1 pound 6 ounces

From Mom and Dad

As you made it through high school and college, I constantly reminded you I am proud of you. You’ve made it a life long thing for me to be proud of you.

1 pound 6 ounces.

Until that kid in Chicago beat you out, you were the smallest premmie to ever survive without disabilities.

Did you have anything consciously to do with it? Not when you were a baby, but I think your spirit was formed during this time. Your tenacity to stick with something and your devotion to seeing things through.

1 pound 6 ounces.

Yes, I am always proud of you and what you’ve accomplished.

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Man in the Mirror – Michael Jackson

From: Mom and Dad

Inspiring music is all around. A good, soul touching song could just be thing to get you moving. Michael Jackson’s song, Man in the Mirror, affects me greatly. It reminds me that I alone am responsible for my actions or inactions. I alone take the burden of my expectations and shake them off when it comes to change.

If you listen to the lyrics you hear a pleading among someone’s own thoughts. It’s an internal discussion and debate as to whether changing is worth it.

This song motivated me to start my weight loss and the part that always gets me, I am tearing up as I write this in the library, is:

Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make A Change

To me it doesn’t mean look at yourself visually, but internally. Don’t like what you see, change it.

What also gets me is at the 5 minute mark of the video. We’re all here to help you, Cassie.

(Ok, I had to fake a sneeze, so I could wipe my eyes.)

 

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Last Chance – Shooting Star

From: Mom and Dad

There are songs that remind me life is transient and disposed to stopping when we least expect or want it to.

Sounds depressing, but it is very liberating. When you understand that to have life you must have death, it clarifies your thinking and allows you to make decisions in the moment.

Shooting Star was a band in the 1970s from Missouri. I have no idea if they have other songs that achieved any popularity, but Last Chance is the one I know.

Pay not attention to the story about the aliens or whatever, but focus on the words last chance. There are many metaphors in the song demonstrating the abruptness of life; the timidness in which some people choose to move.

Don’t let this happen to you. It would be silly to dwell on the transient nature of life, but keep it in mind when you make decisions.

 

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Failure isn’t a bad thing

From: Mom and Dad

Failure gets a bad rap. When I was young I didn’t understand the whole balance of the universe. It sounds cliche, but it is true. You cannot have good without evil. You cannot have success without failure.

The thing about failure is that it isn’t binary or black and white. There are varying degrees of failure and we feel it every day. Small failures, we shrug off. Large failures hit us hard, like Shannon jumping on your stomach when you aren’t ready.

Your Failure

You’ve experienced a failure in terms of school. You know this, but you don’t understand it. Yet. The goal was to graduate from a specific nursing school and start your career. Enamored with the idea of going to that school, you embraced it and worked to make it happen. It didn’t.

It isn’t.

It won’t.

At that school.

See, that’s the nature of failure. You can make it as specific or as broad as you want. The way people look at failure effects their ability to rebound greatly.

How do you look like it?  Read more... (555 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

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