Lighting My Own Path

So I have been struggling with my mindset for the past few weeks. What am I doing with my life? Where am I going? What am I going to be in 20 years? I'm in a state of mental flux and it is showing in my kung fu. I have been constantly distracted and unfocused.

However, this week I'm on a bit of an upswing. Things are a little more settled and I'm more relaxed. I have found the inspiration to drive forward.

I have made a executive decision and invested money in it. This decision is to start my own company. I will not simply be doing electrical work, this idea is a little more specialized. I registered and paid for courses involving solar panel installation. This will be happening at the end of June.

This is a concrete decision. No more humming and hawing about it! This IS what I'm going to do. My mind is set. I need to take care of myself and family and cannot do that if I can't provide. I cannot provide if I am constantly waiting for a phone call saying I have a chance at a job.

I'm scared though, absolutely terrified! What if I can't find any interested customers? What if I can't get the job done as fast as want? What if I get overwhelmed? This is going to be the most daunting task in my life do far. I think it's worth it on several levels to go through with it though. This is the perfect time in my life where I can take a chance like this.

Besides, this goes right along with my desire to help create a greener and sustainable world! I believe that if something is not done now we are dooming ourselves. The amount of natural resources we consume on a daily basis is astonishing and can't be sustained for much longer.

With this decision, my mind is a little more calm. I can start focussing more on my kung fu now!

Wow, that was quite the rant. I would like to extend my thanks to everyone again for your support.

Take care everyone!

Perpetual Energy

The Pandamonium has come and gone once again. Wow it was fantastic! The 24 hour challenge was actually easier for me this time. It might have something to do with the fact that I wasn't simply on the mats the majority of the time during the daytime hours. I had a chance to interact with people outside and contribute with a multitude of things including the BBQ. It felt good to be able to feed people, or at least help anyway.

Now I know we changed the theme slightly this year, it was no longer about perpetual motion on the mats. However, I did notice perpetual motion of a different kind, an energy about the entire day that supersedes constant forms. It was amazing just seeing everyone contributing in anyway they can. The smiles, the laughs, the different seminars that were open to students and the public alike and having kids and adults sitting together and enjoying a movie.

Thank you everybody for making this another fantastic day, definitely worth staying up 24 hours for! Let's keep this abundant energy going!

Take care everyone!

Better Late Than Never?

Hello everybody. Just an update regarding employment. I have had a lot of questions about this. First off I'd like to thank you all. The support from the whole school has been paramount. I still haven't found an electrical job, but I am fortunate to have found something else in the meantime. One of my new job requirements is that I need to remain clean shaven. Oh boy, the funny looks I get, it is completely worth it though, I can relax a little now and concentrate more on other things now, the Pandamonium for example.

Research research research. This is my current initiative. The more I know and understand about these charities, the more attached I will be to them and the more confident I can be in promoting awareness.

It seems funny getting into it just weeks before the day. I'm not too happy with myself in this regard. There is nothing I can do about what I didn't do before, I CAN do something about what I'm doing now though. This is what I'm trying to focus on anyway.

Take care everyone.

Awareness

The last few days have been a good reminder to be happy with what you have and what is going on in your life. I am of course referring to the fires that are ravaging a couple parts of the province. It's all that is on the radio! 80,000 people being forced to evacuate their homes in Ft. McMurray alone! Finding refuge anywhere they can, many of them coming down here for help.

I was mentioning how my year has had a slightly bumpy start, that is NOTHING compared to what these people are going through. I look around and I am just astounded by how lucky I am. By how lucky we all are.

Now there is another point to this I would like to make. We all know about what is happening because we have been made aware of what is going on, through several different avenues of media. Be it radio, television or social media. It's right there in front of us! We need to find a way to use these resources to help us in making people aware of the charities we support and feel connected to them, or even just one.

I know I'm doing a lot of talking with little to show for it at this point, I'm just looking at what is happening in the news right now and seeing it as an example what we have to try to do, these are my thoughts anyway..

Take care everyone.

Another Great Trip!

It was great to return to Alabama for another build-vention. To reconnect with a unique group of dedicated and positive individuals as well as meet several more. The fact that we all traveled as far as we did to help a community of people that we didn't even know is absolutely amazing. It is a fantastic feeling to see how much working on these projects makes the locals so happy. Tom Callos mentioned several times that if we have the ability to get so much done for this community, there is no reason why we can't do that in our own. Especially since we have access to a much greater amount of resources than we do in Greensboro.

He is definitely someone I look up to when it comes to rallying people together for a cause. He is constantly engaged and keeps an eye on every task as well as makes sure every single participant is enjoying themselves and contributing. I certainly have a lot to learn in this regard.

This made me think about our projects in helping our community, particularly the upcoming Pandamonium. I'm a little disappointed in my personal lack of engagement with this project. I think my greatest fear with this has been my lack of knowledge of these charities and what they stand for. In an attempt to fix this, I have been reading up on all of them. Of course some of them speak to me more than others so I read more about them. I do find a value in knowing at least a bit of what they are all about as well as a good amount of a couple of them. This being said, after visiting each website, the charity that influences me the most is SCARS. I believe that every animal deserves a chance to live in a good home. The suffering of animals due to human influence hits me hard. I hope one day to adopt a dog from SCARS and give them a good home.

I also plan to continue to educate myself on these organizations to then spread awareness to the people around me and contribute more to this impactful event we have planned in two weeks.

Take care everyone.