PAVEing a Blog

I like the fact that 2016 is – even more so than ever – a result of the year before and honestly, all the years before that.  As the very first post of 2016 – and many say, you will in the New Year what  you are doing as the new year comes in – it is appropriate that reflecting on the impact based on so may people over the years is ushering in the new year for 2016! 

New Year’s all over the world is kind of an amazing concept – using social media to tell how others and remind others, how much they have had an ipact on your life – and totally true in my own life – and I am enternally grateful for it.

Whether I am in Mexico, PA, D.C., Delaware, or a host of other places, I have always been lucky enough to carry around with me the individuals from my family, my students, my now grown up and emerging leaders formerly known as students (breath!) – and new friends from around the world, the traits that constantly let me reflect and grow into the person I still want to be.  They stand by me on the grumpy days, the awaking in the morning days, the reflection days of the past, and looking to the future.

I continue to realize how much tolerance I have when it comes to using the past to get ahead with my future.  Also, in looking back on some events of 2015 – I realize:

The issue of “Affluenza” is what you make of it, not just what and how you have been dealt with issues in life, but how YOU determine to control them controls ultimately, your place in the future.

I appreciate the presence of someone to make a change, and respect so may people for just making the effort, opposed to those who just idly sit by.  Whether I agree with them or not, the initiative to make a change and divert from the mainstream – that is usually more of a noticeable opportunity to try and make oneself more than they are currently.  I see this every day, be it in President Obama, to students around me, to students that were my students and are now making differences in their community, to colleagues, to of course family who have always encouraged that trait!

For the future – I honestly see this – the chance to be in touch more with family and friends, the chance to continue on a rapid pace to devour amazing sources of reading, using social media to spread promises of change and hope and positivity, and using the very influences in my life to respond to negativity and make it positive – each one if us are truly capable of that every day, though if it were easy we would learn so little -(difficult to remember that at the time!)

I am grateful for also being able to look back

2015 Retrospective Inspection

at all the places I have visited, be it restaurants, great local stores, and museums, which all help continue to make me reflect in so many different ways on what I see in the future – I noticed this as I went through the Smithsonian History Museum the other day and how different I look at things since the last few years – and glad I have my eyes even more wide open – without glasses even!

I wish sometimes I would have travelled and worked in another country so much earlier and then realized, the perfect it did occur was PERFECT for this reason – enabling myself to be entrenched in so many great and creative personalities and friendships and then adding to what I THOUGHT I knew about issues such as international views from outside of the U.S. (which covers everything from immigration, to opportunities we have as citizens of the U.S., to responsibilities we have as citizens looking back, to just looking from within and working with the many many changes I still need to make in myself).

One of the things I found myself so passionate about was this – going into an international experience in 2011 did not seal the deal forever for me to remain international all my life physically necessarily, but taking the IDEAL of being international and applying that to improve my own country – that is key and keeping international in your heart is what can make the difference for all those around us – and can change the future of our planet.  The following look at 2015 is truly just a snapshot of these links:

Scandals

A year in Review

The ORIGINAL DID YOU KNOW – SHIFT HAPPENS (2008)

DID you know 2015

Did you know 2014

Did you know 2013

Did you know 2012

Did you know 2011

Did you Know 2010

Did you know 2009

So much has chnaged in so short a time, but each of us can be sure one thing won’t – the chance to change everything for the better!

Thank you each one for being such an integral part of the change that has been me!  🙂

Happy New Year 2016!

The post title might throw you off, but don’t let it.  I realized from the very beginning, as Christmas approached, there are so many aspects of Christmas this year that brought back the feeling of the way I felt as a little kid.  This is why.

As I prepare for Christmas officially, (official in my book was putting on the first CD and movie and setting the pewter Christmas tree I have in Mexico, covered with items from around thw world thanks to friends) – I felt it inside.

This year, I felt this strange mix of dread say about the beginning of December.  I have truly no idea where this came from, but the dread was emananting from being at a point in my life where I had pushed myself forward, into some new and unusual situations, and found myself on the other end for the first time with no definite direction for the future, nothing solid anyway.  That never happened to me, I always had a definite plan.  Yet, here was was free falling – I kind of liked it but some part of me still did not know how to handle it exactly at moments.

Holidays finally came, and I knew some basic things.  The friends, family, and situations I had built up to this moment were pretty darn great, othwrwise I would have had half the friends I made.  Also, I realized the excitement of seeing friends in the states, the excitement of getting a well deserved rest from the pace I put myself on to acheive and get many tasks done, all of it, a blessing.

As I sit here in the states now getting ready to join family for a day of Christmas, I miss my dogs desperately, I realize I love the country of Mexico and the reasons it has family and celebrations at the core of its culture, and I love the states and appreciate them even more with the contrast between the two countries.

All along, I have met so many new people just entering the states back for the holidays this year, I have met so many new people and close friends in Mexico City that have helped me develop a bigger picture of myself in this world, and I have learned to appreciate the fact that the best things that cause the Christmas spirit? – They can’t be seen, bought, or held all the time, they remain inside of you.

