Flying Economy Plus on Etihad Airways was a small but welcome upgrade. The extra legroom made a difference on the 13-hour flight from Chicago to Abu Dhabi—just enough space to stretch and not feel like a sardine. The service was smooth, and overall it felt like a step up without breaking into full luxury. Although even their basic plates would put any U.S. airline food to shame. And I won’t lie, I saw one of the shrimp plates that business class was able to order… I was pretty jealous in that moment. But the adventure started after we landed. Abu Dhabi’s new Terminal A isn’t just a stopover—it’s an experience. The place is massive, sleek, and immaculately designed, with an almost surreal sense of order and calm. I found out they actually filmed a Mission: Impossible scene here (Dead Reckoning Pt. 1), and it made total sense. The place feels like it was built with both elegance and spectacle in mind. After a bit of wandering, I found a shower—nothing extravagant, but clean, functional, and exactly what I needed. It’s wild how something that simple can completely reset your body and brain after a long-haul flight. Then came the Pearl Lounge. I spent a couple hours there sipping strong Arabic coffee from tiny cups that made me think I could keep drinking them forever. Spoiler alert: I drank way too many. I needed to get my moneys worth! The food was an interesting mix—some I recognized, some I didn’t—but it was interesting and comforting in that international lounge kind of way. Wandering back into the main atrium of the terminal felt surreal. Giant LED displays, travelers from every direction, and a quiet sense of movement everywhere. It felt less like an airport and more like a global meeting point in some alternate timeline. One thing that stood out were the prayer rooms—tucked into corners, quiet, and filled with people finding peace amid the buzz. That hit me. You don’t see anything remotely like that in U.S. airports. It’s only about the bottom-line and bare-minimum, So it was humbling to watch people pause for something spiritual while everything else kept moving. It wasn’t showy or loud—just a normal part of life for the people around me. Moments like that remind you how easy it is, especially as an American, to think your way of living is the default. Traveling strips that away. You see how much depth there is in other cultures, how much you’ve never really considered. It’s not about fully understanding everything—it’s about being open to it, and realizing the world’s a lot bigger than the bubble you came from. I would say a vast majority of Americans struggle to notice details like that. Later, I grabbed a McArabia from McDonald’s— Yes, it’s a thing. Grilled chicken on flatbread with a spicy garlic/tomato sauce. It’s quite good. Something about trying familiar brands in unfamiliar formats always draws me in. I know McDonald’s doesn’t scream culture or a place you seek out on the other side of the world. But the unique menu items are fast and fun. As I sat there eating, I realized I might have been one of the only non-Muslim travelers around. It’s a strange feeling—to be clearly in the minority, as an American. Especially in a time when the U.S. isn’t exactly the world’s favorite country, it made me pause. But no one treated me differently. If anything, I felt quietly observed. Curious glances, nothing more. That’s the thing I love most about travel—the world doesn’t revolve around you. Sometimes you’re just a small piece passing through someone else’s normal. And that’s beautiful. It’s gets boring being surrounded by one-track minds. So yeah—Etihad Economy Plus was great. But what I’ll really remember is standing in the middle of a futuristic terminal in Abu Dhabi, wired on coffee, eating a McArabia, and feeling completely, wonderfully out of place.

This is me Hey there. I’m Riley—if you’ve made it here, you probably already figured that out. I’m 36 years old (37 is coming fast), and I’m here because I’ve decided to start over. Completely. You could call it a rebirth, a reinvention, or maybe just a long-overdue escape. Either way, this is my new beginning. I’ve spent most of my life in a tiny town in Wisconsin—so small, I jokingly call it the Bermuda Triangle of the Midwest. To many, it’s a beautiful place to live. And I get it. There are people who are genuinely happy there, and I respect that. But I’ve always wanted something more. Something bigger. Something that place could never give me. Door County, Wisconsin, where I grew up, is steeped in history, tradition, and deep-rooted families who love keeping things just the way they’ve always been. Ephraim, one of the towns there, was known for being the last “dry town” in the United States. You couldn’t even get a beer there until recently. People celebrated that fact—still do, actually. It’s the kind of place that got the iPhone ten years late and didn’t get fast, reliable internet until Starlink came around and embarrassed the local providers into modernizing. That’s the pace of change in Door County—glacial, and often met with resistance. The mindset there? Outdated. Comfortably stuck in the past. Businesses running on point-of-sale systems from the early 2000s, refusing to upgrade because it would mean spending time and energy—something they had plenty of in the off-season, but couldn’t be bothered to use. It was a strange, backwards place to work and live in. And the people? Predictable. Uninspired. I could probably tell you where almost anyone in town is sitting at this exact moment, what beer they’re drinking, and what they’re complaining about. Spoiler: it’s probably tourists. You know, the very people who make it possible for them to live there in the first place. But that irony seems lost on most of them. I was already creating art at my job, but not the kind I was interested in. I needed more. More color, more energy, more life. Door County is grey and brown for 75% of the year. Some folks are okay with that. I’m not. I need fire, not ash. So in 2024, as the world started to move past COVID but still reeled from burnout, I reached my breaking point. I had a well-paying job—part owner of a retail business with five storefronts and a sixth framing shop off the beaten path (which, surprise, was the only one I enjoyed). But the toxic environment, the outdated practices, the coworkers stuck in cycles of negativity and mediocrity—it all just… broke me. My body started rejecting it. I was exhausted, mentally and physically, and not from working hard—just from existing in that space. Eventually, someone said, “Just leave. You’re a dread to be around.” That was my cue. No argument. No dramatic exit. I just walked away. And I’ve never looked back. So, what now? What does a 36-year-old, jobless ex-retail guy do? He creates. I want to tell stories. I want to travel, feel alive, chase beauty, and experience culture. I want to meet people who inspire me, eat food that surprises me, and capture moments that remind me what it’s like to be here, now, and awake. And I want to share that with you. “This Life of Riley” is about that leap. It’s about starting over in the middle of your life—not because you failed, but because you refused to settle. But the name isn’t just about me. The real emphasis is on This Life. Because we each get one. And whether you’re 36 or 66, stuck or just starting to feel the itch—there’s still time to make it something beautiful. So, here we go. Let’s see what happens when you stop waiting for the “right time” and finally choose to live this life.