"We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one."

At 28, I swam out to save a friend and found myself in a riptide. For 30 minutes, I fought the ocean with my ego. I believed mastery was about forcing my will upon the world. The ocean taught me otherwise.

This is the story of the 40 minutes that killed the boy and birthed the man. The lesson is simple: Reality does not negotiate. You either learn to yield, or you drown.