The Breakdown

About twenty years ago, I was living in Austin and driving a taxi. One night, a couple of women got into my back seat, and as they were talking, one of them told a story about her father.

After college, he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. So he packed up his stuff, got in his car, and started driving around the country. He didn't have a destination. He didn't have a plan. He just wandered.

A few weeks into the trip, his car broke down in the middle of nowhere. He walked to the nearest house and knocked on the door.

The woman who answered?

He ended up marrying her.

I loved that story. There was something wonderfully romantic about the idea that this guy went looking for absolutely nothing and accidentally found the place he was supposed to be. It sat in the back of my head for years.

I've never fit particularly well into the corporate mold myself. I graduated college with a Computer Science degree and quickly decided I had less than zero interest in doing that for a living. I've worked a million different jobs and have always had a bit of that same restless, transient feeling. Wouldn't it be nice to just pack everything up and wander around for a while?

That became the starting point for "The Breakdown", a romantic comedy set in a small Texas town, something I am intimately familiar with.

It's a town full of quirky people, strange little adventures, fun nights, and a guy who is convinced that what he needs is the freedom to go anywhere he wants.

Ultimately, though, "The Breakdown" is about figuring out where you fit and realizing that freedom doesn't always mean continuing to move. Sometimes the hardest part of wandering is recognizing when you've finally found a reason to stop.