Cheugy…This word started appearing in my feed a few weeks ago and I had no idea what it meant—generational gaps are now becoming more apparent as I age.  There just happened to be a random post about it today and it explained that it came up in 2013 from gen z describes things that are irrelevant or for people who try to hard.  Ok…so some random made up word has a sort of understandable meaning.  Then he presented some examples including a white dog with crusty eyes, patterned leggings, and adult Harry Potter fans.  A weird rage came over me, almost resentful.  I can’t believe this is a trend going around right now, continuing to label people and the things they like irrelevant.  The past year alone should have been enough to show us that time is too precious and life is too damn short to do anything other than what we love. Then the reasons why I got angry really hit me.

1. Why are we passing judgement on what brings people joy?  We weren’t talking about outdated software or a toaster that doesn’t work anymore.  We are talking about the little things that make people happy, some things that give them meaning in their lives.  If you feel the need to keep up and change your tastes according to time or who you’re with, you’re not yourself, you’re performing.  People who embrace what they enjoy know themselves—and more often than not don’t need your validation.  Quite frankly you come across as a little jealous.
2. The world needs joy more than anything right now.  Pure, unabashed, unashamed joy.  No matter what it looks like or where it comes from, the things you do to be happy are yours and that joy radiates to the world.  It means you give a damn.  And people who give a damn care about a lot of other things too—you’re judging what they do because you don’t give a damn about anything other than your appearance.  Finding joy means you’re more likely to reach out and connect with something other than what someone tells you to like.  Joy brings you to your center and shows you what you are meant to bring to the world.
3. People DO need to try harder.  Stop trying to act like nothing matters because before you know it, the time you spent judging others and laughing at what they did is gone and you won’t be able to find the things that bring you joy.  It goes so quickly.  The world needs to give a shit, and like I said above, those who know how to find joy know how to find meaning beyond themselves.  Stop acting so self-important like your opinion matters more than someone’s joy.  Stop trying to destroy what they’re doing and build something for yourself.
4. We’ve clearly forgotten what matters in this world.  The social unrest we have seen over the last year is the loudest it has ever been and we still find the time to create a bullshit term to identify and classify and degrade people for being themselves.  How is this still happening?  People who like to judge are hiding just as much pain, so I do empathize, but I do not condone this method of coping. 

It amazes me that we still pretend like we have the luxury of classifying and putting people down for completely irrelevant reasons.  In their own speak, that seems cheugy to me.  The irony is you’re trying to make yourself relevant by telling people what they do is meaningless.  You’re searching for meaning by creating a false category that people can’t get out of because it’s based on your opinion.  We need to be kind.  We need to embrace ourselves and ignore this type of talk.  Honestly, I’ve gotten much better at ignoring the crap and doing my own thing, but part of my work is defending those who can’t defend themselves.  There isn’t a damn thing wrong with loving an animal that seems goofy, or with wearing comfortable clothes that have some meaning, or escaping into a fantasy world for a little while.  What is wrong is creating a fantasy world where you separate people based on an arbitrary opinion. 

At the end of the day, who cares, right?  Do what you want to do because people will ALWAYS judge.  It doesn’t matter what it is.  Do your best and surpass any and all expectations and be the person you want to be.  We only get one shot at this life and we don’t have a lot of say in what happens to us, but we have all the say in how we react to it.  Ignoring naysayers isn’t always easy, but you can’t let people stop you from being who you are.  Choose to be kind.  Choose to give your life more meaning than judging people for fun.  Choose to pursue what you love at all costs.  Choose to bring joy to your life so you can bring joy to someone else.  Choose to be you.  Choose to make the best of what you have—you will never regret it.

“What the hell does it mean when people say, ‘It’s about the journey, not the destination’?  You don’t run a race for the journey, you run it to arrive,” Tim Grover. Amen!  I wrote a few months back about how I couldn’t stand veering off course.  I used the example from “Hello, Fears,” where Poler discussed wanting to go to a museum but getting sidetracked on the way there and taking in other things around her.  Yes, I can see where that is enjoyable, but I cringe thinking about a situation totally within your control (getting to a museum) and then letting yourself get sidetracked with nonsense you could do anywhere.  So, Grover’s quote floored me.  He put into words what I have felt viscerally for a long time.

