I went back to look at photos from June 2019. I was 45. My son was heading into high school. We had just spent 10 days in Alaska, helicopters over glaciers, sled dogs, ice calving off tidewater walls, and a bear-watching tour that produced zero bears and a family pun tradition that still runs. My wife and I stayed up past midnight somewhere in the Inside Passage, the sun refusing to set, talking about the life we were building.

I had a job I loved. A great team. I was present for the moments that mattered.

And still, looking back from 52, there are six things I wish I had known, not because I was failing, but because knowing them would have made a good season even better.