National Siblings Day

Yesterday on Facebook, there was some odd occurrence of National Siblings Day tributes. Now, I don't know if you know this, but National Siblings Day is April 10th. September 26th is actually another holiday, National Pancake Day. However, this got me thinking. Why do you need a National Siblings Day to tell your brother or sister that you love them? You don't. This is a tough subject for me, because my brother passed away in 2006. My 20 year old brother was taken from me and my family. I can't tell him anymore that I love him and appreciate him. So, I guess it kind of bothers me when I know personally that some of the individuals that were posting these 'oh so touching' tributes, actually tell their brothers/sisters that they hate them. Now, maybe it's just me, but I never told my brother that I hated him. I never felt hate for him. Sure, we had fights. What siblings don't? But, I couldn't even imagine feeling that way towards him. I looked up to him so much, because he was the type of person that never met a stranger. He could always make someone laugh. I'm not glorifying him; he did some things that I don't agree with, but he straightened up. I guess I just wanted to say that, everyone out there, no matter how 'annoying' your sibling may seem, there may be a moment when you can't go back, when it's too late to say you're sorry. Luckily, I'm not in that boat. The night before that car hit my brother head on, I baked him a cake and told him I loved him. Could you say the same thing? Do me a favor. Don't wait until April the tenth or September the twenty-sixth or any other random date to tell your sibling how much they mean to you. Tell them every day. Hug them tight, and hold them close, because you can never know if that will be your last chance.  

In Loving Memory of Dustan Ross
8/12/85 - 5/26/06

Responsibility

Everyone needs it, but nobody wants it. That's right, I'm talking about responsibility. Thanks to the obvious fact that I'm just oozing responsibility, I now have a stress headache for something that I just volunteered for. I was dealing with crisis after crisis, placing people where I thought they should go, and dealing with upset people. None of these things were in my job description. Not that I'm complaining. It's nice to be trusted. I guess it's how you look at things. I'm wanting to look at the bright side, but it hurts to look at the light, what with the headache. That's the part that's hard: dealing with the uncomfortable things that come with doing the right thing. Although my head hurts, I know that I made it a better experience for some people today and yesterday, and that's awesome. If I can make someone else's uncomfortable situation easier, then that's what I'm here for. I guess that's why it's so important to be nice to everyone you come in contact with. You never know what they're dealing with. Give them a smile. It may be the difference between life and death, hope and hopelessness, pain and coping. Yeah, that sounds a little extreme when you lay it out like that, but you can never know. See? Never. So, keep smiling. And, pray. Not just when all else fails, but when everything is going great, because there's Someone to thank for it. God bless and good night.

Calculus...and Bible Study?

Today, I was reminded of how difficult it is to take the long way. Whether it's taking the derivative of a function, walking around a crowd of crazed people screaming we're all doomed for Hell, or just finishing a job completely and to the best of my abilities. I've always been the one that wanted to half-do or half-heart something. It's not that I've never cared, it's just that I've been focused on getting everything done. Hasn't that been the goal for most? Finish this. Do this before tomorrow.
In my ladies' class at church, we started studying a book called The Resolution for Women by Patricia Shirer. She talks about how rushing through life is discontentment. How true is that? I'm not content with what the Good Lord has given me now, even though I have what I need, and mostly what I want, so I'm wishing my life away to get to a point in my life where I'll say, "That'll do." But, can that ever happen? You see, when you're looking forward to the end of the week, and it gets here, then you can't wait for the end of the month. Maybe you're super excited for next semester. Maybe you want to be done with college. Now what? You want a significant other, 2.5 kids, and a Labrador Retriever. When you get that, you're ready for your kids to be grown. You see what I'm saying? It's about time to put on the breaks and "enjoy the go," as said by the Charmin commercials. Okay, maybe I'm not going that far, but maybe I'll learn to love the long way around. I don't know if you've ever noticed, but they call it the scenic route because not it's the quickest path, but because it has the most beautiful views. So, here's to enjoying life, every single second of it, and taking the scenic route more often. Here's to my ladies' class that brought me to this wonderful book, and here's to Calculus for connecting that great book to my here and now. God bless.

Maybe it's just me.

Maybe it's just me, or maybe I know it's not, but I find myself more and more surprised with what I encounter everyday, and sometimes, even what I'm doing. I get caught up in the moment, non-romantically, speaking. The next thing I know, I'm creating a blog at 10:29 at night, one hour passed my "self-declared" bedtime. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to break your declarations when you verbally say them? I guess that's why I called it a declaration. Lucky for me, the fine gentlemen that started this country didn't go back on their Declaration. I also have slacked on some work that I knew I was going to get done. Well, here it sets on my desk. I'll get to it tomorrow, right? You see, I've kind of turned over a new leaf. It's the I-know-that-I'll-never-catch-up leaf. I'm in college with 19 hours in Secondary Ed. Mathematics. Now is not the time for this, especially a month into the semester. I'm kind of hoping this blog will either a) get me on track from writing down things or b) relieve some stress. As of now, I'm not going to get much sleep, and I don't really have any more pressing business to address, so good night and God bless.