High School Drama

Dear Readers. This post serves as a plea to share, comment and post to those who need to read this.
I'm seven years out of high school and it's one place/time I would not like to repeat. Even with all my learnings high school was tough, but no matter how dramatic I became as I cried, "my life is over"  - I still woke up in the morning. Unfortunately, for three Chardon, Ohio students this is not the case. My thoughts and prayers go out to the Chardon families - it's an unimaginable tragedy, that for me as well hit really close to home.
For some perspective, I grew up about 45 minutes away from Chardon, but my parents now live about 5 minutes away -- they grocery shop, run errands, walk our dog in the same county. My brother was one year and one township away from attending Chardon, he could've been there...
There have been so many things in the news this last few weeks about teens acting out (the racist YouTube girls from Florida, for example), or even the last few years (school bullying) and it's amazing to me how different "high school" has become - it's really turning into a place you need to survive.
In my day (there goes my old soul) I did become an outcast and subject of ridicule for a good three months of my high school career, where in my most dramatic way I literally thought I would die of embarrassment. Here's the story.
Eleventh grade - I was going through a period of rebellion, hanging out with the a new crowd that I absolutely didn't fit in with. Picture a darker Hilary from Fresh Prince attempting to hang out with a female version of Bone Thugs 'n' Harmony ... Yea, that was bound to work out.
Anyway, if you made one of these girls mad they were all mad and I should've know then their value of friendship, but I digress... Inevitably as you can guess I made one of these girls mad and that's when the drama started. I was shunned at school, literally had to eat lunch by myself or skip it altogether and go home to eat, I was nervous to be in the hallway by myself, it got pretty bad. The biggest worry I had was that these girls would do something to damage or impact my future or mess with my early acceptance into college.
So I get it. I get what it's like to be bullied, picked on, and intimidated. One thing I never forgot was to stay motivated and that no matter what I was going to graduate, succeed and pursue any and all dreams that I had. So this message is two-fold, if you are bullying, it's not worth it - when you get to the workplace, there are bigger bullies that actually have leverage, or as bullies typically wind up: your high school wanna be thug life image will soon be merged with your real life, and while everyone around you is changing, you become static.

If you are being bullied, I can promise you, your insecurities don't run as deep as whoever is trying to stand in your way. I can't remember the last time I thought about that memory of feeling so alone and isolated and that's because I did so much more to never sink and stay persistent with my goals. I'm not perfect, no one is, but one thing I've learned is that "strength comes from an indomitable will" (Ghandi) and that is something you have to believe to make it through.
 High school is 6 parts a painful and 4 parts fun, you make mistakes, some people hang out with bone thug wannabes, but you grow up and you move on. Thank goodness because I do not look good in corn-rolls!

It's my anno

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Blog-anno that is. Celebrating one year of writing ... the good, decent and nonsensical. For my anno, I think it's a good idea to rehash my commitment to this blog. For those of my readers that ask, "what's your shtick?"  I can't claim to be an expert on anything exclusively, I think some people have the ability to be social influencers on the specific. You have your relationship bloggers that some people use their words as bible, your athletic blogs, which tell you the same things over and over about diet, nutrition and their daily exercise routine, etc. And those blogs are great - if you're looking for something specific. From my perspective you read for pleasure; running, relationships and even food can't always deliver. But if you combine them all and have the ability to pick and choose - you get what I'm doing; blogging for pleasure. I offer some creative insights, opinions and stories; from me to you, unfiltered, non-committal. I just ask that if you enjoy it, you share it! 

Another question: "What keeps you committed to your blog?" This one is easy. I love to write, I have a few big wigs to impress and I have an ambitious goal to reach multitudes of people. I know the publishing industry is experiencing a mini-crisis right now, but I think it's because people aren't enjoying what they read. Everything is being recycled, reused and re-purposed. My posts,  thoughts/opinions I hope are interesting enough to not be considered as lackluster as this year's super bowl ads. Now, I'm not committing that I will write the next great American novel, but I seek to entertain, give a break in the mundane and get a few things off my chest every now and then.

And now a note of importance in history: Remember the week before you went back to school, your parents took you back to school shopping for notebooks, pens, pencils etc? If you were like my parents, who waited until Sunday night and all the stuff was picked over, the only notebooks that were left in stock were those expensive Five-Star multi-subject notebooks. So that's what I started with every school year, organizing five subjects into those sectioned tabs (color coded of course). Years later, I figured what better way to start my writing career than with another notebook - a multi-subject one filled with a multitude of characters, stories, opinions, hopes and dreams.

So here we are, one year under the belt. Thanks to all the my dear readers, dedicated over the last year - I hope you continue to read, comment and share, trust me there are more interesting, embarrassing and just plain happening things to come. Happy Anno!!!