Anniversaries and milestones

Life is full of milestones. The first day of school; graduation - most likely, more than one of those. Your first job, first kiss, first car. Depending on your religious beliefs, there's probably a slew of those milestones. There's your first house, getting married...

...Getting divorced, your first gray hair, your first wrinkle, the first time you realize you need glasses. The first time you have to ask your parents for help, the first time you get laid off from your job, the first call from a collection agency....

Not all milestones are good; but they are all turning points.

This weekend is a one-year anniversary for me. It was a painful goodbye; the end of a relationship that, as it turned out, was a really big deal in my life - but not for the reasons I thought.

A year ago, I never would have imagined all the ways my life would change. I couldn't have seen all that was coming; new work ventures, new opportunities, new friends - all while finding a new strength for myself that I had no idea was even possible.

Life is full of tough times; it's full of challenges, of heartache and loss; it's full of frustration and sadness. There's no way to avoid those moments - that first gray hair or pink slip is just as inevitable as your first kiss or straight A report card. They're also just as important.

The trick isn't avoiding those times; the trick is to learn from them. If you keep moving, learning, growing - if you find a way to make yourself better - then you turn that loss into a gain. You win.

A year of learning and growing, and I can honestly say, I'm a better person that I was last fall. I'm also a happier person. Which is something I never thought I'd be. That's the great thing about life - you just never know what might happen next.

"Tomorrow may be the best day of your life; you just gotta get there." Unknown

Friday Five: Banned books

September 24 - October 1 is Banned Books Week. Did you know that? I didn't, until the other night.

I think banning books should be a sin - or at least illegal. I'm of the opinion that there is no greater right than the freedom to express ourselves - and books are an expression, a representation of how things really are (or perhaps how they should be). Either that - or they're purely entertainment, and who on earth would want to ban people from being entertained? If you don't like it - just don't read it.

It's amazing when you look at a list of banned classics - many of which were later "unbanned" - and made part of high school curriculum. I read several of these in high school - and banned or not, they still bored me to tears.

A Separate Peace, Jonathan Knowles

Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut

Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

Animal Farm, George Orwell

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

If only someone would have banned Old Man and the Sea. Oh - how I hated that book.

What banned books have you read? 

Good grammar

I found this on facebook - from this person over here.

And while I agree with Ashley's father that she should be more careful when texting, I also think he should concern himself less with what who his daughter plays, and more with his own felonious grammar.

From uberhumor.com