 I already bought my ticket for 2017, completely sold on it this year, it wasn't even a thought. I'm going next year, it's the 10-year anniversary of 21 Studios, which is amazing that this has been going on for 10 years. One of the key books that I read that helped basically start healing my masculinity was The Rational Mail by Rolo Tamasi, which if the viewers out there have not read it, highly recommend, just go to Amazon, pick up a copy of that book. Rolo will be speaking at the 2017 event, talking about hypergamy, the ways that women try to optimize, basically optimize their existence and how men have not been aware of that and how we can be aware of that, how we can deal with that in our own lives, whether it's in casual relationships or long-term relationships, but how we can have fruitful connections with women and understanding just where they're coming from and why they do what they do and responding appropriately to it. So I'm supremely excited to hear him talk. It's going to be a five-day event, so I don't know, four days, that just means more coffee. That just means I'm going to have to drink more coffee. But I can do it. I know I can do it and pull through those five days, and I'm hoping that this event draws the biggest crowd, the most attendees, because I want to meet more guys like me who are on the journey, and I want to, obviously there's going to be more speakers five days, you've got to pack them in, so I'm excited to meet new speakers and make those connections. And it's going to be in Orlando, so it'll be sunny in July. We'll sweat a lot. It'll be humid, but that's okay. That's what men do. We sweat. Attending the under-21 convention was my first time at a 21 event. I kind of knew what to expect because I've gone to—I've been to a number of conferences like software development conferences and stuff, so I was prepared for sitting through a bunch of presentations. I'd watched a lot of the videos, so I kind of knew what the content was going to be like, but it was really the periods in between presentations that really provided tremendous value, getting to actually talk with speakers one-on-one, getting to pick their brain, talking to them about my life, talking to them about their lives, being able to solicit that kind of personal attention that you can't get through videos or through any kind of just detached presentation. That was the most important part for me. Going out in the evenings afterwards, sitting with the other attendees, just sharing stories about why are you here, what happened in your life, how did you learn about 21, the real value lied in the in-between times, getting to talk with speakers on a personal level, getting to pick their brain about my life, what's going on with me, getting their feedback on that, but also hearing about their lives. A lot of the speakers came out of difficult places where they just didn't know what masculinity was and they had to discover it for themselves, so being able to hear that was amazing. Then in the evenings, the dinners and the drinks and just the camaraderie with the other attendees, being able to hear their stories too, a lot of us have common backgrounds, have common problems, and we're here to find those kind of solutions, and understanding that you're not alone is very important. Those things, I think, left the biggest impact on me in the under-21 convention. Coming into the full event, the full 21 convention after just a few months ago, attending the under-21 convention, I was exhausted after the under-21 convention. I went home after two days, I felt my brains were leaking out, my ears, I needed days to recover, it was just that intense, so I didn't know how I was going to survive four days of the same thing, it was literally an exercise in pacing myself and trying to drink as much coffee as I could. But I knew the content was going to be amazing. Some of the same speakers, a few of the same speakers that I was looking forward to seeing in the longer event, but also a lot of speakers that I'd either never heard of or that I'd only seen videos on the 21 website. In terms of content, everything was very rich, a lot of depth to what each speaker talked about, and I feel like it was reinforcing the stuff I learned at under-21. There's only so much you can absorb in an event where you're just being barraged with information, so having that reinforcement showed me the things that I had already internalized, but showed me the things that I also now really need to work on and internalize as well. It was actually a good way to benchmark my own personal growth based on what I was actually getting from each speaker. I'd like to tell you a little bit about my life and how these events have actually impacted me and what I've gotten out of them personally. I was married for 10 years, was the nice guy. Andrew the private man, he talked about the two worst pieces of advice that a mother can give her son about the opposite sex, and that's be nice and be yourself. That was me, that was me. I was good in my career, but I had a very unhealthy life, gained a ton of weight, heavy drinker, just became miserable, and a lot of it just my own doing. I just didn't know what to do as a man. I knew I needed something. When I started following 21, fast forward here a couple of years and going to these events and they are impacting my life. They're showing me that I don't have to be ashamed of being a man, that I can wield my sexuality and be proud of my sexuality and use that because it's just a natural part of masculinity and it's a part of my core identity. I shouldn't be afraid of my strength. I shouldn't be afraid to voice my thoughts or my opinions, even if they're not popular, even if they go against the feminized version of what is expected of men in our culture. That's directly impacted me this year alone. These events have just shown me that other men are really hungry for that and really want to reclaim the things that they were either never taught or that they lost. To me this is a second chance and I'm completely floored and honored that I get to participate in something like this. One thing I've learned about men is that we exist in different contexts. The things that are around me, the experiences that I have, even down to where I live, they're just not going to be the same experiences that other men have. There's some commonalities but a lot of differences. One of the powerful things about the 21 events in general is that there's a diversity of speakers. They cover a diversity of topics and a lot of times speakers will differ on their approach to particular topics. One speaker might tell you to be a little bit more aggressive with women. Another speaker might tell you to know, be a little bit more reserved, be a little bit more relaxed. Different strategies for different contexts. Another speaker might talk about health. This is how you work your muscles. Another speaker might come along and say, well, no, not exactly. There's other ways to do this too. Two different approaches, different contexts for different men. You sit next to the guy, a fellow attendee, he's taking notes, you're taking notes, and then you talk about it afterwards and he's like, this is what impacted me. I'm like, no, this is what impacted me. Ask why? Why the difference? You get to learn his context. He gets to learn your context. You're building a world of virtual variety of contexts in your head so that if you find yourself in a different context, this is what the speaker was talking about and this is what my fellow attendee, this was his experience, now I know what to do in this context. Just having that wealth of information, people may disagree, but it's all contextual, so there's a risk. Even though there's a variety of context being represented, there's something for everyone. Everyone will get something out of each speaker, walk away with far more information than they ever thought possible.