My personal credo

I stand for equality - we are all different, but the same. The world may have a multitude of religions, colors, races, languages, but in the end, we are all humans with hands, feet, toes, eyes, feelings and a heart the same physical breakdowns as the next person.

I know people are inherently good. We are born GOOD, but as we progress in age, we regress in good-naturedness. However, all we have to do is think back to our earliest memory - there is good in that. One of my earliest memories is as a kid, one, two, three, years old, bib around my neck, cake all over my face and all these people who loved me surrounding me, singing to me. There is only good in that; in that circumstance I know nothing bad at all. Does that type of situation still exist?

I stand for love. Like the famous quote, "Love makes the world go around." Hatred just adds fuel to an already enraging fire. Love more, and there will be less to hate.

I know it's hard to love someone or something that's so full of hate. That is near impossible. But, if we learn to forgive people who are so full of hate, then maybe we can teach them how to love. I am reminded of the brother of Rachel Scott, the first person to be murdered at Columbine High School. He learned to forgive his sister’s murderers for what they did, so that he could have peace of mind back, and to start channeling all the negativity that strained from that event into positivity as a motivational speaker.

I stand for family. Without family, I would not be here. They are my home that I keep returning to, and they are the blooming forest of trees that were planted when I was born.

I stand for the power of information. There is nothing more powerful than one's mind. Yet, the mind is being ignored these days with the onset of video games, high def television, computers that think for you, and the indolent iGeneration. Pick up a book, read some quotes, and respond to them! Interpret the words to fit your life and your mind! Then, go and tell someone else about it! Then, after you've successfully molded your mind and helped mold somebody else's, then go and take a well-deserved break.

I stand for educating the mind AND the body, as Plato told his students to do. Both entities must be able to work together in order to function at all. Take time out to go for a run or a hike, break the old bike out of the shed and discover new terrain. We are not physically fit until we are mentally fit as well.

It is in this new terrain that we can open our eyes to see things differently, the way others see them. With others’ help, the world can be a good place, the way it was intended. Remember - let one hand wash the other, but both hands wash the face. And it is because our hands each have five fingers, and all of our faces have two eyes, two ears, a nose, and a mouth, that we can all do this cleansing together, as one body and one mind.

a new day

today i broke up with my girlfriend. a girl named hali, whom i've been seeing for about the past month and who has treated me absolutely wonderfully.
i, however, can't say the same of myself. i hold myself up to a relationship standard, always have. this time around, i am also dealing with my life with a full-time job as a first-year teacher. the work never ends for this job, and i feel the effects day in and day out. and one area of my life is dragging the other down. so, i had to make some choices. and that's how i got to where i am.
also today, we had an assembly at school based on the life of rachel joy scott. she challenged people to make a difference from day to day, to keep a journal, and to appreciate the people in your lives whom you love the most and whom you will always keep close to you. during this part of the presentation, the presentor asked the audience to close their eyes and picture the 4 or 5 people in your lives who absolutely mean the most to you day in and day out. each one of these people for me was a member of my family. no one else was really in this category right now.
family is #1 for me, and right now, work is a close second. i dedicate almost all of my day, my waking hours, to school and my students, and it is not easy. but, as i will keep saying, and have already said, "the ends justify the means."