{"id":73,"date":"2012-09-04T20:25:10","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T20:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rustamirani.com\/?p=73"},"modified":"2012-09-04T20:25:52","modified_gmt":"2012-09-04T20:25:52","slug":"the-perfect-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rustamirani.com\/?p=73","title":{"rendered":"The “Perfect Storm”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published December 2011.<\/em><\/p>\n

What I Learned from Surviving the\u201d Perfect Storm\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

A number of years ago I took a business trip to Grand Isle, Louisiana which turned out to be more eventful then I could ever have imagined.\u00a0 Our company was performing monitoring surveys of a few of the Barrier Islands just off of the South end of Louisiana\u2019s coastline.<\/p>\n

THE TRIP<\/strong><\/p>\n

We woke up very early and met the local boat operator at Port Fourchon loaded the boat and were on our way to one of the Barrier Islands.\u00a0 The trip was about 1 hour and when we arrived, it started raining.\u00a0 From what I recall, the Barrier Island was a couple of miles wide and had a breached opening in a section for us to get into the back of the island where we were doing our monitoring.\u00a0 As we entered the back of the island, we setup our gear and met the Air Boat operator to get into some of the shallow areas.\u00a0 Towards the end of the day we started to notice the weather getting worse and the rain harder, so we decided to pack up and head back to Port Fourchon.\u00a0 As we were all packed up and getting ready to leave we noticed the wind pick up and saw <\/strong>a HUGE storm heading our way.<\/p>\n

THE PERFECT STORM<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As we headed out of the breached opening, the captain started to look concerned and slowed the boat down.\u00a0 This was only a 22\u2019 metal boat with at least 6 of us on-board.\u00a0 Not a very big boat and completely open with many of us sitting on coolers.\u00a0 The problem was that the waves just outside the opening were 6-8 feet and he didn\u2019t think we could make it out of the opening.\u00a0 We were all still in a good mood and laughing and actually joking about the waves and our adventure.\u00a0 I remember specifically cheering a few times and saying \u201cbring it on.\u201d\u00a0 As we hit the second wave on the way out,the captain turned and looked at me and said “shut up and sit down,” then he told everyone to put on our life vests.\u00a0 He next called the Port and told them to call the coastguard and let them know we were on our way back and to call for help if we were not in Port in an hour or so.<\/p>\n

We all sat down and headed out through the waves.\u00a0 The waves were so big that the captain had to basically drive parallel to the waves.\u00a0 He was a 20+ year veteran of the seas, but looked very concerned and told us to stay together if the boat flipped.\u00a0 At this time, I was planning my own survival tactics if the boat were to flip.\u00a0 We eventually made it back to the Port in one piece with all of us on board.\u00a0 I still remember that day vividly and have learned a few things from that trip and my brush with the \u201cPerfect Storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

LESSONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are a few lessons I learned from that trip that have stayed with me.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Every Day Matters<\/strong> \u2013 None of us know if we will be around tomorrow.\u00a0 Life is too short not to live every day to the fullest.\u00a0 Take time during each day to reflect and appreciate how blessed you are to be alive.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When Not to Joke<\/strong> \u2013 Sometimes we make jokes at the wrong times or in the wrong situations.\u00a0 Have you ever made a joke that hurt someone?\u00a0 I know I have, but I try to remember that Captain turning to me and telling me to zip it, obviously that was not the right time to poke fun at the situation.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Everyone has a Gift<\/strong> \u2013 I truly believe that we made it back to the Port because we had an incredible Captain.\u00a0 He was nervous but kept his composure and focused on getting us all back safely.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be afraid to follow what you enjoy doing, it might even save someone\u2019s life one day.<\/p>\n

Life is full of adventure and has its up\u2019s and down, but always remember that you never know what tomorrow will bring.\u00a0 Here is one of my favorite quotes:<\/p>\n

\u201cLive today as if it were your last, but plan on being here for tomorrow\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published December 2011. What I Learned from Surviving the\u201d Perfect Storm\u201d A number of years ago I took a business trip to Grand Isle, Louisiana which turned out to be more eventful then I could ever have imagined.\u00a0 Our company was performing monitoring surveys of a few of the Barrier Islands just off of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rustamirani.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rustamirani.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rustamirani.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rustamirani.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rustamirani.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/rustamirani.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102,"href":"https:\/\/rustamirani.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rustamirani.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rustamirani.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rustamirani.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}