Holiday Challenge 2015

      Before I begin, I thought I would start with explaining my vision of Christmas. While much of this world likes to embrace the idea that Christmas (the holidays) are a time solely for receiving presents, spending boat loads of money, and nothing else. I like to take a more different approach to the holiday seasons. Personally, I like to look at the holiday’s as a time for me to enjoy my family, while many are very unfortunate to be missing a loved one or more than one. In addition, I love to believe that this time of the year should be celebrated with random acts of kindness, friendly gestures, and volunteering. Many of my post have been about volunteering, I’m aware. However, this time of the year I believe it’s more meaningful.

With the definition of this, I bring to you a bit of a challenge. Anyone who reads this, I don’t care who you are! I challenge you to do something this season. This thing can be anything. Something as small as hold a door for the person behind you, offering to help carrying someone’s goods, buy a snack for someone who’s down on their luck right now, maybe volunteer your time at a local organization. Anything you do, whether it’s big or small, it can make an impact. Take time to buy a toy for ‘Toys For Tots’, drop some loose change in those famous red kettles, maybe grab a warm drink for someone who is ringing the bell. There is no limitation on the amount of things we can do. Just a simple card, a simple message, a simple smile. Anything!

With all this negative stuff going on in the world right now, I feel like we could use some more positive uplifting stories. If each of us took a few minutes to spread some sort of kindness we might be able to put more smiles in the world.

If you have a chance while doing your random thing of kindness. Maybe snap a picture, take a video, then post it on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook. Post it with #2015HolidayChallenge and let’s make this positive thing a trend. The more people we get on board, the more good we can spread.

Don’t read this then just carrying on. Anyone around you could be suffering; your neighbor, your friend, your coworker. People have a good way of hiding what’s going on. Something so simple could change a bad mood. Something so little can start something so big. So join me and let’s finish off this year with something more positive!

As Thanksgiving rounds the corner, I would like to send a Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! I hope it's filled with many thanks, lots of food, and great memories. Take some time to be thankful for those around you. One day they won't be there. Stay positive and have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Youth Problems 2015

     Our youth are becoming a very interesting group. Sometimes it's not a positive interesting either. The youth today act like responsibility is a choice and not a priority. For me personally, I find responsibility to be a top priority. I'm responsible for anything and everything I do. Not a single person can make me do anything, they could influence me, but ultimately I make the decision. I've had enough of people blaming the parents for so many of these kids now and days. The more and more we set the blame to the parents, the more and more the kids will do these dumb and irresponsible acts thinking 'My parents are going to get the blame for it'. The less we show our youth that their responsible for their actions, the more likely we are to see a negative slope in attitudes. 

       Cell phones have become a problem for much of today's youth. Yes, I find cell phones just as useful as the next person, but how many of our youth are actually using their phones for productive things? I would guess about 10%, that could even be a bit high. For example, all of these apps now that we can download and expose ourselves to the world. Many kids get on these apps and start chatting and posting, then they feel all tough and land themselves in trouble. Unfortunately, these kids haven't really took the lesson of turning off the devices. They get all upset over things they keep putting on themselves, and sit there and whine about it. Every device has a power off switch, if more kids learned to use it, maybe cyber bullying wouldn't be such an epidemic. 

       Many of these kids are growing up to be irresponsible as I mentioned before, but not only irresponsible but disrespectful. Personally, I fully respect others. On the other hand, our youth have decided they'll pick and choose. Respecting our elders, is no longer a top priority among kids. They believe that they have full responsibility to do whatever they desire. Possibly because stricter child protection laws save their rear ends. Maybe because they just want to be cool. Whatever may be the case, it is becoming obnoxious. 

      I'm not saying that every kid needs to be church goers, not every kid needs to be spanked. I'm only saying that the youth now and days is immature. Overall, I believe it has a lot to do with cellphones, now that they have a phone they don't need their brains (I don't intend to sugar coat this). I also don't intend to blame every young youth today, so many amazing kids have yet to be discovered. Although, as news has taught us; if you didn't do anything bad, you're not worth the spotlight. 

     It's unfortunate that this youth can come up so negatively. Looking at it right now. I don't see anyway to change it. Though, one day we may find a way.  

I thought I could, so I did!

     Before I get started with this one, take a chance to read this:

     This leads me into tonights post. Going back to the story we all heard in grade school 'The little engine that could'. Our outcomes are reliant on our mindset. Want a negative outcome? Have a negative mindset. Whatever you set your mind to, you will achieve. 

