and police.” When his schedule
allowed, he interviewed children
for Make-a-Wish, and sometimes
even to help grant those wishes.
Some of it was a lot of fun,
but a lot of Ryan’s work was dif-
ficult. “I do have relatively thick
skin, but a lot of the children that
I got close to ended up passing
away. And that was really hard.
My wife said, ‘It’s going to be hard
to keep doing this.’” Experiencing
death and illness in this way was
new for Ryan. “Most kids have
their whole life in front of them
and...it’s no fault of their own.
It’s total random chance. It
could have been me, you
know. It’s just hard.
“It does cause you
to ask, ‘Well, if there
is a God, why would he
take this sweet kid?’
And none of us know the
answer, obviously.
“I think in these chari-
ties, when you are facing
death, it causes you to do a lot of
spiritual thinking. Even for kids.
I mean, our son asks us about
heaven all the time and I think
it’s because of his experience
here at St. James’. But it made
me appreciate life even more
and recognize how grateful I
am.” It made Ryan want to spend
even more time with his family
when he could.
“It also helped me prepare
for when my neighbor died two
years ago at 88. She was one of
the most special people in my
life, and her death had far and
away the biggest impact on me.
She was a huge influence in my
life. She was Irish Catholic and
very involved in the church. It
was difficult for me, but some-
how I felt massively better be-
cause she was a woman of God
and she knew that one day she
was going to go and she was at
peace with where she was going.
And that has helped me. I have
become, since these experienc-
es with volunteering, much more
spiritual and at peace with the
idea that if I’m living a good qual-
ity existence here on earth, there
will be a good quality existence
for me in the next life, whatever
that may be.
“I always knew that this [full-
time volunteering] is what I want-
ed to do. I was just wrong about
how long I would do it. After two
years I was very emotionally and
spiritually fulfilled but intellectu-
ally bored. It wasn’t challenging
my brain, it wasn’t using spread-
sheets, I wasn’t doing analysis. I
sat down with Ryan Fleenor and
said, ‘Well, I'm doing a lot of good
things in the world. And I would
think that maybe God would
want me to keep doing that. But
also, I'm intellectually bored and
I would love to put my analytical
skill set to work in sports.’ And he
said, ‘You know, that's also giving
the world a gift. You should pur-
sue a balance.’
“It was the two best years
of my life, at the time. Now life
is even better. I have kids and
I have a cool job, but spiritually
and emotionally it was a phe-
nomenal time.”
These days, Ryan seeks
healthy balance. “Two things
drive happiness in life: meaning-
ful relationships and meaning-
ful work. Meaningful work
doesn’t have to mean
doing something non-
profit or philanthropic.
Because I’m not in an
office 100 hours a week
like I used to be, I’m still
able to volunteer. I can
also be with my kids more
than I would be. So I think I
have found spiritual meaning.
“I guess the biggest lesson
for me is...Life is short. Spend
as much time as humanly pos-
sible with friends and family. It's
way more valuable than extra
income. Give as much as you
humanly can in terms of dollars
and time to people who are less
fortunate, because a lot of times
they are less fortunate due to
random chance and to no fault of
their own. Use money to give you
the freedom to have more valu-
able experiences with your family
as opposed to having more stuff,
I guess. I don't want to sound
preachy. But that's what the re-
search says.” And so, it seems,
does Ryan’s own experience.
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