Since this is my first blog post here, I decided to use it to tell everyone a little about myself, and what I hope to accomplish by being here.
I am originally from the great state of West Virginia. Yes, it is a separate state. I grew up like most people in a very dysfunctional family. My dad was an abusive alcoholic, and didn't have a job for a large portion of my childhood.
My mom did what she could to provide for the family despite many objections, and beatings, from my father. Then during my senior year of high school a tragic accident transformed my mom's life forever. She fell asleep while driving home from work and hit a tree. The accident left her paralyzed from the waist down. My mom didn't let it get here down. After several operations and lots of rehabilitation she was able to do a lot of things on her own.
I left home to join the active duty Army in Germany soon after my mom started her rehabilitation program. I felt somewhat bad about leaving home, but I knew that my dad and my sister would take care of my mom and each other the best way that they could. While stationed in Germany I met my now ex wife. I spent eight years in the Army in Germany, and then I got out of the Army and stayed in Germany working as a contractor for the military. The German government started changing some of their policies and it started making it harder for foreign nationals to live there. I took that as my cue to leave. When the company that I was working for in Germany offered me a job in California, I jumped at the chance to finally come back to the United States after being gone for 12 years.
I came to California with a lot of high hopes, big dreams, and just happy to be back in my home country. My ex wife had also worked out a plan where she would spend six months out of the year with me in California, and six months in Germany taking care of her mother. It sounded like a good plan at the time. In the end it didn't work out too great. We decided to file for divorce in December of 2005. It was hard at first, but now that I look back on it, I think that getting a divorce was the best thing that ever happened to me. I am happier now that I ever was in my 15 years of marriage. The reason that I am happy is because I am not being held back or being told that my dreams will never come true just because it is not possible.
I accomplished one of my dreams in December of 2006. I self published my first book. It is just a book of my photography, but at least it is a start. To date I have sold 30 copies, and donated one copy for inclusion in the collection at my local public library. I hope to be sharing some of my photography here really soon.
Besides photography, I am interested in writing. I blog on three different social networking sites, and I run two different forums where I try to post a topic weekly.
Since my divorce I have tried to improve on the parts of my personality that I think need improvement. I think that if we are really honest with ourselves, we know which parts of our lives need improvement. I have improved on most of the areas that I have set a goal to improve on, but some areas have proven to be tough nuts to crack. So I have tried several self help programs hoping that the light would go off and I would find the answers that I was looking for. I have found some answers, but I am not able to implement what I have learned. I recently downloaded and watched a very powerful video called The Secret. I thought to myself if I would just be able to implement that in my life, all my problems would be solved. I have not given up on implementing the techniques that I learned by watching The Secret, but I think that I just needed that extra push, and I think that I found that extra push in this website. I guess only time will tell.
I just wanted to talk about one more thing before I end this very long winded blog. I have gotten a couple of comments about my music selection that is featured on my site. I thought that since this website is supposed to inspire people, I would include music that inspires me, in the hope that it may be inspirational to some of you too. Bond and Blue Man group are bands that I listen to when I just sit and think or when I write. When I am feeling down about something, songs like The Eagles Get Over It and Survivor's Eye Of The Tiger help to pick me right up. People often ask me who I am thinking about when I listen to Keith Urban's Somebody Like You. I always tell them that I am thinking about myself. The song just makes me get up and dance, and sometimes I dance past a mirror and point to myself as I sing somebody like you. I don't think that it is conceited to have a healthy love for yourself. You know how the saying goes; you have to love yourself before you can learn to love others.
OK, now I am really done. Feel free to leave comments or message me. I really love the interactive portion of the blogging process. I wish everyone great success with this program.
