We live in the Hudson Valley of New York. Across the river from West Point. When we moved here it seemed like the area was going to be great for not only my son, who was entering first-grade, but for our whole family, as well. We have mountains, two state parks (Hudson Highlands and Fahnestock) with TONS of trails for hiking and it is a quick trip by train to New York City. This place was young, vibrant, and full of life. There were numerous different places to eat and shop and life looked and felt good.

Fast-forward to 2026 and things have definitely changed. Most of the places to eat out at are gone, you rarely see anyone outside, and the youth and vibrancy has disappeared. It wasn’t a fast change, but a gradual one. Over time my son’s friends would move away, and then one by one, my friends started to move away. Because it was so gradual, I never really noticed this change until I started doing the business plan for Sea & Land Fitness. What is interesting though is that I was always amazed when I noticed how young everyone was when we went on vacation or to visit family in comparison to where we lived.

This steady decline in population has made it a non-starter for expanding the business up here. Most of the residents are seniors and are not at all interested in general fitness, let alone tactical fitness and the overall vibe of the place can be pretty miserable. This attitude shows itself in trips to the grocery stores in the area. No one says “hi” or even “excuse me”. To be honest, you usually wind up getting looked at like you’re from Mars if you try to casually start up a conversation. But, if you DO happen to wind up getting into a conversation with someone, it usually nosedives into a litany of complaints by that person about the economy, politics, their neighbors, or their lives. Not fun. Realistically, kind of a downer.

Then, we went on vacation to Jacksonville! We got off of the plane and people said “hi” TO me! I didn’t have to say it first! We drove to the beach and stopped at the Wawa outside of the airport and I wound up actually having an un-instigated PLEASANT conversation with the woman who sold me my sandwich! What is going on with this place !?! Don’t these people know that the average person where I’m from demands that they be miserable? Didn’t they get the memo? Thankfully, apparently, they did not.

This pleasantness continued for the ENTIRE trip. People just being nice. People being friendly. People being courteous and helpful. People NOT complaining. I had found Heaven. So, what do you do when you find Heaven? You rent an apartment there. You get a truck and move there, which is what we are right now in the process of doing.

While on the trip I wound up handing out all of my business cards. After that, can you guess what happened? I saw an actual increase in traffic to my website. This had never happened before. People were actually interested in what I could do for them. People were showing a real interest in helping to bring what I do to Jacksonville. I am ecstatic. I am motivated. I can’t wait to get there.

The moral of the story is this; if you don’t like what you’ve got change it. Go or do something better. That’s what I’m doing. I’m changing the story. My story. I’m finding my happiness. I’m going to find my freedom.