I initially launched into the Year Of The Opposite to shake up my routine and combat lingering depression from grief. While I expected the new challenges to serve as a mental and physical reboot, I didn't anticipate the full range of benefits. Sure, learning new skills was a given, but what caught me off guard was how these fresh experiences connected me with diverse groups of people I'd never interacted with before. Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. For instance, I’d have to learn about the mechanics of the gun to get my concealed carry permit or I’d have to learn how to hold my golf club in order to strike a golf ball correctly for the first time. This was the obvious part. But what I now realize is that there may have been an even bigger benefit: exposing me to new people & ideas. By adopting new hobbies, work outs, religious groups, teachers, sports, and diets, I am getting introduced to tribes of people that are different from the tribes I historically surrounded myself with. These new tribes have their own languages, rituals, traditions, art, priests, and holy days. Golf has its own language. So does pickleball, antiquing, running, and so on. It’s hard for someone to know what a Slice really feels like if they have never swung a club or to know what a runners-high is without running. Because of my Year Of The Opposite, I was now a part of countless new communities of people that I had rarely interacted with in the past. Take this for example, most of my life I had never desired to own a gun, but as a part of my year of the opposite challenge I got my concealed carry pistol permit. As you can imagine, this introduced me to a lot of people that had different views than I did on a lot of topics. Similarly, my ride along with Lansing police department gave me a first hand opportunity to see a tiny glimpse into policing and public safety. Or my experience going to church and donating to charities illuminated a world of people providing good deeds in the community that was invisible to me before. Through my initiative, Year Of The Opposite, I've encountered an unprecedented number of new connections, experiences, and perspectives. Whether it's my involvement with the Rotary Club, participation in local boards, engagement in CEO roundtables, or attendance at a record number of tradeshows and professional development events, the journey has been incredibly enriching. Yet, the privilege of immersing myself in diverse communities, exploring novel hobbies, and collaborating with new mentors and peers has compelled me to reevaluate many of my pre-existing beliefs. I came to realize that some of my convictions, though passionately held, lacked a robust foundation and were often not informed by firsthand experience. Upon closer examination, it became evident that many of my viewpoints weren't genuinely my own. Rather, they were borrowed from others or were the result of impulsive judgments I had made at some point. From then on, I felt an inexplicable obligation to maintain and defend these stances. Now, these very "opinions" are being rigorously tested by individuals with firsthand experiences that differ significantly from my own, forcing me to reconsider and refine my understanding of various topics. For instance, before I owned a gun and I didn’t know much about the concealed carry permitting process. I used to think that concealed carry classes were for people that “just loved their guns too much.” But when I talked to Michelle Rogers and learned that she felt her concealed carry license was the only protection she had against the person who had stabbed her 7 times and left her for dead, it changed my view. I now realized that some people had a very real threat that they needed to be able to defend themselves against. I gained a new appreciation for a perspective that I