Josh and I have been friends for 17 years, back when YouTube and Reddit were launched, and Starbucks only had 10,000 stores (fun fact, as of January 2022, there are 34,317 Starbucks stores worldwide).
We worked at Harley-Davidson together—he still does—and shared a cubicle for four years. That means we were side-by-side for nine hours per day for 1040 days minus holidays, vacation, and sick days.
We were fast friends, and even though I may have been a little quiet at first 😊 I liked him right away. He’s intelligent, witty, goofy, confident, and ALWAYS shows up in his truth.
Throughout the past 17 years, Josh and I have witnessed tremendous growth in each other. We’ve shared A LOT of laughter, always lent an ear, and gave a shoulder to cry on, but never interfered with the other’s choices. Even when we saw a catastrophe coming—his was fast, mine was a slow burn.
The best friend in the world will celebrate the wins, pick you up off the floor, give a little nudge, and offer wise words, but will not direct the narrative—we’ve got lessons to learn in this lifetime.
Josh has found his groove in life. He’s renovating a warehouse into living/garage space in his home base, Milwaukee, WI, and spends several weeks per year in Southern California training riders on the Harley-Davidson Pan America Adventure Touring bike.
Three days of training per week leaves four days of personal time where he goes off-roading with his Jeep and camps in Death Valley. He makes the most of road trips back and forth between Wisconsin and California stopping at National Parks and fun off-the-beaten-path places like Mystic Hot Springs in Monroe, UT (two hours from where I was staying in Leeds, UT).
Which is where his girlfriend Liz and I met for the first time.
Liz also works for Harley-Davidson remotely and has recently purchased a cute little RV in southern California. She’s been living there for the past few months, spending time with Josh while he’s there for work. She’ll summer in Milwaukee and head out to Idaho and Oregon to spend time with family and friends in the fall and winter.
She’s a free spirit and a beautiful soul.
They both work hard, play hard, and respectfully give each other the space to BE and DO the things that make each happy as individuals while at the same time enjoying experiences together in union.
Two individual sovereign beings united as two lights.
Freedom and union.
It’s beautiful.
“To me, freedom is living a life without fear. It’s having the autonomy to make my own choices, unbound by expectation or obligation.” —Liz Thurman
