My "Walter Mitty" Resume

In short, this isn’t a work experience resume, this is a life resume.

After watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, I connected with the idea of creating an entirely new resume that gave more insight to my life than simply where I put in most of my hours for the day. I looked around online to see if anyone else got something from this “new Walter” and it seems that California Experiment [archived] shared my thoughts.

Walter's Old Resume:
  • LIFE MAGAZINE - Negative Asset Manager, 16 years. Reference: Sean O'Connell (address upon request)
Walter's New Resume:
  • One of 3 known non-Navy SEALs to helicopter “free release” in gale-force waters (North Sea).
  • In a single day: Biked, ran, and long-boarded over 17 kilometers to Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruption.
  • Scaled highest peak of Noshaq Mountain (northwestern Afghanistan face)
  • On Icelandic fishing trawler, earned keep as boatswain (unpaid deckhand) for one day.

I’ll be adding my own experiences here as I remember old memories and make new ones.

"To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life."


  • After summiting my first 14,000 foot peak, I napped in the back of a pickup on a dusty Colorado road as I moved to the next campsite.
  • I’ve been caught in a sudden downpour and near flash flood while hiking in Utah canyons.
  • In the middle of a nonstop day exploring New York City with some of my closest friends, I took a nap on the rocks in Central Park.
  • I’ve visited the worlds most dangerous hot dog stand.
  • Through an open tent on the Yosemite Valley floor, I watched and was lulled to sleep by moonlit Winter rockslides.
  • A giant sea turtle once smacked me in the face with his fin while SCUBA Diving in Hawaii. I later ran out of air at 40 feet. Unrelated.
  • I’ve been on family trips to see ancient petroglyphs in Arizona and played soccer with local kids in the mountains of Romania. 
  • I’ve personally seen [what I consider to be] the original stealth aircraft, the Lockheed YO-3A Quiet Star, in an Edwards Air Force Base hangar. 
  • I cooked and ate a fish I caught with my bare hands in a Colorado stream.
  • I’ve gone skinny dipping with my wife from a pitch black beach in Hawaii.
  • I climbed halfway into the cockpit of one of my favorite planes, an F-8 Crusader, at an air and space museum before almost getting caught. 
  • I’ve walked 42.5 miles in 14.5 hours. 
  • The first vehicle I ever bought with my own money was a motorcycle. 
  • I searched for and found a shark tooth on the shores of a North Carolina beach.
  • I came in 2nd place in the first mountain bike race I’ve ever entered. 
  • I’ve followed bear tracks up a snowy trail on a Virginia mountain.
  • Twice I hit a steel target at 1,000 yards with a bolt action rifle.
  • I got my first tattoo while on vacation in Hawaii. Got my first speeding ticket that same night.
  • I dropped a cantaloupe out of a high rise hotel window into an alley in London. It sounded like a gunshot. 
  • I turned a 1 day visit into a 3 day, 1,100 mile road trip through California.
  • Drove 40 hours with a buddy to camp and mountain bike for 10.
  • I held newborns with AIDS in a Romanian orphanage because others were afraid of contracting the disease and didn't spend time with them.
  • I’ve nearly run over an armadillo while mountain biking in Texas.
  • Soaked my feet in an alpine lake at an altitude of 12,830’ after a week of hiking.
  • Got extremely up close and personal with Bull Sharks (and many others) during a shark feeding dive in Fiji.
  • The 888 photos I’ve shared on Google Maps have a total of 8,040,369 views.
  • Invited by Unsplash.com, I was part of a panel at the SoHo Apple Store that gave a talk on how to take better iPhone photos in front of over 70 people.


What’s on your "Walter Mitty" Resume?