of your life. And it’s up to you to take that ownership and responsibility and that for the life that you want, the path that you want, it’s up to you. And so your happiness, your success, whatever you want to define your purpose and meaning in life, I’ve always loved the idea that you have agency over it. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten more comfortable with my own self and what I want to do and values in that sense.”