This I Believe

Trials and Trails: 

Life has its trails, and on those trails, we inevitably experience trial. I believe these trials; when we take the time to reflect on them are meant to inform our future decisions. I have found this to be true to my life experience, and even when I don't get things right the second time, at least I've collected more evidence.

This I Believe: My Statements

I believe that life is bigger than me, so I need to leave people, places and things better than when I found them, but doing good things takes effort. When I was hired in Arizona, I was given an old storage room (full of junk) in which to teach ELL students. Can you imagine what kind of message that sends to those students? I spent eight to ten hours a day for the whole week before school started cleaning out that space to make it useable. When the students came to school and saw the classroom, they were so grateful to have a nice, organized space. Two years ago, we adopted our oldest son from the Philippines, it was a long, complicated process. Both the adoption and adjustment have taken effort and work, but we hope we can give him the forever family he deserves and opportunities to be the best possible version of himself.

I believe that life is about the unplanned moments. At 21, I had it all figured out. I was engaged to the perfect guy; our families were neighbors, our parents: good friends. We dated for four years; he graduated from a prestigious university and became and engineer. It was all planned, we would both work until we had kids, then I would stay home. The hall was booked, the dresses bought, the invitations written. Four months before the wedding, he telephoned the downtown restaurant I worked at and called off the wedding. There wasn't just someone else; there were many others. Maybe I never really knew him. The next night, the person who was to become my future husband was at my house. We sat on the porch in the rain; our bare feet resting on the white railing.


I believe in investing to today's youth. The mechanic who repairs my car tells me, every time he sees me, "he knows those kids today and he know how they are…. " and he is always surprised they haven’t "eaten me alive". Of course, I am grateful for his concern, but I also know kids today and they continue to surprise and impress me. Perhaps it is always that the older generations fear the new ideas of younger generations. I am not sure, but I do think that change is inevitable and the youth will shape the future; why not give them the tools to do so?