Dear Laughing, Learning, Loyalty, and Loving.....
Fall 2010.
Here is to learning: learning about myself, my family, my friends, my profession, my new profession, my new school, my new apartment. Learning about Spanish, and English, and my students. Learning about long instilled habits, good memories and bad. Learning about change, and changing for the better, and changing to bring you to where are you supposed to be. To learning about grief and death, and mourning, and learning how to find your way out when you all you can think about is how far down you can go. Learning how far friends will go to be there for you, learning when to ask for help. Learning when to just let go, breathe, and enjoy the moment.
Here is so loyalty: realizing that loyalty is not a option but a requirement, and should be mutual. Loyalty to friends, to family, to all relationships. To loyalty for its persistence, and passion, and stubborn nature. For its proof that not everyone is the same. For its ability to make you feel like you are not alone. For its character and for realizing that you are not the only one who values it.
Here is to loving: loving the people you have in your life, telling them you love them, and appreciating them, because I have lost too many people this year that I loved, and hope I told them enough. I don't want to have to hope, I want to know. To loving what you do, but loving what you stand for more.
Finally, here's to laughing: for its ability to ground me, its ability to cause intense pains in my stomach, tears in my eyes, and water all over my shirt from spitting it out mid-laugh. For the power of sarcasm, and how when you least expect it, you may just run into someone more sarcastic than you, and you realize how happy you can truly be. Laughing, for its ability to give you a break from reality, to smile at your own neurosis, to enjoy even the most awkward moments in your life. To share happiness, to share a smile, to share an inside joke that never goes away. To look back and laugh at the chaos and bad luck, when you realize that all of it happened to put you in a better place, a place where you have found yourself, continue to work on yourself, and appreciate all the good people in your life. Laughter gives me confidence, and a smile, and the ability to brighten someone's day.
I pride myself on a few things: being a good friend, a good teacher, my loyalty and persistence in everything I do, and my sarcasm...the ability to make myself, and the people around me laugh. As we start the 2010-2011 academic year, I once again and off to a new start. Continuing to learn about myself, and find my place...and wherever it may take me, I know that with learning, love, loyalty and laughing I will surely find my way and learn to embrace the unexpected.
"There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under the jurisdiction. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts."
"You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That's the only thing you should be trying to control."
--Elizabeth Gilbert
