Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Day 5- My Bucket List
2-Visit Europe
3- Have a few babies
4- Go rock-climbing, on real rocks.
5- Sit on the beach for a full day and do NOTHING.
6- Retire
7- Cook Thanksgiving dinner
8- Mail an entire year's worth of birthday cards ON TIME.
9- Give a gift for no reason
10- Publish a book
11- Sing Karaoke
12- Fly a plane
13- Finish my degree
14- Make a speech in front of a crowd
15- OWN (And by OWN, I mean pay off) a home, or maybe 2.
16- Potty train Tank.
17- Scuba dive
18- Meet Jimmy Buffet
19- Renew our vows. ( I really like weddings!)
20- Sacrifice something for someone else.
21- Host a charity event
22- Be a Grandparent
23- Absorb all the wisdom I can from my parents.
24- Teach someone something
25- Build something
26- Cliff dive
27- Sky dive
28- See Alaska
29- Participate (and finish!) a triathlon
30- Prove that I meant "til death do us part".
31- Forgive
32- Pay off my student loans.
33- Coach my own children
34- Eat at a cafe in France
35- See Niagra Falls
36- Go snowboarding
37- Catch a REALLY BIG fish
38- Win a race
39- Try anything once.
40- Open water swim.
41- Visit all 50 states
42- Keep a CONSISTENT journal
43- Be a stay-at-home Mom
44- Go on a roadtrip
45- Learn to ballroom dance
46- Swear off fast food for a year
47- Plant a vegetable garden.
48- Actually grow something.
49- Get our entire home ORGANIZED. I mean REALLY organized.
50- Refinish a piece of furniture
51- Take a completely random class.
52- Spend an entire week without technology.
53- Beat Romeo in a video game. And not just because he let me win.
54- Visit Australia
55- Ease a broken heart
56- Inspire someone
57- Visit an impoverished country. Actually help.
58- Go to Disney World. Again. And Again. And Again.
59- Run a race while pregnant.
60- Run a race as a senior citizen
61- Go hunting. Get something.
62- Own a house on the beach.
63- Win the lottery.
64- Do a pull-up.
65- Do something I thought I could not.
66- Add a lot more things to this list =)
Monday, September 13, 2010
Day 4- Forgiving YOU
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Day 3- Forgiving ME
I can honestly say- I don't think that there is some big event in my life that I feel the need to forgive myself for. Everything, in my life, has happened for a reason. That is very clear to me.
9/11/01- The perspective in retrospect
A few years ago, a group of friends and I went to tour the FDNY. We were all studying in the Fire Science program at U of New Haven. This experience was truly a brand new perspective. We met with firefighters who lost 343 brothers that day. We saw their memorials, we even saw their tears. These men were fighting their own war here on our soil.
Mural at Engine 55
Accumulation of patches at St. Patrick's Cathedral
10 Truck en route passing Ground Zero
This experience opened my eyes to the struggles that ARE STILL HAPPENING. As the war in the Middle East continues to progress (despite what the media may coerce us to all believe), the families effected here, not only on the military side, continue to face difficulties.
343 Firefighters
23 NYPD officers
37 Port Authority Officers
2359 Civilians
184 People at the Pentagon
246 Passengers on the 4 planes
More than 3000 families lost a Mom or a Dad. A brother or a sister. An Aunt or Uncle. A daughter or a son.
3000 Families.
It amazes me that the days following September 11th, 2001 were some of the most patriotic, proud, somber and humbling in our nation's history.
Where has that gone?
As this nation continues to fight for our own freedom, where has that sense of pride gone? Where have all of the flags gone? The memorials? The patriotic music?
Now it is eclipsed by anti-war sentiments. By protesters. By people BUILDING MOSQUES ON GROUND ZERO. It's been surpassed by financial deficits.
God Bless America.
God Bless all that fight for her, both here and there.
