Who Says You Can't Go Home?

monday security memo Oct 27, 2026

Monday Security Memo

Intellectual Firepower for Professionals

Who Says You Can't Go Home?

“I've lived a million miles of memories on that road... you take the home from the boy, but not the boy from his home."

- Bon Jovi

There is an old saying that you can never go home again.

For much of my adult life, I believed that.

I've been incredibly fortunate to live a life filled with adventure. Over the past three decades, I've traveled to more than 130 countries, first through my work with the CIA and later through my international security consulting business.

I've literally spent years of my life in hotel rooms and flown millions of miles on airplanes. I lived in the Washington, D.C., area for more than 20 years, spent a season living in Sweden, and was hunkered down for a year in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Along the way, I've met presidents, kings, celebrities, warlords, and dictators. I've worked in global hot spots, visited some of the most beautiful places on Earth, and found myself in situations that most people only see in movies.

And I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything.

But something funny happened along the way.

After spending much of my adult life trying to see the world, I eventually realized that the place I really wanted to be was the place where my journey began.

Home.

A few years ago, my wife Sarah and I (along with our Border Collie, Bandit) decided to settle down on Siesta Key, Florida, about a mile from the house where I grew up during my high school years.

Of all the places in the world I could have chosen to live, I ended up right back where I started.

And I couldn't be happier.

These days, instead of racing through airports or navigating foreign capitals, I find myself doing something far more rewarding.

I'm watching our young son grow up.

He's attending the same schools I attended. We're driving down the same roads, visiting the same beaches, and doing many of the same things my father did with me 40 years ago.

Sometimes I'll be driving through Sarasota with my son and suddenly remember being in that exact same spot with my own dad.

It's an extraordinary feeling.

Jon Bon Jovi had a hit song called Who Says You Can't Go Home.

I've always loved that title, but these days it means something entirely different to me.

There's a difference between seeing the world and finding your place in it.

Sometimes the greatest journey of your life is the one that brings you back to where you started.

When we're young, we often measure success by how far we go, how much we accomplish, or how many stamps we collect in our passports.

And we should go out and experience the world. Take risks. Chase dreams. Have adventures.

But somewhere along the journey, our definition of success begins to change.

The things that once seemed so important become a little less important. And the simple things we once took for granted suddenly become priceless.

A walk on the beach. Dinner with family. Watching your child discover something new. Driving past your old high school and remembering who you were before life became so complicated.

Don't misunderstand me. I still love adventure, and I suspect that part of me will never change.

But I've discovered that some of my greatest adventures these days happen within a few miles of my own front door.

And most of them involve a little boy who calls me Daddy.

We spend so much of our lives chasing the next opportunity, the next promotion, or the next destination that we sometimes overlook the extraordinary things already in front of us.

By all means, go out and conquer the world. Fill your passport. Build a life full of stories worth telling.

But don't become so consumed with the journey that you forget what makes a place worth calling home.

Sometimes life has a funny way of bringing us full circle.

And sometimes, after traveling halfway around the world, you discover that the greatest destination of all was waiting right where you started.