I’ve spent all day cleaning up my house: living room, kitchen, dining room, den, my room, and the office/studio. The office is always a disaster, because that’s where Matt Maher records most of his music. I guess music studios are just like that.

I threw away three bags of trash, two of recycled stuff, and three more of stuff to give away. That’s eight bags of stuff leaving my house. Honestly, there’s not much left, just furniture and clothes.

At the bottom of my office drawer I found a binder of business cards from the year 2000 and 2001. These were all the people I met after the Real World through all my trips to Los Angeles and New York.

On each business card, I scribbled notes about the person I had met.

“MTV Video Music Awards, looked like Mafia”
“Shared hotel floor in Vegas. Large black man.”
“Supermodel?”
“Call for free shoes.”

Each card was entered in the binder as I met each person, so each card represented a day in the wild adventure after the Real World. There seemed endless opportunity with every phone number that I got. It was cool for a boy from a small town in Georgia.

My life is still packed with adventure in opportunity, but not like I expected a four years ago after the show. I don’t know, I guess cleaning your house is such an ordinary thing, and I felt unsatisfied after I came across that book of dreams.