an ode to my mentor, my best friend

It’s already late and I have a research project to tackle, but I felt it in my heart to update the ole blog with a post about my best friend. Some may think it’s an odd friendship, as she is a decade older and wiser than me, but it is a firm and true one. Undoubtedly dependable, absolutely inspiring, intensely encouraging, and SUPER supportive, Shannon is one I am proud to call a friend. She lives a life of integrity, always sacrificing herself for the good of others. It is for her bold, courageous, unconditionally giving soul that I admire her most.We met when I was fifteen at the Brooks High School youth cheerleading camp. I was a varsity cheerleader, and she was her daughter’s team sponsor. I immediately recognized her dedication and enthusiasm for her daughter and fellow mini cheerleaders. Through the years, we ran into each other from time to time, and I was always happy to catch up with Shannon–our bubbly personalities just clicked. After I graduated high school and started going out and about around town, I bumped into Shannon more frequently and we became more than mere acquaintances.  About six years from the time we met, I started working at On the Rocks, a bar and grill downtown. Shannon and I chatted when she came in, and she eventually asked me if I’d tend bar at a friend’s private Christmas party. After the party, we verged out into the night together, and a couple drinks later, we realized how compatible we were!

Both coming out of failed relationships, we were trying to rediscover ourselves as confident women and find our place in this wide world. After a girls trip to Atlanta, which we appropriately titled, “New Year, New You,” we spent all of 2009 living life to the fullest we knew how–adventuring, traveling, reading, running, drinking wine & ritas, cooking, making mistakes, and learning from them. We began running together, made healthier decisions, and both managed to shed a few pounds too!  I ran my first half-marathon in April, and Shannon greeted me proudly at the finish line. Shannon also returned to her beloved career at Bestheda Cancer Center after testing out the waters of insurance sales.

As the director of marketing at Bethesda Cancer Center and the LiveSTRONG Leader of the Shoals, I knew Shannon advocated cancer awareness. It wasn’t until mid-May, while volunteering at the Shoals’ Relay for Life that I learned my very best friend was a cancer survivor herself. It was then that I fully understood her perseverance and dedication for the fight against cancer. Shannon has traveled to DC with the American Cancer Society and the Lance Armstrong Foundation in order to make the fight against cancer a national priority. Through her connections with the LAF, she met Sean Swarner, the first cancer survivor to climb Mt. Everest. She worked hard to book Sean as the guest speaker at our community Relay for Life event, so that he could share his incredible story of survival and hope to everyone in attendance. It was a day I will never forget.

Looking back, 2009 was an emotionally trying year for the both of us. After a rough spring semester in school, I decided to take off to Cape Cod to see if the skies were bluer for me there. The morning of my departure, I heard an unexpected knock at my front door. It was Shannon, at 7 AM, with a bag full of snacks and The Secret, to remind me that focusing on the positive will bring great things to my life. The love and generosity she showed me was unprecedented. However, Cape Cod wasn’t as heavenly as I had hoped, and I moved home a little over a month later. Shannon’s divorce finalized and she began the search for a new home. I reconciled with Cade and decided to move to Auburn, another short-lived venture. Due to financial reasons, I decided to move home to get back on my feet and give UNA one last shot. Shannon was there through it all, to restore my faith in myself when I felt like I had failed at everything. She reminded me that I was brave to embark on new journeys by myself, something several people never do. It takes hard-earned experience for a stubborn girl to learn that it’s not always where you are that matters, but who you’re with. In the fall, Shannon found a house perfect for her and Tiffany across the river. She found a church that she loves to call home…a serene place where she can let everything go and give it all to God.

Back at UNA, I fell in love with my public relations writing and cases classes. After joining the LLS’s Team in Training, I quickly realized my career path: a compassionate public relations non-profit professional. Recently, Shannon encouraged me to apply for an internship with the LAF. Since then, I have been passionately applying to non-profit intern positions all over the country. Just this week, we decided to start a team for the Austin LiveSTRONG Challenge in October, our first endurance event together. We’re also running a 5k in May for the American Cancer Society. Shannon had Bethesda Cancer Center sponsor my Team in Training fundraising event and the design and printing of the posters. It’s impossible to believe I would be where I am today without Shannon’s guidance and support. I have no doubt it is because of our friendship that I have realized the meaning of my life.

So here’s to you Shannon, my mentor and my best friend. Never forget how fabulous the journey is and the lives you’ve touched along the way. I love you!

R.A.C.E.

With a new month upon us, I have been thinking about what I would like to achieve in March. I’ve never been super goal-oriented in the past. Don’t get me wrong, I have always had personal objectives and worked hard to achieve them, but they weren’t carefully planned.

Until this semester, I approached life with a more laid back approach rather than tackling it head-on. In my public relations classes, we read tons of case studies that always follow the same method: R.A.C.E. This acronym stands for research, action, communication, and evaluation. In order to create a successful campaign or cultivate change, it is necessary that this step-by-step method be followed. Lately, I have been thinking about how this method can also be applied to my own life to achieve my personal, academic, and career goals. We stress in public relations the importance of setting clear, measurable, realistic, achievable goals, as well as a specific timeline to reach them. Once goals are set, you can then determine your course of action to achieve them and then evaluate your results by comparing them to your objectives. This aids in determining why or why not your efforts were successful.

With a schedule as busy as mine, I have realized the importance of prioritizing and setting long and short term goals. I have also begun to write my goals down, as I’ve  found I am more likely to complete them if I have concretely stated them. It’s crucial to determine what your goals are in order to progress personally and professionally. Internships, jobs and promotions don’t just fall into your lap. You have to remove yourself from your comfort zone and aggressively pursue them. Do some research, decide what you want, determine how you’re going to get it, use specific tactics to get the attention of your target, then convince them that you are beneficial to their organization! You can only better yourself as a human being if you know exactly what you want to achieve. Little personal goals need planning too. For example, if your goal is to read more books, you need to examine your daily schedule and determine what activities you can spend less time doing in order to make time for reading, set an objective (read one book a week), and designate a certain time to read each day.

“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.” -George Bernard Shaw

In one of my favorite quotations, Shaw makes a valid point. It is so easy to make excuses. I get stressed out from time to time due to the numerous commitments I make and sometimes think to myself, “Why do I spread myself so thin?  I could have time to lay around, watch TV, and do nothing but eat dark chocolate all the time if I wanted to.” But then I always remind myself, “Where is the fun and the reward in that? Why would I ever want to boring??!” Setting goals and challenging myself produces valuable rewards that make every ounce of work and stress totally worth it.  My ultimate goal: To live a bold, courageous, meaningful life of integrity and purpose that inspires others to do the same. Like they said in A League of Their Own:

“It’s supposed to be hard! If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard, is what makes it great!”

What are your goals?

an enlightening thought

“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.”
-Denis Watley

Are you a winner??