the unfolding life of matt norman
a. april 27, 1976, 4:05 am, central standard time, in the quaint villageof creston, iowa, usa, matt norman is born.
b. age one – nearly learns how to walk.
c. age two – finally learns how to walk.
d. age five – his first memory… riding the school bus to kindergarten andgetting the letter ‘n’ in the alphabet circle.
e. age six to nine – lots of family trips, to missouri, chicago, southdakota – you name it, the norman family was there!
f. age ten – learns to ride a bicycle around the trailer court (yes, mattnorman grew up in a genuine trailer court, complete with annual tornados).
g. age eleven, twelve – the beginning a series of solo trips to arkansasand kansas city to visit grandparents, sparking an obsession for solotraveling and exploring.
h. age 13 – a broken arm leaves matt unable to participate in fall schoolsports (basketball in particular), perhaps instigating a somewhat negativeattitude towards organized team sports.
i. age 14 – maternal grandfather (a former music teacher) passes away.in a related event, matt drops his dog, henry (by accident) on its head,ending his fourteen year life span and affecting matt mentally concerningthe anxiety of guilt and condemnation.
j. age 15 – hooray for puberty! in other news, matt becomes involvedmore in musical activities, including church choir and school musicals.matt regains his interest in sports such as basketball, track, and cross-country to name a few.
k. age 16 – matt’s first car, a 1982 honda civic, after being rejuvenatedfrom inevitable junkyard material, restored, and driven for two months,crashes into the back of an uninsured ford pickup. happy sweet sixteenmatt! oh, the norman family’s first exchange student, katja herlach fromswitzerland, tickles matt to pieces through her curious ‘von trapp-like’characteristics and organic sense of style.
l. age 17 – matt’s late-blooming abilities blossom as he gets his firstserious girlfriend, a swiss exchange student (which further points matt inthe concentrated interest of foreign people, places and things, i.e. NOTfrom the united states). in the summer, matt and family (minus his oldersister, heather) take a true family vacation to switzerland to visit katjaand her family. additionally, matt ventures on a school trip to mexico.international destinations are suddenly top priority.
m. age 18 – the second exchange student of the norman family, anibalperez zarlenga from argentina, opens matt’s eyes to not only guitar butalso to (most of) the world’s hatred toward the united states concerningits pursuit of capitalism, exploitation, and the eventual bombing of thirdworld nations.
n. age 19 – college in a smaller college in northwest iowa (of allplaces) matt then shacks up for the summer with his best friend, joe, iniowa city, iowa (of all places).
o. age 20 – college, schmallege.. matt teaches himself to play theguitar for local pubs to earn extra dough for side trips, occurringroughly every other weekend.
p. age 21 – matt decides to change colleges, to one in northeast iowa(of all places), and his degree (for the fifth time) to musical therapy.he spends the summer with his good ol’ pal joe again, this time in newhampshire.
q. age 22 – matt returns to his original university to finish one of hisvarious degrees and heads to his birth town for the summer (though he’sstill not sure why he did this).
r. age 23 – after a summer of street music in boulder, colorado, withfive friends, matt heads on JourneyAmerica, an eight month internetjourney with his college friend, andrew offenburger, documenting americanculture at the turn of the 21st century. matt’s responsibility for thetrip: muse and musician.
s. age 24 – after the trip, matt heads to fremont, nebraska (of allplaces) and in addition to working as a resident hall director for a smallchurchy college there, he also begins grad school in sociology at theuniversity of nebraska at omaha (having never taken a class in sociology).
t. age 25 – matt leaves america for a while and heads to japan to teachenglish in tokyo, japan.
u. age 26 – tokyo rocks! matt travels all over japan with his guitarby his side and even finds the grave of jesus in northern honsu. is thisheaven? no, it’s just the grave of jesus.
v. age 27 – the year by which all other years (concerning travel) willbe judged… matt embarks on a backpacking frenzy through southern japan,south korea, mongolia, russia, some of eastern europe, and most of westerneurope. finally, he ends up in dublin, ireland, and lives there for a bitwhile he tries to figure his life out.
w. age 28 – after not figuring his life out, he heads back to japan toteach english again, leading him in the approximate direction of nowhere,and eventually bringing him back to the united states, more specifically,omaha, nebraska, to begin his life as a normal american.
x. age 29 – after learning from his good friend emerson what not todo while renovating houses in omaha, nebraska, matt gets a new job inmarketing and database for a small scientific manufacturing company(he was a good friend of the boss’s cousin), gets his first ‘official’apartment in the states, buys his first new car, is hit by a man talkingon a cell phone (while driving through a stop sign at the same time),purchases another car, begins graduate school (in counseling) at theuniversity of nebraska at omaha, buys a beautiful old brick house in northomaha, and finally decides to start a philanthropy-based company simplybecause he cannot for the life of him find a reason NOT to.
y. age 30 – for no real reason other than ‘ive never been there’, matttakes a trip to egypt (cairo, more specifically) to well… take photos.unfortunately, his camera charger is left in london with his lovely palruth, so matt is only able to explore with eyes rather than through alens (probably a better idea anyway). and despite the fact that mattdidn’t actually visit the pyramids at giza as nearly everyone touristwould, he at least was able to see the burial mask of tutankhamen but moreimportantly, the mummy of a man from the bible.z. age 30-35 – these years seem to lead mr. matthew back to his musicroots. from a friend’s suggestion, matt finds himself three years
straight attending and working at the rocky mountain folks festival inlyons, co. there, he begins what is most likely to be a lifelong networkof singer-songwriters friends, many of which will use matt’s home as theirstop in omaha, on the way to and from wherever they decide to go. matthelps plan and execute two consecutive earth day celebrations, furtherconnecting him with the more tree huggers than he ever imagined possible.then, a few more years working in the ICPMS field leads to a bit moredollars for travel. matt takes a few trips with his sidekick (and fellowbourbon connoisseur), joe. a few highlights from their travels include:seeking and almost finding the original ‘on the road’ manuscript in neworleans, touring many bourbon distilleries and driking the finest bourbonin the world (pappy van winkle 23) in louisville, kentucky, two distinctnear death experiences (one in the ‘meat truck’ and another from lack ofavailable breakfast) in croatia, and finally two additional near deathexperiences in guatemala (one while trying to rent a car in the first 45minutes there and another while climbing a live volcano).
so it goes…