Crock’s Thoughts

Sooo… if there were an Olympic event for being distracted… well, I wouldn’t just earn a medal, I’d stand on the podium, wave to the crowd, forget why I was there, and then wander off because something shiny caught my eye.

This is one of my big life challenges: focus! More accurately, my complete lack of it!

There’s a reason my bio includes that little disclaimer about being “easily distracted.” I am that dog from the movie UP. One moment I’m calm, present… and then, boom! SQUIRREL! The conversation derailed; thought abandoned; and new obsession unlocked!

Once, I took one of those official personality tests. The kind with a facilitator, a promise that by the end you’ll finally understand yourself by answering a series of weird questions. You know, questions like: 

You are given unlimited power but must wear socks with sandals forever. Do you accept?

1) Yes

2) No

3) Depends on the socks

4) Only if the socks look like a one-eyed-purple-people eater

Well, the facilitator studied my results for an uncomfortably long time. He squinted. He frowned. He flipped pages back and forth like the answers might rearrange themselves if he stared hard enough.

Finally, he looked up and said, “Ummm… I’ve… never seen this before.”

Apparently, on one hand, I tested as deeply introverted—thoughtful, reflective, wanting to analyze every angle before making a move. On the other hand, I was wildly extroverted—ready to charge forward, take action immediately, and do all the things right now.

In short: I’m like, let’s think carefully about this for three weeks… followed immediately by WHY HAVEN’T WE STARTED YET?!

He was baffled. I was not!

Because this contradiction has been my whole life. I don’t just bounce between ideas, I ricochet. At one point in my life, I was flying airplanes at 16 years old. Then somehow I pivoted into acquiring a degree in Anthropology. Because obviously, that makes total sense! 

Actually, it has more to do with my fantasy of being an archeologist in the South Pacific, flying seaplanes. Yeah, I know… I probably watched too many Indiana Jones movies.

Anyway, then after graduating college, surprise! Yeah, I was back to aviation. Along the way, I picked up approximately 47 other interests, hobbies, side quests, and “this might be my new thing” moments.

Focus? Never heard of her!

This is also why my blog is generically called crocksthoughts.blog. Not Crock’s Aviation blog. Not Crock’s Deep Thoughts Blog. Just… thoughts. Plural. Vague. Non-committal. Because the moment I lock myself into one topic, my brain goes, “Cool. But what if we did literally anything else?”

Same story with my photo blog: everythingtellsastory.blog. You’d think that would help me narrow it down, but nope. Turns out everything is a dangerously broad category when you’re easily distracted. One day it’s landscapes. Next day it’s airplanes. Then old buildings. Then a random rusted bolt that looks philosophical for reasons I cannot explain.

But here’s the thing… I’ve made peace with it.

Yes, my attention span is like a browser with 38 tabs open, 12 of them frozen, and music playing from somewhere. Yes, I struggle to stay on one path long enough to put up a sign. But I’ve also realized this bouncing, zig-zagging, squirrel-chasing brain is where curiosity lives. It’s where stories come from. It’s where creativity sneaks in while I’m distracted by something else entirely.

So, if you ever find me mid-thought, mid-project, mid-sentence… just know I haven’t lost interest.

I’ve just seen a squirrel!