Scribbling Outside the Lines in High-Def

Lost In The Algorithms-Odyssey # 59

As a kid, I was never very good at coloring within the lines. My crayons skittered across the page, wild and unruly. I wasn’t trying to make a mess; I was just seeing things differently. Art class often felt like a well-defined, sharply bordered box — that I couldn’t fit into. My drawings, filled with odd shapes and colors spilling over the edges, were proof that I was wired to think outside the box even then.

Those early days with crayons were more than just chaotic art sessions; they were my first lessons in daring to be different. It was clear from the get-go that following the usual paths wouldn’t be my style.

Sometimes, echoes of the past ripple into our present more profoundly than we ever anticipate. “George, you’re gonna go somewhere, kid,” my mentor in the Marines once told me. It was more than just a pat on the back; it was a vision I couldn’t grasp then, about a potential I couldn’t yet see within myself.

Rewind to my childhood, a first-born son thrown into the deep end of familial expectations. It was a typical narrative: follow the path, do as you’re told. Yet, even as a kid, there was this unshakable itch to explore the unexplored and do things differently. My family ran small businesses, and that’s where I first tasted the…