to the 2000 me

*I chose to write my blog about the year 2000, which was the same year I first dealt with depression. My marriage had just ended after finding that my exhusband had lied to me, did not love me, and had cheated on me. I was devastated and thought that my life was finished.
I would tell myself that everything is ok and that my life was not over. I would also tell myself that I would fall in love again and experience true happiness again. I would advise myself to never put 100% confidence in a man or anyone else. We all make mistakes. We have to pick ourselves up after we fall down. Depression drags a person down and there are still so many things for a person to be happy about. Instead of sleeping all day, I would have made myself get up and go somewhere. I could go to a movie because I loved movies. I could also spend more quality time with my parents and hang out with some of my dearest friends again. The main thing that I would tell myself would be to make every moment count because time truly does fly by.

R.I.P. Patrick Swayze

When I heard the news of Patrick Swayze's death, I was very saddened. The first movie I saw that he played in was "The Outsiders." I went on to see several other movies such as "Point Break," but "Ghost" would become my favorite. He could act so well that you thought he truly was the character and that the movie was real. He was also a great person offscreen. In many of his interviews, he talked about how much he loved his wife. He was a great inspiration to many of his fellow actors and fans. I wish the best for his wife, Lisa and their family. He is missed.
What was your favorite movie that Patrick starred in?

The Kanye West incident at the VMA awards

As most people know by now, Kanye West outdid himself at the VMA awards. I have noticed that Kanye likes to steal the spotlight for any publicity that he can get. He has done similar incidents in the past. This time he picked on a 20 yr old white girl. I've noticed that he always picks on white people, like Mike Myers. I think Kanye should go to therapy and work out his hatred towards white people. It's obvious from his recent actions and past actions that he has a problem with white people. We are all people and this racism thing is getting really old. I am glad that Kanye apologized to Taylor. That was a positive step in the right direction. Now, he needs to get counseling and hopefully work his issues out. Maybe then he can focus on his attitude and then he might be the one getting an award at the VMA's next time around. This time, with noone stealing the spotlight.

My First Job

My first job was as a receptionist at a local nursing facility. I was 16 years old and still in high school. The job was nice because I was inside a heated/airconditioned facility. Also, I enjoyed helping out the residents by refilling their water pitchers, bringing them their meals, and generally listening to all the stories they would tell. I had to answer the phone in a polite manner and take messages for employees. I also did various tasks when asked such as faxing documents, keeping the desk organized, checking the doors when an alarm went off, and running errands for the facility. I loved the job. I quit the job at age 18 to make a little more money and to get more hours.

When is it time to stop?

I have often wondered when is it time for a person to stop pursuing a dream for their life? For instance, if a person has sent out demo tapes and has been trying to get into the music industry for ten years with no success, is it time for the person to give it a rest? Should he keep trying to put his music out there when there does not seem to be anyone willing to listen? This is something that many people have struggled with and it can be hard to know whether to keep chasing the dream or to just let it go.

As a teenager, I had dreams of wanting to be an actress. This dream takes a lot of time, work, and is subject to other peoples' perceptions. I could be the best actress in the world, but no one is going to see me act if someone else does not believe in my potential. Several factors such as lack of enough financial resources to relocate, a heavy southern accent that can be seen as a negative characteristic by many agents, and my unwillingness to do certain types of scenes, such as nude scenes hindered the progression of my dream. I still have the utmost respect for actors, actresses, and their craft. There is so much more to acting than most people realize. I realized that I could admire acting from afar, but not become an actress myself. Thankfully, I did not waste a lot of money or time in pursuing the dream. If I had, I would not be where I am today in a job that I love doing. Even though I do not get paid nowhere near the kind of money most actresses are paid, I still go to work happy to do my job. I have been told that I am very good with helping my customers and that many look for me when they come to the store. I think that I replaced one dream for another and am happier as a result.
Is there a dream that you are pursuing that someone has tried to talk you out of? Did you ever have a dream that you tried hard to achieve but it just didn't pan out like you had hoped? What would you tell a friend who had been struggling to achieve a dream for a long time? Would you encourage your friend to keep trying or would you advise your friend to throw in the towel?

Should we get involved?

It is easy for us to go through our lives, focusing on ourselves, our families, and our friends. But, it is quite another thing for us to focus on someone outside of our family or friendship circle. One day, I stopped at a store out-of-town to use the restroom before I started my drive back home. The day had been just an ordinary day and I was not expecting anything to change that. That is, until I stepped out of the bathroom stall. There was a woman who was leaning against the corner in the bathroom. She was crying and visibly shaken. She looked up, saw me, and proceeded to tell me a lot of sad, horrible things she had been through. Her brother had died right before her eyes from a fatal gunshot wound. Her parents were killed in a car accident. She had just been laid off from her job. She was living with a very abusive boyfriend who not only beat her, but had almost killed her on one occasion. I told her that she needed to get away from her boyfriend because things could get even worse. She told me she had nowhere else to go and no money to rent or buy a place of her own. She apologized for telling me so much but said she just had to get it off her chest. After that, she told me she had to go because he would be done shopping and would be very upset if he had to wait on her to get to the car. I never saw the woman again as I lived in another town and have no idea what her name was or where she lived. I only know that even though she was a stranger, it broke my heart to think of anyone having to go through what she had went through and be so alone. The only person she had in her life abused her. My questions are could I have done more to help this lady, should I have not listened to her or gotten involved in the first place, or did I help her the best that I could given the circumstances?

Promotion

Getting a promotion can be an exciting time for a person. Just hearing the news from her employer that she was chosen out of all the eligible candidates for the position makes her feel good. She goes home, very happy and tells her family the good news. The only problem is that she only thought about the advantages of the promotion and not the disadvantages.
The advantages are that she does get a pay raise, she gets to have a some more authority, and she can see that her hard work is paying off.
The disadvanages are that she is having to work longer hours, thus being away from her family even longer and she finds that she is not happy in her new position. She gets very little training for the position and is left to pretty much train herself. She finds herself wishing that she had her old job back, but that position was quickly refilled.
My question is should she stay in her new position or try to find a different one? Keep in mind, she has already been in the new position for six months and she is still not happy with it. Yet, she is making more money and she did climb up a notch on the corporate ladder of the company.