In fourth grade, my English teacher Mrs. Dempsey was a stickler for proper grammar. Not a surprise given the fact that by the time she was my teacher, she had already welcomed 30 years of students into her classroom. While yes, she taught me a great deal about grammar and punctuation, her greatest lesson was always checking your work before turning it in. I’m sure I wasn’t the only student who was taught this invaluable lesson by one of the many outstanding teachers throughout the United States (and globally, for that matter). But lately, I’m beginning to wonder if the practice and benefits of checking your work are now unimportant to today’s youth and, sadly, today’s workers. Time and time again, I continue to see adults with high-paying salaries and…
On November 18, I wrote a blog post regarding Rep. Paul Gosnar and his cartoon attack on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden. The post asked that Gosnar face the same fate as any hard-working American would had they done the same thing at their place of employment. Now, 12 days later, I'm asking the same thing for one of his party members. Lauren Boebert should be fired. James Madison, the 4th president of the United States from 1809 to 1817, once remarked that "The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty." Where is the advancement of knowledge where Lauren Boebert is concerned? A woman in an esteemed position who sees nothing wrong with her extreme racism of Rep. Ilhan Omar (and many others I'm sure she's yet to share…
As a little boy, I always dreaded when it was finally time to remove the band-aid covering my scraped knee or cut elbow, which was a pretty common occurrence. My mother would lovingly apply antiseptic to clean the wound before covering it with the plastic and gauze tab to help protect it from infection. The band-aid felt comforting and even provided a feeling of safety, like the armor of a superhero shielding me from unpleasantries. But sooner or later the band-aid needs to come off This often raised my anxiety level and induced my brain to retreat into a state of fear. That fear over the excruciating pain caused by removing the band-aid was admittedly based more on false truths spread around by older classmates or friends and had little…
I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard friends, family members, and especially co-workers say to me “I’m just too busy right now” as though it’s an appropriate excuse for what boils down to people undeniably ignoring you. I’d be able to retire comfortably before I turn 50! Yes, there are times in everyone’s life when we’re all too busy with our careers, our families, even projects around the house. But I turn to this quote from blogger and writer Mandy Hale who writes, “A person being “too busy” is a myth. People make time for the things that are really important to them!” Why if I didn’t know better, I’d say that Mandy is insinuating that people who often say “they’re too busy” are politely trying to say…
“Change is not popular; we are creatures of habit as human beings. ‘I want it to be the way it was.’ But if you continue the way it was there will be no ‘is.’” - Robin Williams How often do you simply make a decision based more out of habit than logic without giving it a second thought? More out of comfort and security than necessity? Yes, humans are certainly creatures of habit and I recently rediscovered that reality when I found myself facing an unexpected situation. Since my wife and I married almost twenty years ago, we’ve always been a two-car household, which statistically agrees with American families today and was completely sensible given our differing work locations, which made carpooling impossible. Regardless of the geographical limitations, there is…