As a side note, there is always merit in slowing down when needed.  But when it comes to a goal, we need to stay the course.  We may be led in different directions and we may need to incorporate different lessons, but we recognize their purpose.  I’m all about the arrival for me.  That can be good or bad, I know—and I’ve driven people crazy with intense focus on finishing something.  I’ve even been guilty of moving on to the next thing prematurely when things weren’t working out.

Our purpose in life isn’t to achieve a million things or accumulate beyond what we can use—it’s to bring about our purpose—period.  That is different for everyone.  We need balance.  We need people to remind us to let go every now and then and we need people to kick our butts when we allow ourselves to get off course.  I don’t want to miss out on things meant for me, and some may argue that things we encounter on the journey are what is meant for us.  But I will argue our contribution by learning lessons and sharing them is far more valuable than running a circular journey that takes us no farther than our widest steps.  

I wrote the other day about giving up too quickly.  I get bored and irritated really easily and if I’m not seeing results, I deem the venture not worth it without much thought.  As I’m creating the life I want, that mindset needs to change because the things I want won’t necessarily happen over night and it will take a lot of resistance and a lot of errors to get where I want to be.  I don’t want to waste time on things that won’t help me or teach me or take me where I need to go.  So maybe the quote needs to be tweaked a little—it’s about the journey AND the destination.  We need to achieve goals and we have places we want to go but sometimes we need the lessons we learn along the way to get us from step to step.  We  may know where we want to go but sometimes we don’t have a say in what happens along the way.

“Alchemy, at its root, is the transformation of self,” via Paradise Awakening.  The idea of alchemy always fascinated me, the idea of turning the mundane into magic, the worthless into priceless, the idea that anyone could have what they wanted because they could turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.  Of course, we never consider the subjective nature of worth because we judge by the opinion of masses.  It’s easy to follow the group and decide what is valuable based on their opinions.  It takes a keen eye and a firm sense of self to say, “This is valuable to ME.” Everyone’s eye is different.    

It’s easy to look at the external and to make it appear a certain way.  It takes work, but you can get the result you’re looking for.  It may not be functional but it will seem that all is well.  Our society is obsessed with appearance over functionality.  We want to look a certain way but we never stop to ask how what we’re doing feels.  The feel of life is much more important.  We know what feels right, and if we are looking to improve or change our circumstances, we have to take the time to become deeply familiar with how we want to feel.  All of life speaks to us, we need to get quiet and pay attention.

Change is never an easy process—we attach meaning to everything around us and if we have to change then we don’t always know what that means.  Certain changes never bother me but when it comes to creating the life I say I want, letting go of what I have always holds me back.  Change always involves destruction even, if it means letting go of what you know and walking into an unfamiliar world.  Destruction isn’t always a bad thing.  While we are trained to create a sense of security for ourselves, anything can happen.  Making a conscious choice to let go of what we thought we knew might destroy our tenuous hold on this world, but it will most certainly align us with what we are meant to do.    

It’s only when we look at what needs to change inside of us that the outside reflects what we are really looking for.  Nothing we do on the outside matters unless it’s authentic.  That requires a breakdown of everything we think we know and a deep dive into honesty—that isn’t always pretty.  I wrote a few days ago about recognizing my own toxicity in my relationship with my husband and that has started a deep transformation in me—one I thought I was almost through.  The reality was I am just beginning that transformation.  Knowing how off I was, how wrong I was left me unbalanced and numb for a few days.  I still don’t know how to act around my husband because I can’t tell if he is relieved and willing to stay or if he is relieved and ready to leave.  It’s completely out of my control.  That is the point—nothing is really in our control except for who we are. 

Lifting the veil on the identities we wear like armor is simultaneously relieving and terrifying. We have to admit we are wearing the armor if we want to remove it.  Acknowledge the weight of what we’ve put on.  Then admit why we put it on in the first place; we want to appear a certain way to blend and fit in, all the while we cover the tender reality of our hearts that were never meant to fit in, but to stand out.  There comes a point in our personal evolution, when we accept change, when we accept that we no longer want to carry what we’ve built, that freedom comes in.  That is alchemy.  From there on we are transformed. No longer a shell, no longer living in a false image of who we are.  Alchemy is not only about transformation, it’s about recognizing what is already there—breaking through.  Releasing the armor and standing in our truth and allowing others to do the same.  The world changes when you get in tune with yourself.  Sometimes it isn’t about changing into something else but changing into who you really are.  That is a beautiful destruction. 