And to all others- to those who cannot find it in your FREE hearts to support your nation,
If you cannot stand BEHIND our SOLDIERS, FIREFIGHTERS, or POLICE OFFICERS, feel free to STAND IN FRONT OF THEM!
Day 2- My Fav's
Personally, I've always valued my sense of leadership. It has helped me get through really difficult obstacles and still remain true to what I believe. As my parents would attest, I've never been too keen on the idea of taking orders- thus is why Romeo is the one in the military, not me! I've always needed to find out things for myself, instead of taking someone's word for it. I've questioned a lot of ideas, which may or may not have been the appropriate thing to do, and often I've made my own discoveries. I've never wanted to live in someone's shadow, which is why I've worked so hard to be my own leader.
Physically speaking, I've got to say- my legs take the cake. I didn't get the nickname "Mega-legs" for nothing! The running helps- but I'm also genetically blessed. Thanks Mom and Dad!
I'm almost glad that post is over- I'm not very comfortable talking about myself like that. Nonetheless, it's part of the challenge, I guess.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Day 1- My Flaws
Onto the purpose- I spent a considerable amount of time thinking about this post. Being the first of the 30-Day challenge, I wanted to start off giving this all of the effort that I could.
Flaws aren't anything that anyone ever wants to openly admit or discuss. Flaws, to me, are always that area that I spend time concealing, not sharing with the world. So this has proven to be quite the challenge.
Believe it or not, through my childhood and even until now, I've never really been a very independent person. When I was younger, I was always depending on my family to entertain me. I was tagging along with my brothers, or needing to have a friend to come over and play, otherwise I was a terribly bored, and often ornery kid. This has since continued to an extent. I still am not really content being alone. I've learned to adapt a bit, in that no longer do I need a girlfriend to go to the mall with, or someone to be spending every waking moment attached to. Though, there is an EXTREME difference (unfortunately for him) when Romeo is home. He is the one person that I will (for the lack of a better word) cling to. I hate that this is how I feel when he's here, but the sheer fact that we've only once spent more than a month together, I tend to suck up all of the time I can get. I know he feels it too... He feels like I am depending on him to entertain me, though that is certainly not my intention. I really just want to be with him. I'm more than happy just being with someone. Especially after months of being alone.
My best friend, N, will tell you, that I am way too quick to pass judgement. For the longest time, I fought with her about it. I thought she was outside of her mind. It wasn't until recently that I caught myself. I saw that ugly side that I had fought off for so long. I truly believe that I do not judge maliciously, but just to establish a ground. That may not make sense, but to me, it's moreorless a protective barrier. I judge to see who I can trust to open up to. And that, in retrospect, isn't the right thing to do. Who am I to judge? There is only one being that has the power to judge, and that is certainly not me.
Finally, my most predominant flaw, and the one that is the most frustrating, is the sheer fact that I cannot, no matter how hard I try, articulate my emotions. Romeo will tell you exactly how frustrating that is to listen to. I don't know what it is, but whenever I'm feeling something, I just cannot put into verbal words what that something is. I may know that I am upset, but not be able to pinpoint what exactly is upsetting me. I may be frustrated, but your guess is as good as mine what is truly frustrating me. I've gotten better with expressing my thoughts in writing. Usually, I can come up with some sort of a cohertant thought that way. But if I try just to spout out what I feel like during a conversation- whew. Good luck following that one.
Not that by any stretch of the imagination does that cover all of my flaws, but those are the ones I've concluded lately. They're flaws that make me- and sometimes they're flaws that will break me. I'm working on them, not that I want to change who I am, but I do want to be a better person. I guess that is what the next 29-days are for!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
30-Day ME Challenge
So here it is- for the next 30-days, beginning on Friday, September 10th, and concluding on Saturday, October 9th, I'll be following the below posting schedule. I'm making a promise to myself to be completely honest. 100%. I'm making a vow to really reflect on me and my thoughts, without the fear of being judged by readers.