I'm a lucky man! Another year wiser
Do you ever think about how lucky you are? It seems to be a relatively frequent occurrence for me over the recent years. As you may or may not know, I come from a very small town (population 2,000 people) in Northern New England. For years (decades at this point), I thought it was one of the most troublesome places I knew for the residents of the county. Surely it had its perks and pros, however, a lot of the people I grew up with and know struggle with the basics of life. As I've traveled and grown older, I feel like this is NOT an uncommon thing. Whether you grew up somewhere in a glamorous city or some podunk town like myself...or somewhere in between. Life can be hard, difficult, exhausting and simply put a struggle.
You know that saying "if we put all are problems into a pile with everyone else's problems, we'd take our own problems back" Well, I strongly feel that. I'm lucky to have the "problems" that I have. Life is great, even on the bad days.
Why am I discussing this on a wrestling blog? It weighs on my mind, especially this time of year. In just a couple days I have another birthday and in a few weeks I'll (hopefully) get to enjoy seeing my friends and family for the Christmas holiday. It's one of my favorite times of year and not because of the narcissistic tendencies I live with :)
My Christmas tree is up almost year round. In fact, it was one of the first things that was set up once I got back to Florida. As you'll notice in the recent Christmas Video I made with Joey & Drew.
Man, sometimes, I wonder if people read this or if reading is obsolete. Give me a comment below if I should continue with the blog posts...or shoot me an email.
Either way, I'll complete my thoughts on this subject. The holidays are a fun and mostly joyous time for me. I don't like giving gifts for a few reasons, but I know the burden it can put on people to purchase unnecessary items. I just want to share time and positive experiences during these weeks (and really year round but that's not possible with the roller coaster of life).
I'm not being modest or coy or what-have-you when I say I really do NOT want anything for my birthday or the Christmas holiday. A simple text, e-mail or phone call (leave a voicemail, I'm not likely to answer haha) is enough for me.
I'd like to ask you to AT LEAST consider donating to my annual BIRTHDAY & CHRISTMAS FUNDRAISER to help do some good for the community that helped form me. I know over the last few years donations have been down on the GoFundMe and I ABSOLUTELY understand. Times are tough.
I have, however, been lucky enough to donate more-and-more every year of my own money so I've been able to increase the amount that I donate to the local area Community Action Program in honor of my old high school English teacher. So, I am grateful for the inspiration and assistance in helping out.
With a few friends, I put together an actual NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION, so if you donate this year to my birthday/holiday GoFundMe, it'll be a tax deduction.
I wanted to do even more for people who needed it or could use the help...and I certainly know that I've benefitted from community programs and the kindness of many along the way. People who believed in me and saw more than I saw from my front steps.
This year, I started 2 scholarships at my old high school. I was inspired by Jonny Firestorm saying that he wanted to give back in such form to his old Alma Mater. It's still called that if it's only high school, right? Anyway, I plan to increase the amount next year on both scholarships and maybe if the funds are there, I'd like to start one in the name of my high school friend who recently passed away in a car accident.
I've got other ideas to give back, too...and as is always the case in my world, I'm open to suggestions to other ways to help people, so please let me know. If you've got an old baseball mitt, I'll give you my address. My goal is to give away 100 gloves to a local baseball league for kids. That has me excited. Maybe some air conditioners to senior citizens next summer? I don't know.
Holy shit! I've rambled a lot! Even worse, most of the paragraphs start with "I" or "my," ickkkkkk! That's my narcissism coming out ;)
I'm gonna tuck myself into bed. Doing this blog and fundraiser has given me some joy and excitement and zest and many other positive feelings so thank you for allowing me this space to feel like I'm kind of doing something important.
Oh, wait, I can't forget. Although, I'm not a fan of receiving gifts, I do welcome birthday and holiday cards. I'm an old-soul and something about old-school letters and cards and correspondence gives me joy. So if you wanna send a card, let me know and I'll give you a mailing address where I can get it :)
*Forgive my ramblings, typos, run-ons and what-nots. I write like Hemingway suggested - while drinking.
7 comments
Love your site and your blog. Please keep it up. I’m very impressed with your desire to help others so I would like to make a small donation, ( I’m a senior on a fixed income ) I would also like the address to send you cards. Thanks for all your good work.
Cameron, HAPPY BIRTHDAY mate! Enjoy your blogs and your web site. The matches are sensational. In as much as I have s speedos fetish you understand why I like your site. I have purchased several items from your gear sale, keep up the marketing venture mate. Perhaps future blogs can include some human interest stories about the wrestlers on your site.
A suggestion for your high school scholarship program. Endow the scholarship with a principal dollar amount and give the interest as the monetary award.