Today I am grateful to turn things around.  We’ve been waiting for a positive outcome with finding a house after losing out on 8 properties—8 offers, 8 strikes.  I’ve been emotionally drained the last few weeks, moreso from the constant up and down of being hopeful and then fearful we won’t have a home when the offer is rejected, on top of work stressors and my body still recovering in general.  I haven’t been taking very good care of myself—pushing way too hard, comparing to everyone around me, feeling behind—so I’ve been eating like crap, not moving like I should, spending way too much time in front of a screen.  I could let it slide for a while, but I need to stop that now.  Allowing myself to deteriorate or intentionally destroying my body is not going to resolve the stress.  It’s time to take care of me again.

Today I’m grateful to be heard.  It still feels like I’m on shaky ground with my husband, but we were talking to some friends yesterday who informed us they were exposed to COVID but saying their tests came back negative.  My husband still wanted to sit outside and hang out with them but I told him no because they got tested too early.  He eventually understood and we all hung out as a family.

Today I’m grateful to breathe.  It always amazes me how quickly the mind brings me back into a spiral so far away from my center.  How it automatically searches for the path of least resistance, the things it knows.  The mind tries to protect itself.  For me that means being really controlling and tense and stressing and yelling and generally making myself miserable.  It’s really difficult for me to get out of that mindset once I get started.  I felt frustrated that I was woken up so early today, but it gave me some time to myself, some time to center—and time to breathe on my own and reconnect.

Today I am grateful for another chance.  I’ve been met with failure after failure the last few months.  It felt like everything has gone down hill.  It felt personal.  Like the universe was somehow unwilling to let me succeed on any endeavor in some grand conspiracy designed to keep me miserable.  Historically, I often find myself at this point: I have a series of failures and I completely shut down.  I give up and walk away.  This time I have no choice but to keep going.  I’m at the wall again and I’m repeating patterns of self-destruction and I’m ready to give up—but I can’t.  It’s really tempting to give up because this pressure is a boiler plate for both my husband and myself and we are ready to kill each other.  Yet we are still standing in front of this gate.  Each day we wake up exhausted, but it is always another chance to approach this wall together and figure out the code to break it down together.  The key is close.

Today I am grateful to nurture my inner child.  My son has been regressing and struggling with change.  He’s been exceptionally demanding of my attention and is still refusing to sleep in his room alone.  He is my mini when it comes to issues of anxiety.  This is a chance for me to reparent that.  To curb my anger with his demanding and understand he isn’t secure in himself—neither am I.  I read a quote the other day about being the parent you needed as a child and I realized that is exactly what I need to do for him.  I have to build his self-confidence.  I’ve been over protecting him so much he hasn’t developed an awareness of his abilities, at least not to their full extent.  I can’t coddle him anymore—and I can’t coddle myself either.  It’s time to face the demons of self-doubt and do what it takes to get where I want to be.

Today I am grateful to continue to peel layers.  My mind runs on multiple tracks all day, every day.  It doesn’t stop.  As I peel back who I pretended to be, I see how many of those tracks are not serving.  It’s time to decommission those lines and the lies they tell and really start creating some new routes.  I’ve got years of armor I’ve built around myself and there are so many bullshit stories and fears I’ve used as an excuse to keep me repeating them.  I don’t want to carry them anymore.  It used to feel like the act of going deeper was intrusive and painful.  But the utility outweighs those fears.  Yes, it is painful to dig and to see who you really are (especially when you’ve presented something so different), but you get to drop the act.  Things quiet down. 

Today I am grateful for breaking routine. With all of the chaos going on, we took a short break today to spend time with my brother. We went fishing with my brother and spent some time sharing our troubles and talking through things. The support felt amazing and it was nice to get out of our heads for a while. We got to spend time outside, I got to see my son fishing, we ate, we talked and it felt good. Sometimes you need to get out of your head and to connect with someone close to you.

Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead.

