Where This Could Go
I spent the past week away with people I care deeply about, walking more miles than I planned, laughing a lot and stepping away from the routine for a few days.
Sometimes a little distance gives you a clearer view.
Rebuild the Shield had only been live for a short time when I left. The website was finished, the first stories were published and the YouTube channel had been brought back to life. After weeks of building, editing and second-guessing almost every detail, I finally had a chance to stop and think about what comes next.
The honest answer is: I don’t completely know.
And for once, I’m okay with that.
I have ideas. Plenty of them.
This could become a place where I document the road back to Boston—or wherever that road ultimately leads. It could include running, hiking, travel, challenges, setbacks and the process of getting stronger as I approach 60.
It could become a platform that helps raise more money and awareness for Boston Children’s Hospital and other causes that matter to me.
It could lead to conversations with people who have experienced loss, faced a difficult change or found themselves starting over later in life.
It could create opportunities to work with organizations, events and people who believe in resilience, giving back and moving forward.
Maybe it becomes a community.
Maybe it becomes something that helps one person through a difficult day.
Maybe it simply becomes an honest record of this chapter of my life.
Any one of those outcomes would make it worthwhile.
What I don’t want is to force it into becoming something it isn’t. I don’t need every run, trip or moment to become content. I don’t need to pretend that I have everything figured out. And I don’t want Rebuild the Shield to become another place filled with empty motivational phrases that sound good but don’t mean much.
I want it to remain real.
That means sharing the good days and occasionally admitting when the day isn’t so good. It means celebrating progress without hiding the work behind it. It means allowing plans to change without treating every change as a failure.
Most importantly, it means remembering why I started.
The shield represents resilience, but not the kind where nothing ever hurts and nothing ever knocks you down. Real resilience is getting hit, carrying the dents and finding a reason to get back up.
That message can go in many directions.
Over the next several months, I’ll continue writing here. I’ll share more through video. I’ll document the training, the adventures, the charitable work and the simple moments that make up the space between the bigger milestones.
Some ideas will work. Others won’t. I’ll learn as I go.
For now, I don’t need to know exactly where Rebuild the Shield will end up.
I only need to keep building it honestly, one story and one step at a time.
Let’s see where this goes.
