Like the late-stage of a SpaceX booster rocket, I burned out.

But this happens often among America’s college students: all-nighters to finish a lab report; conversations about GPAs; frenzy of graduate school applications; interviews for internships that don’t even begin for another two summers; worry about the post-college future.

So, I stepped off that treadmill. I saved as much money as I could, and then I took the summer off from work — work as typically conceived. I packed my bags; I stepped away from the “office” and stepped more deeply into our world. Because, after all, the only way to predict your future is to create it. And part of creating a future is learning about and empathizing with what’s around us.

It has been a while since I’ve been able to think as creatively as I have been for the past three months, and I’m eager to share my story with you — hoping that, perhaps, you’ll push it along to someone else who might benefit from a re-charge to their creative “rocket.”

This is my summer story:

Work less; live more from Henry Belcaster on Vimeo.