A Lot to be Thankful For

As we sit here ready to enjoy some quality time with the people we care for, and reflect on the past year to be thankful for the lives we have. I can’t help but reflect on my own life and realize how blessed I really am.

My early years are some that I some that I wish nobody had to endure. My entire childhood was spent in the foster care system until I aged out at 18, and was sent out into a world I was not prepared for. Thanksgiving was not a holiday I enjoyed very much. I was always the token child that everyone ignored. I witnessed multiple families come together, congregate and enjoy each other’s company, while I sat in the background and pretended that I was a part of them. In all reality I knew I was the black sheep  and I would be sent away to another home so I wouldn’t get too close to this particular family and actually have some sense of sentiment in my life.

Don’t get me wrong I am not writing this for anyones pity. I didn’t seek pity from people as a child and I do not seek pity now.

I beat the system, I grew up, paid my way to obtain a Bachelor’s Degree in business, which I am very proud of, and married the love of my life, now I’m the father of a very beautiful 2-year-old daughter who takes my breath away every time I look at her.

I promise I am getting to the point.

Recently, I was working as a high school math teacher at the school I graduated from, but in May the administration decided that they would relieve me of my contract and before I knew it I was unemployed. What really made it hard was the fact that I was a father and just 7 months prior, We purchased our first house.

Talk about the shit hitting the fan, it felt like I was Macbeth watching  my own demise and refusing to accept it.

For six months I searched, applied, and interviewed for multiple jobs and  since I come from such a small community, it is harder to find a job that pays with my credentials. I always assumed that getting a degree would make obtaining employment would be easier, but I was wrong. It gets harder.

We were considering leaving our home, renting it and let someone else move in and pay the mortgage because it was coming to the point that my wife’s income would no longer sustain our bills.

Talk about heartbreak.

As I sit here writing this post I can’t help but reflect on everything I have accomplished up to this point, and realize that for the first time in my life I have a my own family. Not just my wife and daughter, but people who have come into my life through this journey over the years, who support me and have given me the greatest joys in some of the darkest of times.

I am thankful for everything that has happened to me, the ugly, the good, and the weird, because it makes me the man I am today. In all reality, I wouldn’t know the man I would have become if the state didn’t take me away from my biological family as a toddler. I honestly don’t know if I wouldn’t be alive today.

So as we sit and contemplate life today lets look at the blessings we have before us, along with everything we take for granted on a daily basis and be thankful for what you have at this moment in time.

In case you wondering if there is a happy ending to the story, there is.

After six months of searching and interviewing I was finally offered a respectable position as a bank assistant manager and we get to stay home!

No matter how dark you think your life is, there is light at the end of the tunnel and in the end, you can overcome anything.

Believe me this is not the ending of my story I’ve, only covered the first chapter!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

 

A New Halloween Perspective

Halloween is approaching!

There is always something fun about this Holiday, as a child it meant that as soon as the sun went down I would go house to house and load up on as much candy as possible. I always looked forward to finding my costume and parading it in school, trying to be a cool kid.

In my teen years Halloween was an opportunity to look for mischief, such as bag snatching, egging houses and everything else my warped little mind could think of when amongst friends.

As for my college years, I don’t want to go into the detail of my Halloween exploits, lets just presume they were fun.

Nowadays, I find myself a father of a beautiful 2 year old baby girl, and my Halloween exploits have changed and have a different meaning. Now that she is becoming more aware of her surroundings I have decided to start our own family traditions.

Today we started our evening by watching the classic Hocus Pocus ( I don’t care who you are, that movie is a classic for this time of year!) and since the Holiday is approaching I felt that pumpkin carving was in order. Mind you this is the first carving session I’ve done in years, and I couldn’t have been happier.

Seeing the eyes of my daughter light up as she was digging the seeds was worth every second. I am starting to see these holidays from a different perspective, and now it is time for me to see them from a parents point of view, and I truly understand the importance they have. It is a time to get the family together on these occasions and pass on the traditions as well as creating your own, and really enjoy the quality time.

Times like these remind me of how lucky I am.

Until next time..

Happy Halloween!