38 Years.

38 years ago today in the city of Manchester, England a little boy took his first breath, and promptly screamed! He was the second by in his little but growing family and would end up being the second oldest of 5 children. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Saudi Arabia. Yes I did say Saudi Arabia. He spent the first two years of his life there playing amongst the sand dunes and various friends. It was here where his allergy to Penicillin was discovered after he became very sick, according to his parents. After two years of playing in the desert, his family moved back to England for a short stay before heading to Canada. His family settled in a little town called Calgary, yes it was little at the time. Shortly after arriving in Calgary, the little family grew a little bigger with the addition of the first girl in the family, aside from the mother. Anyways, back to the little boy.
When the little boy was young, he played with little cars, like most little boys his age, but the little boy was a little different. He seemed to be fascinated with the automobile. And not just the little toy ones either. He was eager to learn as much as possible about them. He would subscribe to Road & track in his early youth and soon be able to tell anyone around him who would listen what year, make, and model the car approaching them was. This seemed to drive his parents crazy as he would sometimes yell it out while we were all in the car. During his later teens his interest seemed to change a bit as most young boys’ minds do, to girls. This didn’t mean that he stopped learning about cars at all, he just supplemented that interest with a new one. At one point he was seriously looking at a career in Automotive design. That was his goal, until he found out what it would take and how much it would cost. There was no way he cold afford to go to school for design. He was bummed. He then thought that the next best thing to designing cars would be selling them and running his own dealership. The cost for schooling wasn’t nearly as much as design and he could stay in Canada to do it. He researched the school, got information packages for it, and worked to save up the money to go. However, the job he was doing to save for school presented another option. He could have a good career fixing cars. He would be around them all day long, learning a how they worked, how the complex systems worked together, etc. He abandoned his dealership ambitions and set out to be an Automotive Technician. Five years later he was a Certified Automotive technician with an Inter-Provincial Red Seal. He was in heaven. Then the monotonous daily grind started to fade his enthusiasm for the trade. Then he made one of the biggest decisions in his life. He would open his own repair shop. During his career, he also got married and started a family of his own. He had just moved into a new house in a nice area of Calgary and things were looking good! He opened the shop 3 weeks after 9/11 happened and the economy tanked. Not the best timing in the world, as two years later it closed down. Also in that time his marriage fell apart and he had to go into bankruptcy. This wasn’t the worst part. That was that his parents and his older brother also had to go into bankruptcy as they were all partners in his shop. His life was at an all time low. That’s when an epiphany happened. He realized that cars could be a hobby for him and he could pursue a real career with real pay and opportunity. He went back to school and started a new career at the age of 33. Since then he has been in his new career for 5 years. He got remarried 3 years ago this July, and is expecting a child this Christmas season. He is still very passionate about cars and all thing automotive, but now it is not the be all, end all.

How do I know so much about this person? Because this person is me. Today I turn 38 years old. As you can tell from everything above, it has been an eventful 38 years. And what have I learned? I’ve learned that there are more important things in life than 4000 pound hunks of metal and plastic that look good. Family is the most important thing in life, and I have been blessed to be a part of one of the best. Even though we are very sarcastic and joke around with each other, we all know that we love each and every member of the family.

So here it is, another Sunday night. It's been a while since I wrote anything on here, mainly because I'm not sure what to write. So I'll wing it and see what spews from these fingers.

My wife asked me tonight why I liked it here in Airdrie. She finds it very lonely and feels shut out of our ward (she's most likely going to kill me for saying that, but oh well). I have had an easier adjustment to living out here. I don't mind the commute, it's very peaceful and serene most nights, and the Walmart isn't busy most of the time. Anyway, back to the question. Why do I like it out here? I thought about it and came to the conclusion that out here, I can be my own man. You see, in the church in Calgary, me and my siblings were always referred to as Derek Coulthard's son/daughter. Out here, yes people knew him, but I could also be Gavin Coulthard. Out here I have forged my own path and been able to shed the expectations of being Derek Coulthard's son. My other siblings will know what I am talking about. This revelation has been a long time in coming. My brother, who served a mission, was able to find out what kind of person he was while on his mission also away from being known as....well you get the idea. This has come to me at a much later time in my life. With this new revelation in my life, I can move forward and stop trying to compare myself to him. You see, my dad is a great man. He has overcome much in his life, had many callings within the church and is also very outgoing. For those of you who know me personally, you know that I am the complete opposite. I am very, very shy. I take a long time to start to let my true self be shown in public. In fact, my family would most likely be very shocked if they knew what I was truly like at home. With moving out here to Airdrie, I have been able to chart my own path and become a more complete and rounded husband and father. This is why I am not opposed to moving back to Calgary, and possibly even my parents ward. When we do move back, I will no longer be "Derek Coulthard's son Gavin", I will be "Gavin Coulthard and yes I am his son".

That being said, I do truly love my father for everything that he has done for me and each of my siblings. We might not always have seen eye to eye(in fact we fought for most of my teens), but as I got older I realised that my father does know some things better than I do. He was the one who put me on my career path, and was able to help me out when I needed it the most. He has been there for the important days in my life, even when he didn't agree with the choices that I was making. I also joke with him that I am cursed to be very much like him in a lot of ways, but he knows that I wouldn't have it any other way.