“Whether you are strengthened by life’s difficulties or broken by them is completely determined by your mindset,” Tom Bilyeu.  We’ve had a very challenging year.  A long illness, a horrific pregnancy, losing a baby, losing a dog, losing out on houses while trying to find our forever home, challenges with work.  It has been hard to not feel broken.  I’ve lost my mind repeatedly, feeling like the world was against me.  I can’t say that everything has turned around—it hasn’t, and I have no idea where this is going to take me.  I’m struggling to find the reason behind it. 

I know that I don’t have the choice to break down.  But I do have the choice to let go of the broken parts and put them back where they belong—or leave them where they lay as needed.  I have a choice to build something completely new.  Either way, I am still here.  I’m not where I want to be but I still have the opportunity to get there.

My skin still crawls when things go topsy-turvy and I can’t figure out why.  I am a person who believes that there is a cause when things go wrong.  I want to know what it is.  I want to see the purpose behind the pain.  I do believe that the lessons repeat until we learn them—but I’d like a different vantage point.  Maybe I feel broken because I’ve made it too complicated.  Sometimes things just aren’t meant to be.  It’s as simple as that. But my type A mind struggles to accept that. 

I’ve tried enough times that I know experientially when I improve the way I think, the things around me improve as well.  It doesn’t mean it’s easy, but I know it’s true.  I also know that keeping positive is a lot of energy because it can feel like we are constantly stopping and starting as we try to make our way.  Keeping our spirits up isn’t pretending we don’t feel hurt—it’s acknowledging it and trying again anyway.  And repeating until we get it. 

I’ve been blessed with a stubborn tenacity that pushes me forward through some really tough things.  My lesson is to push harder.  I give up quickly at times because I want my efforts to be worth it, and that isn’t the best mindset to have when it comes to building your life.  The worth isn’t determined by how quickly things happen, the worth comes from the value we see in it.  If I’m just trying to achieve a goal, once it’s done I will need something else to occupy me.  Proving how much I can do isn’t enough. 

Enjoying life and taking in the experiences we have make us more resilient and helps us navigate the unexpected—and even the expected.  I’m learning that life isn’t necessarily personal—it’s purposeful.  This means that things don’t happen to us, they happen for us to get us where we need to be to fulfill our purpose.  That is all we need to do—be wise enough to recognize our purpose.        

“The idea is to die young as late as possible,” via paradise awakening.  I’ve become rigid.  I came into this world with a level of expectation that has constantly been handed back to me. I have been proven wrong again and again and again and I let it wear me out.  I am exhausted.  Then I saw the above quote and I realized that I have stuck myself in a box believing I was free, that I was stuck when I had the key the whole time.  That was a dangerous thing for me because I developed a low tolerance for change and things that didn’t go my way.  I made my way the only way.  I wasted time making things exactly how I wanted and demanding the world shaped to my whim.

This isn’t to say that we don’t have a level of control in our lives but we have to recognize when we need to pivot otherwise we can let decades pass and then look back wondering what the hell happened.  I also never realized the work required to attain the things I wanted.  I never realized how many times I may hear “no” along the journey.  How many walls are actually out there.  I also didn’t realize that there are walls we can walk around, or step over, or even break through.  It’s a matter of deciding how to handle the obstacles in our way.

Being young carries a level of adaptability and a way to pivot as needed that doesn’t come when we stick ourselves in the same spot over and over again.  When we root ourselves, there is stability, but we set ourselves up to take life as it comes at us rather than to float with it.  We can’t forget that trees also change and grow—and we need to as well.

I’ve been taking walks with my son every night for the last week or so and I see how he enjoys life.  Simply being outside and riding his scooter while I walk with him, taking in the nice weather.  We don’t need as much as we think we do.  We just have to enjoy what we have.  He is also taking me on a new journey.  He is taking me out of my head and bringing me back to my body.  I’m trying to remember what I always have known:  there are moments that go so fast and we need to be present to enjoy them.

I’m not a patient person and we are dealing with some challenges finding a house (we’ve put in five offers on different properties and have lost them all) but my son is teaching me how to be patient.  As I’m coaching him through understanding we can’t get everything we want right away (he’s obsessed with Lego Mario), I am teaching myself as well.  There are a lot of things I want and I need to be an example to my son that things aren’t always the answer.  So, as I’m teaching him patience, the lesson is also for me.  I’m giving myself the love and coaching I needed as a child.  A fine example of the universe sending us the messages we need.