     Once having your mind believing you can't, you basically have said 'I'm giving up' and that always seems easier than putting forth more effort. However, if you just were to change your mindset to 'I can do this' you have set yourself on to a path of accomplishment. Our minds are truly amazing features, and they are very intellegent. Your brain will do whatever you tell it. So as I said if you believe you can't, you won't. No one ever got anywhere taking the easy road, life doesn't work like that. We face different things along the path and that is when we start our 'we can't' mindset. 

    From this point on I believe you should take on the 'I can' mindset. It's not easy, it's not meant to be, it's meant to challenge you. The challenge is what makes you stronger. In order to get anywhere in life we need to face challenges, we need to believe in ourselves. Again, our brains believe what we tell them. The more times you sit back and tell yourself: 'I'm not good enough' or 'I'm stupid'. The more and more your brain will believe it and adapt to it. To change it, it takes a bit of believing. This type of believing doesn't take some Disney song. To believe in yourself you have to put forth some effort. Once you begin to think 'I can', you will! 

Think Before You Judge

     It seems like now and days people keep finding new ways of putting someone down. Unfortunately, putting these people we hardly even know down is becoming more common. Why is it society finds a need to say or make rude unneeded comments about someone before getting to know them? It's coming to an extent with this world/society that it feels if you are not 'perfect' in their eyes then you are immediately a new target. For example, it seems more and more I read in the news about people ridiculing and harassing Autistic kids because they are 'loud' or a 'nuisance'. It's unfortunate people can send death threats about these kids to their parents, saying these kids should never live. These kids deserve a chance in this world as much as we do. You don't know their story, any one of us could of been autistic, but fortunately we aren't. It's not right for us to harass anyone like that. Not only Autistic kids, but, the homeless, people who can't make ends meet who try harder then you may ever see. We just immediately assume that these people do nothing and sit on their butts all day. At any time in our life, we could be just like them. As I mentioned, you have no idea if they may be hard workers that hit a rough patch or if their not. So, instead of being quick to judge them, why can't we just live our life's and stop being so concerned about ridiculing someone else's.
     We have enough time to judge and harass others for their lives, lives we really can't change. But, we don't have the time to fix our lives? We don't have the time to do something good? If more people took that time they use to judge, harass, and worry about someone else's life style and put it to helping, working, volunteering, saying more positive things; this world could honestly be a better place.
     Though, I know this world will not change just because of a teenage girl writing some post. However, I do believe if just one person reads this, then takes action towards it, it could start something amazing. We act like we can't do anything, but really, if we put in our minds we can, we would be shocked at what we could get done. As Henry Ford once said: "Whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right". Teach your brain that you can make a difference, and watch, you will! This doesn't require some complicated pre-calculus problem, it just requires some true motivation!
     Take some time to compliment someone, take some time to ask someone how their day is, offer them some assists moving something. Those small, simple, easy, things can really make a big impact. None of which requires judgment, other than judging which one you should do! 

Bad Days

     Have you ever; gotten over something, started getting better, etc. then suddenly everything went back to usual? Well you're not alone. Just recently I've been getting better; much happier, less stressed, enjoying simple things in life. Well of course that was short lived, after a bunch of my good days I finally hit the wall. Just the last few days have been full of tears, stress, and negativity. It's been difficult dealing with these last few days, since I had just started to get better. It's going to be hard when you first get this way again, but I have some ideas that I hope will help you.
     First, when you have your bad/stressful day, look at it as a rainy day. When you think of it as a 'rainy' day then you will begin to imagine a more sunny or less stressful day. Second, try thinking of the bad day as a chance to enjoy a simple thing. Such as; a warm cup of coffee (or tea), or maybe the sunset or sunrise. Our bad days always seem to remind us of a simple thing we usually seem to miss out on. Third, take some time to take a walk, head out to your local park or lake, take a nice stroll. This may or may not work, but it could reduce a bit of the stress you earned throughout your day. Lastly, try to just take a deep breath and move forward. Bad days will come and go, there's no doubt we will all get one. Sometimes the best we can do is take a deep breath and just face the facts. Sure, this isn't the best advice but it could be the only thing that gets you through the day.
     No matter what kind of day you have, or week. Remember that in the end, things will normally begin to look up. If it's not looking up, it's not the end. Take some time to smell the roses, take some time to enjoy a simple thing or two, or just take in some oxygen and get prepared for a good day later on. Whatever works for you. Remember that life will balance our good days with our bad, though it seems like we always get more bad days.

I hope you have a great weekend and stay safe!

Bullying SHOULD be old news..

