MLK Day

Hey everyone life has been crazy and fun lately. This past Monday was Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service. To celebrate the 25^th anniversary of MLK day Batavia had two different events. The first was a reading of the “I had a dream speech”, this is one of my all time favorite speeches of all time and great to hear read live. Making it even cooler, a AmeriCorps member did the reading!!! I stop by the event to see him do the speech and enjoy the event.

However I had to jet from there to my own event. I have been helping to plan a service project for this day since October. The event had a number of different areas to it, there was no sewing fleece blanket making project for Agri-Business Child Development Center. We also had card making for members of the military. In total we had over 70 volunteers, made 30 blankets from fleece donated by Zonta Club of Batavia-Genesee and made over 100 cards that will be sent to member of the military overseas for Valentine’s Day.

Today is also a very special anniversary, today marks the 50^th anniversary of the JFK inauguration address. This is one of my all time favorite speeches and I thought I should included some well known quotes from the speech today:

"...the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God."

"Let the word go forth.....that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans."

"The world is very very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life."

"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."

"Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country"

"All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."

"...let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."

Forgive me

I have been a horrible blog keeper as of late. So much has been going on!!!!!!!! Christmas was amazing and I had such a wonderful time. I got to spend time with the best kids ever, my cousins’ Jen and Marie’s kids. It was great talking about Santa and being a human horse!!!

Holidays are always fun but a bit crazy also. I literally was so tired on Christmas Eve I didn’t wake up till 9 AM Christmas Day…that is late for me. I also got to spend New Year’s with awesome people!! AJ’s friend’s Adam and Lexie got the Dance Central game for the Xbox. I am officially addicted to that game!!! I can’t wait to get it for myself so I can play all the time.

AJ and I also celebrated our six month anniversary; it’s so hard to believe it has been that long already. For it we went to see Country Strong, it didn’t get good ratings but I really liked it a lot. I highly recommended it and also the soundtrack it amazing.

This Saturday I will be crossing my fingers and sitting on the edge of my seat watching the Miss American Pageant. I am so proud and excited for Clair and just want her to do so while. She truly desires to be on the stage and compete. No matter what I know she will represent New York with pride.

Monday I will be helping out making fleece blankets for the Agro-Business Child Care Center. It is a project for Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. I will take place from 1-3 at the senior center in Batavia. I am excited for the project because I have been working on planning it since I starting my AmeriCorps placement in October. In other AmeriCorps news, I am now certified in first aid and CPR again. So if you need help call 911 lol.

Next month I am also honored to say that I have been ask to speak on a panel for the Diocese of Buffalo’s Youth Conference about my faith journey. My journey in general is something I have been thinking a lot about as of late. I think it is so important to remember the roads you had to travel. I have been feeling like I have accomplished much as of late, but looking at where I stated I see how much I have been able to do.

I think that it’s great we have kids thinking about college at a younger age, however I think it can also bring up problems. When I was little I knew I wanted to go to college but I didn’t understand totally about the cost, however I was too dumb to doubt in a good way. I never question being able about to afford college, I just knew I had to go.

I think truly if I would have stopped and thought about it, I would have felt it was an impossible task to do. But I didn’t I just kept on going along and never questioned it. I am grateful no one ever stopped me and I am also very lucky that when I had to start thinking about the money someone told me about financial aid. I am also grateful that that she never tried to say that college was going to hurt me or put me in debt. She helped me find a way.

I have not had a perfect journey in life, but no one really does. In the end I try to learn and grow, looking back all my hard times have helped me be stronger and more able to help others. I couldn’t imagine working and helping people if I didn’t have the life experiences I have had. Life is always easy but it is always worth the clime. My journey had just begun.