There is so much wisdom in youth that we discount because of lack of experience.  We dismiss the simple wisdom in favor of the self-inflicted complication of our reality.  If we learn to remember what we were born with, with what we inherently know, then we retain the qualities we need in life.  There is joy everywhere, not everything needs to be complicated, sometimes we just need to play, we need to love quickly and accept people as they are, sometimes we need a really good hug, sometimes we have to try over and over again, and sometimes we need to take things slower than we would like—but we will always get there.  If we do all of that, we can’t go wrong.  Stay young.

“Be like water,” Bruce Lee. I thought a lot about what this quote meant.  Does it mean be formless, no identity?  Does it mean always stay your course?  Or does it mean be flexible to the environment around you?  I believe it means the latter flexibility while maintaining the integrity of who you are.  Adapt, but don’t lose who you are.  Water is one of the most powerful forces on Earth.  It does what it does with no care or concern for what others think of it.  It simply is, and it gives life and takes it away.  It moves in it’s own rhythm.  When water sits in one place it becomes stagnant.  We need to take that lesson as well—if we try to control or keep things the same for too long, we lose the ability to move and we become stagnant as well.  We are meant to move. 

It’s key to know ourselves, to embrace our power like water.  When we know who we are, we move differently.  We don’t force ourselves to be in situations that aren’t a good fit, situations that might make us spill over the edge.  We move on.  We don’t make a big deal of it, we don’t force, we just move.  The human side of us may get upset because we see we may not fit in everywhere, even if we think we really want it.  But there is a driving force in each of us that keeps us on the track meant for us.  Sometimes we have to carve our own way.

Like water, I honor who I am.  I’m embracing my identity and I feel the desire to prove and adapt to other people’s expectations fading away.  I only want to be me.  That is something I’m willing to work for.  When we allow other people to set the bar for us, we may never attain their goals.  It’s more important to meet our own goals, to set our own expectations, to shatter our own glass ceilings, than to search for the approval of someone who can change the level depending on how they feel that day.  We aren’t designed to meet other’s expectations—we are designed to embrace who we are.    

Rachel Wolchin said, “I’ll never stop doing it just because it didn’t work out the first time.”  Also like water, we need to be resilient and persistent.  It may take time to achieve what we are looking for, but we must always keep going.  Head toward our goal with relentless determination and know that we will get there one way or another.  We may have to turn new directions and carve new paths, but when we are true to who we are and we honor what we are meant to do, we are unstoppable. As a fire sign I used to feel like water would put me out.  Now I see that all of the elements are in us at all times and it is our job to learn how to use them.  Everything we are can be used to create or destroy—I choose to create.

“The lies are always loud.  The truth is always quiet—I promise you,” Via the universe has your back. We are looking for a new home and it has been a nightmare.  First world problem, I know.  But this year has been challenging and we were hoping for something positive to come.  As we’ve faced rejection after rejection for a new home, I felt a near uncontrollable anger.  I also feel helpless because we aren’t finding what we want and when we get our hopes up, we lose the prospect.  It has started to feel like the universe is telling us we aren’t worth a new home, that our dreams aren’t going to be realized.  I have taken it personally because this is such a personal decision—it’s our future.

Just as we got the news that we lost our fourth house, I had two really difficult encounters at work.  One was with an employee that has been struggling for a while.  There was a minor altercation while I was gone the other day and as I discussed the event with her, we brought up some past events that had occurred between us and she essentially told me that I was a terrible manager.  I tried to not take it too much to heart because of the history, but it was still challenging.  Later in the afternoon, my boss held a surprise meeting with myself and a colleague essentially insinuating that I wasn’t managing another team well because my team asks questions to my colleague, the department educator—so my leadership skills were brought into question regarding a brand new department for me.  I was blindsided, especially with the second meeting, because I had asked the coworker involved if she knew what was going on and she said no, only to find out that she was the one raising the issues that were brought up. 

The lies came fast and hard—telling myself that I was incapable and that I was doing a terrible job and I had myself fired.  While I know that leap was too much, they were not unfounded.  I don’t understand why my boss allows colleagues to talk about each other rather than to each other.  The entire conversation could have happened with each other had my coworker told me she had concerns.  Instead she went to my boss and made it seem like there were so many problems to resolve.  The more I thought about it, the angrier I became.  I found myself the recipient of too much nonsense today and I didn’t know how to shake it off. 