I guess you can imagine it as a rebirth of what Christmas should be, the more retailers push what they see Chrsitmas as, the more individuals can push back and hold close what the true spirit if Christmas is.  Is truly is all around us every day, and this spirit allows us to find ourselves in the mix of parphanalia that really has nothing to do with Christmas.  In that search you , (at least myself) have been able to find a deeper, truer meaning of Christmas.

I do not agree with the craziness of politics, world tragedies, gun problems, crime within the very institutions we put our trust in, and so much more and yet, it is up to each of us to push the hope and understanding of how we can better those very aspects for the people we care about around us.  I have been able to receive that hope thanks to the very students, friends, and family I try to model that for.  Modeling that initiative of finding the truer meaning of ourselves and a deeper meaning of the spirit of Christmas, thanks to those we surround ourselves with.

Just when we think you have the future, the present and yes, even the past, figured out, there is a new facet that presents itself you didn’t see coming.  I never, in my wildest dreams, saw Mexico as a possibility.  It changed my life.  Just as the very people involved in that possiblitiy along the way changed my life.  The colleagues, students, and indviduals that enabled that, supported that event, and supported that possiblity helped make that change.

Each of us have a single moment where there are alot of “invisible” individuals that helped make the change.  They continue to become clearer as the realizations become clearer, about yourself, the world around you, and who is around you to bring you back up when you are down.  When you get back up, you usually are better than before, thanks to these experiences.

In more ways you realize at the moment.  I am fortunate enough to count the number of friends on Facebook, the number of hits I have on my blog, and the number of emails I receive and be thankful for each one, every single one equals an amazing contribution to an experience I am grateful for today.  There is alot more I could want, or ask for, but never truly be happy for, and those very things, maybe visible in hits, posts, and friends, provide ten thousand more reasons to be thankful that can’t be seen, and while maybe invisible to the masses, carry me through each day with a stonger step than the day before.

Wherever you are, please have a VERY Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and take in every single moment in a way that will remain with you as you move forward i your life!   Thank you everyone for being patient, kind, and generous every step of the way through my single adventure!

Although only a few days were spent in PA, while I planned on doing a whirlwind tour of Pittsburgh and friends, I realized the limited time I actually had.  The rain amind a crazy unseasonably warm day in PA convinced me that spending time with the friends locally allowed the most take-ins of just local stops like Butler, PA, but not much more.  I was grateful, because the brief time I did spend with my friends – I loved every second and wanted to spend more days – however I realized, I need to devote a set amount of time just to Pittsburgh to take in the places I nostalgized about (is that even a word?!)

Getting up to leave, and leaving in general is just plain brutal anyway.  Catching a 5:20 AM Amtrak entailed me leaving Saxonburg at 2:00 AM to catch enough time ot drop off the rental car to the Pittsburgh International Airport, and then, getting a taxi ride to the Amtrak station across the river, in enough time to drop the rental car off – (all this in the hours before most people are up? – including me? – a huge AGH!)

Waking up was easier to do but wanting to stay longer was natural, yet I got myself out, into a early morning rain, and with no one on the road, I made it to the Airport drop off by 4:10 – with a stop at Getgo outside of the airport for a long overdue Sheetz like sandwich and strawberry milk before dropping off the rental car.

Into a Yellow taxi that took me straight to the Amtrak station, seeing the downtown of Pittsburgh I longed for – and knew it needed to be in the cards soon.  Into the Amtrak station, checked a bag, and ready for a long (I felt it already!) trip to D.C..

It is nearly impossible to sleep on a train, even in a deep state of exhaustion, I found myself here and there napping, but getting alot of reading in due to the lack of being able to sleep.  The scenery was amazing, seeing rolling hills, mist settle in the hills and mountains as we winded from PA to lower PA, to West Virginia, into Maryland and past Cumberland, the scenery was amazing.

I always think the best part of writing anything are the personal experiences that occur.  No disappointment here at all.  The lady I found myself sitting next to – through brief discussions as we woke up, lived on the VERY SAME STREET my grandparents did in Pittsburgh, Hawthrone Drive  Even further, we identified the residential area that sat on the hill of Etna, and I was dumbfounded.  Some info she provided me blew me away.   They used to visit Andy Warhol’s brother (original name was WarholA- Andy dropped the A) – now not sure if it was Paul or John, but he was into HAM radio and she told me how he also painted but of course, Andy became the claim to fame part of the family.

Discussing the aspects of Pittbsurgh we remembered was as if I was right there with my family in D.C. rehashing memories.  She had attended Shaler, the same as my Mom, and was aware of Friday Street School as well –  I took notes down of the maiden family name to share with my Uncle who lived on Hawthorne Drive with my Mom in that very circle of the neighborhood we identified.  I was really out of words not knowing how to describe the coincidence.   I have yet to see my Uncle to describe this coincidence but can only wait to do so and see what other coincidences remain.

I have found any trip to D.C. is pretty amazing when I involve Amtrak, the nostalgia, the scenery and the falling into the PA- D.C countryside – but the personal factor of friends and family truly is the element that resides within Holidays, and is the ultimate aside to the money and commericalism that masks itself as a holiday.  To maintain those loyalities to the holidays is what true holidays, family, make new friends, and the nostalgia to visit the past is truly all about 😉