      We live in a world that keeps finding reasons to make another person feel awful about who they are. Unfortunately, more people support the side that promotes bullying, harassment, and worst of all judgment. It's not up to us as a society to judge someone based on their life. We each have a different lifestyle and we all are different; whether anyone wants to believe it or not. Just because someone doesn't fit in societies standards of perfect or beautiful, we immediately should be able to reticulated and harass them. Then, if someone does it to us it's wrong and the person doing it to us should be beat up or such. Well, it's wrong no matter who you are, what your story is, or whatever may be the case, to bully and harass someone that you may or may not know anything about. Though, with the way things are set up, I know this will probably live on until the end of the world. However, instead of jumping on the bandwagon of harassment and bullying we could begin to fight back. There is people no matter how much promotion there is to 'non-bullying' they will immediately use the 'offended' card on people. I'm sorry to inform you but the whole offended by such comeback is getting old. I'm not offended by bullying, but I'm ready for there to be an end to it. It's getting old watching people go back and fourth in insults, why can't we just be nice? Is it because 'it's for kids'? Well guess what? Being nice has no age. In a world of awful, continuous news, why can't we spread more positive? Of course there will be that person or people who find a way to make someones positive attempt into a bad one. A terrible excuse for bullying/harassment has to be 'well my parents are this way so I am'.. NO! You don't have to be like your parents. You are not force to be rude and cruel to others, you have the choice to change. I'm nothing like what my biological family was like, I made it my goal not to become anything like them. We live in a world full of hate, harassment, and bullying, why can't we just change that? It's not hard.
     There are so many ways to lessen the problem. Someone makes an insulting comment on your status: DELETE it. It's not on your status? then just ignore it, don't give it your attention. That's what these people want, is people start an augment, get grumpy about it. If it's verbal, ignore it.  Believe me, I know it's hard to just ignore it. If it's physical, do something about it. Speak up! There is more people on your side then theirs.
     Don't fight fire with fire. It puts nothing out. Fight it with water, make it peaceful, and don't jump on the bandwagon. It's hard living in this world of so much hatred, but let's remind society there is still people with hearts.

One Year Of Firefighting

     Tuesday night {Sept 8th 2015} I've been a firefighter for a year. Sure, this isn't anything too important, but it is an accomplishment. In the beginning I didn't know how I would feel about it, if I'd be good enough, but today it's different. In honor of the year in the fire service I thought I would share what I've learned in my year. However, this isn't about what I learned about firefighting but from firefighting.
    First things first: ALL LIVES MATTER! In the fire department you don't usually know the person or people who you are saving or helping. However, that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if the person is black or white, straight or not, etc. we come we do our job and we go home. It doesn't make a difference who the person is, we are there to do what we signed up for. All this talk today that one persons (groups) life matters over another is in honesty a lot of nonsense, EVERYBODY is important, NOT just one group or person. Second, I learned quick what respect and responsibility is. Of course I knew this ahead of time, but in the fire department it is more than important to realize those two words. Respect is not only given to the senior members but everybody, even on calls we respect the citizens around us. Our company is responsible if we show disrespect to anyone, because the name on our trucks is the name we represent. This leads in to responsibility, not only around the fire house either, this goes for everywhere. Our actions, our responsibility. You are not there to mess around and break things then blame some else, you are their to be responsible and take care of the house. If you were to accidentally break something, you own up to it. Responsibility doesn't just mean when things get broke, but when you say something: you are responsible for what you said. Third, you learn that what is being said will eventually be something very important. If one day chief talks about how to set up for a wildfire operation, you better be listening and learning. At any point in time you may be face with that situation. Everything you learn in the fire department is extremely important.  Don't take for granted all the training/drills. What you learn and use will really make an impact. Fourth, LEADERSHIP. This isn't only the chief, deputy, lieutenants, job. Throughout your time in the fire service you will learn leadership, no doubt. Don't abuse it when it comes to your chance. Leadership is a person who can lead a group to do great things. Never forget that. Lastly, the fire service has it's days, we may not 100% agree with everyone's views, we may not agree 100% with how things should be ran, but take a moment to realize this won't last forever. Some day the people you get to work with and spend time with won't be there anymore. Don't forget to enjoy the good times with the crew, even if it's washing a truck or if it's setting up for a chicken BBQ. These small things will fly by. Yeah, I've only been in it for a year; what do I know? Well from talking with the older members, I can tell you: Life is short, you better enjoy it while you can.
     So, to anyone who looks at the fire department and thinks 'that can't be hard' or 'you just learn how to fight fires', you really haven't experienced anything until you experienced firefighting. It's not just about the fire service, it's about life lessons.
     I hope everyone has a safe and happy Labor Day! Also, don't forget to thank a firefighter, police man, ems, etc. on 9/11.