What I believed in that moment was a lie.  I am more than capable and it is not my fault if you choose to not bring forward an issue nor can I be responsible for fixing it if I am not aware it exists.  Your job is an educator—if my staff have issues, then they need to be educated.  That is more of a reflection of your skills than mine.  My reaction was to fall into my old self and start asking what I could do differently.  Part of it was to learn, don’t get me wrong, I’m learning the role so as much help as I can get is appreciated.  But I shouldn’t have immediately assumed that everything I was doing was wrong.  There is mutual accountability because if you want a certain result, then you need to share that with me. I’m not a mind reader.

At the same time I realized that I no longer want to be in the business of trying to figure out what people want whether it was negotiating a price for a house or for what I’m supposed to be doing in my role.  I’m smart, I know how to lead.  And just because I lead differently, that doesn’t make it wrong.  My role as a leader is to also be clear on what my needs are and what my expectations are.  That is my only responsibility in life: to be clear on my desires and what I am able to bring to the table.  The decision is mine, and I am able to determine where I go from here.  The message may not be received well, but I’m done being complicit in an organization that chastises and ostracizes people for not obeying their every whim or not being able to fulfill their asinine demands or read their minds. 

So that is the truth—and it’s quiet but it is true: I am more powerful than I’ve allowed myself to be.  I’m beyond being dictated to.  I’m not the weak person I’ve allowed myself to portray.  I know the truth is that I need to go my own way.  I’m different than what they expect and they are trying to manage that.  That doesn’t make me wrong.  It means I need a better fit.  I’m not worthless: I’m inherently worthy and capable.  And I will get where I’m meant to be—the right house and the right career.  

After yesterday’s discussion on legacy, I spent some time looking up my mentors.  I found out that two of my biggest influencers had passed away several years back.  We lost touch after time and I hadn’t seen them for years.  While I was reading their obituaries, I realized I had wasted so much time focused in my own world, lost in what I was doing and what I was trying to accomplish that I completely lost sight of the lessons these wonderful people taught me.  Sadness washed over me at the thought of letting them down.  I don’t even remember if I told them how much they meant to me.

One of them was my college humanities professor.  I didn’t know him long but his class changed my life.  Early in my time with him, he taught a lesson about decision making and referenced kicking a wall.  I laughed out loud and he said to the class, “Yeah, she has kicked the wall a few times.”  The way he looked at me wasn’t judgmental or critical—it was with complete understanding of my young humanness.  That look said, “We’ve all been there.  Welcome.”  It resonated with everything I was experiencing at the time, dealing with a personal trauma and recovery. 

He took us through many lessons comparing who we used to be as a society and how we have continued some of those traditions today.  He wanted us to see that, even though we believed we were ever so evolved, we retain much of the same traditions from thousands of years ago.  He spoke of looking through different lenses and seeing all viewpoints.  During one lesson he said, “Sometimes you have to see that 2 and 2 equal 5.”  It blew my mind.  Sometimes things don’t go how we plan or we see people doing things differently than we do—it doesn’t matter.  I remember we were discussing Oedipus and no one answered his first question so he walked out of the room stating if we weren’t going to have a discussion then he wasn’t going to teach.  Always come prepared!  My favorite thing about him was that, no matter what he taught us, whether it was about rose windows or about cross cultural homecoming traditions, he always used his own slides.  The man traveled around the world and he had a personal account for nearly every lesson he created.  He taught us all to take chances because you never know the lesson you’re really learning.  For our final, he talked to each of us individually about our papers.  During our meeting, he held my paper in his hand and he looked at me and he said, “You understand all of this stuff, you’re going to be just fine.”  Maybe it was just the timing of my life, but those simple words carried me further than he would ever know. 

One of my greatest mentors was my high school French teacher.  I have more stories about her than will fit the page.  She was a short, slightly rotund woman, with a deep yet feminine voice who came across as your favorite grandma.  When you started speaking with her, you immediately understood she was no one to fool with—sweet as pie, but she knew her stuff.  Worldly, wise, welcoming, she embraced life and never hid her passions.  She spoke of choosing to speak French when she was younger because it was pretty—and she went on to make an entire career out of it.  She taught me that following your passion brings you to your purpose, even if it started because you thought it was pretty.  She had planned to retire my sophomore year but stayed with our group until our graduation, two years later.  She believed that what you started, you finished and she wanted to see us to the end. 

