People

It's easy to forget that most of what you know about a person is what's presented to you. It's always meant to be your best foot forward. I start to think about myself at work and I wonder, "How much do my co-workers really know about me?"

Not much.

Character comes through. Attitude and behavior comes through. But few of them know what I'm like outside of the office. When I'm not doing things to earn a living. When I'm around the people that make me the most comfortable.

I don't know.

Because I don't really know anyone. And even many of my own co-workers, or former schoolmates, some family, are people that I've only scratched the surface of.

Proust

Proust Questionnaire:

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
watching my children play with their grandparents

2. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
passiveness, impulsiveness

3. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
lateness, selfishness

4. What is your greatest extravagance?
gas money

5. Where would you like to live?
somewhere warm, where I can sit outside and just drift

6. What is your greatest regret?
not being able to spend more time with my aunt

7. What is your current state of mind?
open

8. What is it that you most dislike?
close-mindedness....everyone doesn't have to share the same views but at least be able to acknowledge and understand that your perception isn't the only one

9. What is your most treasured possession?
my writings

10. What do you most value in your friends?
that they remember our friendship extend to my parents in the same way their parenting extends to my friends

11. Which living person do you most admire?
Alecia Moore and Phil Brooks

12. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
children

13. If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
another me

14. What is the quality you most like in a man?
Confidence, in self and the people he truly relies on. A protector as well - to offer a sense of safety and security to others

15. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Emotional stability - Women are more emotional than men by default and to be able to control them (i.e. - not breaking down at every mishap) is a great asset on every level.

16. What is your greatest fear?
living a life of regret

17. Which talent would you most like to have?
To masterfully turn my thoughts and impressions into incredible visual art forms

18. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
To perpetuate one's own living hell by opting not to change or take opportunities as they come.

19. What is your favorite occupation?
reading. and sleeping.

20. How would you like to die?
knowing that I lived my life the way I was meant to, happily

21. What are your favorite names?
Tyler, Quinn, Landon, Gage

22. What is your most marked characteristic?
my unfaltering smile

23. Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
The Doctor, 10th edition

24. Who are your heroes in real life?
My mom; Aunt Cheryl, my best friend

25. What is your motto?
Inhale deeply. Pause.
Gracefully collect your thoughts.
Write, publish, exhale.

For you - 2 for 1

Jose: "Your personality and the way in which you carry yourself leaves whoever has the chance to meet you with an impact like that of a child receiving a gift for the first time"

I was feeling kind of sad, kind of down, and Jose came up with this, to make me feel better. And i'll love him forever for it.

"You know what I love about beauty? I can ask thirty different people to describe it and they can provide thirty different examples. That's the definition of beauty" ....that little gem belongs to me =)

Mothers

They always know. From the very beginning they always know. That intuition is just spot on every single time. I wish I could go back and thank her, in those moments, and apologize for not heeding her warnings. I'm paying for every single one now.


But that's ok. Because now I know. I know what things to avoid, and how they'll be handled ultimately. For that I'm grateful. And I could never tell her enough.