Advice is a funny thing

    I received the best advice I think I've ever been given the other day, and I've been mulling it over since then. Now, I don't want to put down all of the other advice I've been given over the years, and the Lord knows there's been a lot of it, but this bit of advice just hit me. It hit me profoundly and irrefutably.

    I was having a regular old online conversation with a friend of mine, and we got to talking about some things, and I fired a little bit of moral and emotional support her way. She in turn sent some back my way. I like to think what I said to her helped, but I know that what she said broke through to me. Hard.

    She told me to “stop looking for myself in other people.” I know this can be taken a couple of ways, but I don't think she meant it as “stop looking for the qualities you possess in other people.” I think that she meant I should stop trying to find myself, and who I am, by attaching myself to other people and emulating their qualities, and, perhaps more so, depending on them to define who I am.

    I never realized it until then, but she's right; that's how I've always behaved. I've always needed someone else to define who I am, and what my wants and needs are. I've always needed someone else to be the center of my life, instead of my life being about ME. I don't intend to be selfish, because that's not who I am, but I do intend to focus more on what I need and want, and to define myself. I won't let anyone else define me anymore.

    Thank you, for helping me see this. You know who you are, and know that you've earned yourself my eternal gratitude and friendship. You understand me, perhaps better than I understand myself. I believe that right now, that's the greatest blessing I could ever be given.

Christmas in November?

So, I was on my way to work today, kind of not looking forward to it. Mostly because it was so early in the morning. I don't get along with mornings. If they were a person they'd be the kind of person I couldn't spend five minutes with before I wanted to punch them in the face. I STRONGLY dislike mornings, but I digress....

I get to work early like I always do, and hang out in the staff room for a while, trying to keep my eyes open. Quite successfully actually. I'm proud of myself for that. A couple of co-workers show up and we get to chatting like usual. Now, you may be starting to think, what does the title of this post have to do with what I'm talking about. Well hold your horses there, Bucko. I'm getting to that.

I work in the retail industry, and as I'm sure you're aware of, music is generally playing in the background of most retail establishments as a backdrop to a customer's wonderfully exciting shopping experience! Usually we end up with country playing, or a variety of relatively modern tracks (released within the last ten years), or some stuff from the 70's. Not today, OH no. That would make Jason's morning acceptable. Instead, the Christmas tunes have begun. Yay.

I'm no Ebeneezer Scrooge, and I rather enjoy Christmas. The last time I checked, however, Christmas fell in December, NOT November. I'm rather old fashioned in a lot of ways, and one of those ways is, for me at least, is that Christmas is the day the Saviour Christ was born, NOT a day where all of the major corporations got together and decided to make it about buying the biggest, best, and newest things to give to your children so they'd grow up into spoiled little brats.

I strongly believe that Christmas is about Christ, charity, good-will, and peace. NOT commercialism. Honestly, I find it somewhat offensive that the retail industry has so taken over this time of year and essentially destroyed those values. Playing Christmas music starting in mid November in order to subliminally remind people that Christmas is coming up so they had better buy their presents while they're in your store and thinking about it, is despicable.

And that's my rant on that. Let me know how you feel about it.

And so it begins...

The proverbial bandwagon, I'm jumping on it. Not because everyone's doing it, (as a matter of fact, I only know of two friends who have a blog, so I don't know if I should even be calling this a bandwagon...), rather, because maybe I've finally decided that my thoughts and views are worth sharing with the world.

If you disagree; so long. If you've continued reading this far; welcome to the world that is me. You may love it or you may hate it, but all that really matters is that it's me. No compromises, no holding back. I've done enough of that in the past to last me nearly an infinite number of lives.

I've recently discovered my sense of self-worth, and my drive to succeed. I've also discovered that the old me was a pathetic thing, wrought with doubt and insecurity, clinging to the norm for fear of what might happen if I try my hardest and fail. No longer. Move over Neil Armstrong. You may have touched the moon, but I'm going to touch every star on the way to where I'm going.