I developed a real talent for the language and she spoke to me about it, never pushing it, just wanting me to enjoy it.  She made me student of the quarter, the president of French NHS, and she awarded me the French senior medallion for my efforts.  She brought us to plays and musicals and operas and shared her love of the French culture in every way she could.  We always celebrated Mardi Gras with King Cake and she made crepes before school started at least once or twice a month.  More than that, she was there for me after I started cutting again and she supported me through a toxic high school relationship.  She told me, “I know it’s hard but it is not worth your time to deal with un salopard like that.”  Yes, she taught me to swear in French and it was a uniquely bonding experience.  We read “The Little Prince” in French and watched the original “La Belle et Le Bete” and she loved bringing us across the world.  I sang at her retirement party.  We kept in touch after I graduated and, as more time passed, my life took over.  To some degree that is exactly what she wanted—to embrace life and to live.  Let go of the nonsense and simply do what you love without shame and without holding back.  Create a life you love, a room full of cherished treasures because they are all memories. 

For both of these extraordinary people, I am incredibly grateful.  My life has been all the better for them.  Even if I hadn’t seen them recently, I have always carried those lessons, the memories with me.  It isn’t lost on me that some of my greatest teachers were actually teachers—I’ve always had a lot to learn.  There are always people who impact us and their lesson goes far beyond the classroom.  Often times it has nothing to do with what you’re studying at all.  It’s about life itself and those are the people I admire most.  Taking their passions and applying it to everything they do, applying it to life, and sharing it with everyone they meet.  It is who they are to their core.  I am so glad to have had two amazing experiences in my life, at different points, that carried me through. I still kick the wall sometimes, and I often dream in French—my heart knows where to go. 

In memory of Hans Dahl and Madame Kathleen Gabbey, thank you. 

“You have no idea what your legacy will be because your legacy is every life you’ve touched,” Maya Angelou.  We are trained to believe that our lives are measured by how much we achieve, accomplish, and acquire.  I bought into that for a long time.  I also believed that our success was determined by how much power we had.  I let frustration creep in because the more power I tried to have, the more control I tried to exert, the less control I had. I felt like a doormat because people were happy to take advantage of the person getting things done for them.  But I was just as guilty.  I was manipulating the circumstance because I wanted people to treat me a certain way or do the things I did for them, for me.  When we try to manipulate the circumstances around us, the people around us, it isn’t authentic.

The truth is I never gave much consideration to legacy.  I wanted to do something and to make a name for myself while I was here.  I wanted to have the freedom to do things and not report to anyone.  I wanted to live my life as I deemed fit.  I thought people would give me the means to do that if I did what they wanted me to.  Really, they just allowed me to serve their purpose and never got around to mine.  We are responsible for our own dreams—no one else. 

As I’ve matured and started addressing the things in my life that need to shift to get me where I want to be, I see how relationships with people impact us.  Something I never admitted before is that I’ve spent a lot of time hating people.  I hate feeling insignificant and I’ve had many challenging relationships where I’ve been left drained, taken advantage of.  I’ve always felt that as people with a higher sense of responsibility and a greater understanding of our relationship to each other and the Earth that we had a stronger obligation to do better.  We are able to do better and we should do better.  It has taken a lot of time to see that people come from their level of experience and they are working with their own frame of reference; we are all doing the best we can.  Beyond that, we need each other.  There is no room for hate.  We need to teach each other.

Our impact doesn’t have to be some grand project that changes the world.  We are more often able to change the world for one person at a time.  And maybe that is enough.  We can make someone feel better with a smile, a random act of kindness, guiding them, or listening to them through a hard time.  Understanding the role support plays in people’s lives—we are social creatures and sometimes all we need is to know we aren’t alone.  Maybe the goal isn’t to acquire, but to inspire.  I’ve been blessed to have some amazing mentors in my life, people who opened up to me, but allowed me to open up in ways I never thought possible.  People who lived their lives with passion, not pressure but still made an impression.  Life isn’t about closing off because of who we aren’t, it’s learning to open up with who we are.  That is our legacy.