And just like that, I'm on the road again.

I guess there comes a time in everyone's life when they have to reflect on where they are in the present and where they want to be in the future. My goal is to own my own island, and reflecting on my present situation, working at Verizon Wireless isn't going to get me there anytime soon. Constantly I am heard making this statement about life:

Whether you like it or not: you will wake up one morning, and you will be old.

When I turned the Dirty 30 last year, I was told life may appear a li'l different than just the day before in my extremely late 20s. "Doubtful," I told myself, "considering it's just 24 hours later." Well, when I did wake up on the Ides of May, 2004, something was a li'l different.

It's not that arthritis kicked in or my vision started to blur; it was more like reality kicked in that life will not wait for anyone to get their act together. Time does not discriminate. We are all brought into this world as li'l young crying babies, and if we don't straighten up and fly right, we will die as big old crying babies.

A few months after reaching my 30th year after birth, I packed up two pieces of luggage with whatever would fit in them and rolled out to The District. Leaving behind everything, saying very few goodbyes and crossing my fingers, I moved into town, with the help of my homeboy Devin Johnson and my family Jo-ann & Darryl Giles, and began the next stage in my nomadic lifestyle.

It didn't take me long to find a job, two, actually, in three months; and a place to stay a few blocks from the Capitol building; and it's been real. Let's see, my checklist includes:

•  Several of the Smithsonian Museums

•  Dream, H2O, Cada Vez, Adam's Morgan, Georgetown & U St.

•  Ben's Chili Bowl

•  The Spy Museum

•  The Holocaust Museum

•  Ellington's on 8th by Eastern Market [Shout outs to Annette and Gadril]

•  Baltimore's Inner Harbor

•  The Cherry Blossom Parade & St. Patty's Day Parade

•  A Krav Production fashion show introducing Torrie Camp

•  Devin Johnson's graduation at Howard School of Law

•  And the highlight: Attending a Redskins game thanks to Tony France

DC is definitely the place I want to call home. Some of my friends like Tangela Hall and Josephine Kerr don't particularly care for it, but I feel this city was built for someone like me. But I cannot see myself living the way I want to live right now making the kind of money I'm not making. Time magazine just ran an article about the rising cost of real estate in the United States, and DC had the highest increase in home prices. In the last five years, DC's real estate has risen over 100%. And it doesn't look like prices are falling anytime soon.

WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO?
Well, since moving here I've put a lot of focus on achieving financial freedom. Many of my closest friends have heard me pushing T. Harv Eker's book called Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. I'm learning about my money files and my financial thermostat. Money may not grow on trees, but it isn't unattainable when pursued with a vengeance.

I've spent nearly the last decade coming up with a plethora of business ideas. That's a third of my life! One flaw I've realized about my approach is everytime I step outside of my comfort zone, I would run back to what I know and pretend I made a valiant attempt. I let complacency hinder my growth and allowed the growing pains to push me into denial. But finally, the light at the end of the tunnel has lit up, and I know what I need to do to get there.

Ken Canion, my business associate, and I have been working on a project for the last six or so months, researching and developing a business concept we estimate will generate five figures a month starting as early as this fall. But one thing has been creating a drag on our progress. Living hundreds of miles away from each other, we have been relying on sheer willpower and the sacrificing of cell phone minutes to give birth to our project.

Where there is a will, though, there is a way. Growing a bit too impatient to wait, I had to make a decision as to how badly I wanted this thing to succeed and explore what my options were to achieving it efficiently and effectively. I had two options:

OPTION A Surrender almost all of my checks to survive in The District peddling wireless phones just to stay afloat, living in an empty apartment in Capitol Hill and patiently waiting for the project to reach liftoff. OPTION B Take control of my situation, dedicate more time towards the business by moving closer to Ken and for the first time, become a full time employee in my own business and ride this rollercoaster until I reach the end.

Sixty seconds a minute is sixty seconds a minute whether you're counting or not. What makes 60 seconds worth a minute is how you spend 60 seconds. I could continue to spend it waiting for destiny to figure out I deserve riches, or I can spend it taking what fate has waiting for me.

Thus, I chose option B, and after putting in my two weeks notice at Verizon Wireless, I am packing my bags for the Queen City. Awaiting me in Charlotte, North Carolina, is my future. It is there, around the corner from my homeboy Daz and cousin Shanna Wiley, where I take another step in order to fulfill my wishes. In the shadows of the Bank of America tower is the culmination of a man stepping out his comfort zone to ensure his life was not lived in vain.

I'm going to spend a week or two in Atlanta, catching up with everyone I didn't say goodbye to before I moved to DC. Before getting completely settled in Charlotte where I'll be crashing with Mike "2-3" Jackson, I'm going to spend some time in Flagstaff, Arizona, with my dad; swing through and holla at my boy CJ Cline and to New Mexico and visit my brother, Charlson and his wife Antasia; fly out to Denver to hang out with Chad and Davita McKelvey; maybe spend a minute in Raleigh visiting Archie Clark; swing through Greensboro and reminisce with Anthony Council, Afeefah McCleary and the MF of ALL MF's Brian Tomlin; visit the lovely Josephine Kerr in Fayetteville while finally going back home to visit my mom; and then get comfortable in Charlotte as I embark on the next stage in my life.

Within the next year I'll be back in DC. These past several months was just a taste test of what life will be like when I make this place my home permanently. Now that I know what's waiting for me here, I'm going to Charlotte to take care of business so when I return, I won't have to spend hours each day riding the METRO to make a few extra dollars to survive; I can relax and start shopping for my very own island.

Leaving here is bittersweet, but I know what I have to do. I guess, you can call it a little roadtrip before time catches up and evicts me from this life.

But before I go, these are my Last Farewells.