For starters, this is the very first ever, online only, 5 Minutes with Boma. Please cut out and frame this. Thank you in advance.

 Now that that disclaimer is out of the way, I wanted to dive into a little bit of a life update. I feel most people do those via Facebook, but that feels a little too out in the open, so I’m going to do mine behind a few links (You have to really dig if you want to find it 😉

I was thinking the other day about what has transpired over the last year or so, and it’s kind of been a lot. I moved from Chicago Illinois to St. Charles Missouri, and a little over half my time spent in St. Charles Missouri was unfortunately spent dealing with different ailments that I believe were tied to Long Covid, although I can’t say for certain.

These stemmed from imbalance, heart palpitations, gastrointestinal issues, post exercise malaise, basically anything under the Long Covid umbrella popped up at one point or another. (I know some people say it’s not real, it’s all in your head, etc, but it felt pretty damn real in the moments it was transpiring.)

This brings me to the overall thought behind this life update, and it’s that I wanted to thank my friends. I’m closer with some than others, I see some of them more than others, but they all have been very integral to getting me to where I am right now, which is healthy, on the cusp of entering a new job industry, and on June 1st, moving to Denver Colorado.

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The first two people I want to thank (and for what it’s worth, none of these people know they’re about to be mentioned, but I hope that I’ve thanked them once or several times already) are Kiefer Kious and Jason Karstens. Kiefer is in med school and going to be a great doctor, and Jason is a physical therapist in Arizona.

I probably bounced 10s, to 20s, to maybe even hundreds of questions off both of them throughout the ailment process and they were both incredibly gracious with their answers and time (and probably annoyed after a while with what I was asking ), but they really did help ease my mind about things and gave me strong answers at just about every turn. So to both of you, I thank you more than I probably should have to this point.

Now that I’m improving and generally healthy, I’ve started running. I’ve told myself that if I get Covid again, I don’t want to be caught flat footed, and be in as good of shape as I possibly can be. This brings me to my friend, Austin Bradford. He currently lives in Arizona as well (nice play apparently) and has given me many tips and tricks to get into running and to not make sure I overdo it, and maybe the best and most surprising advice of, running slower. It works, it really does! Just run slower! He too has probably been annoyed with all the questions I’ve bounced off of him but, much like Jason and Kiefer, incredibly grateful for his knowledge (was all state cross country in high school, I think, I’m just going with it anyway) and hope to keep picking his brain.

The next friend is Chase Alford, he lives in Chicago currently. I’m attempting to get into the project coordinator/project management world and he, also like the previous friends, (are we noticing a theme here?) has given me more good resume tips in the last 3-4 months than I even knew existed in my professional career up to this point, in spite of me bugging him constantly and asking questions on how to interview, word things, what the best certifications to get, all of that, and he too has been incredibly kind with his time.

There’s also a group chat that I’m in with Caleb Boma (my brother), Connor DiNardi, Christian Dullard, Aaron Shelton, Adam Shelton, Matt Petersen, Mason Elias, David Babb, & Jordan Kociss, and Adam Casson.

I think maybe since I interact with all of them more consistently there isn’t one big thing that sticks out that they’ve helped me with, but smaller things that add up over time. Whether it’s tips on improving your credit score, the best way to apply for jobs, good bets to make (not sure if that’s actually a thing but whatever), Connor who’s my manager currently being a great manager, telling me to buy egg whites and use the carton instead of just pouring the egg whites out of the actual eggs, there are countless little tips and tricks that I’ve picked up over the last year and longer that have really helped and have put me in a position where I’m generally enjoying life everyday and looking forward to the future.

I’ve been trying to be more cognizant of giving people “their flowers” at the moment, and not waiting to tell people when you really appreciate what they’ve done for you, so this is just that.

Everyone above (and others I didn’t mention as well), thank you, a million times over. And maybe even the larger point here is surrounding yourself with good people and good friends is one of the most important things you can do in life.

Go, Cubs.

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