LOAD #29

This is the last official page for my Learn Something New Every Day mini-album. I will type a detailed reflection and paste it to the back of this page. I also have two page protectors left, so I'm going to add a page to this book each September for the next four years. It will be nice to reflect on the past while recording where I am at that moment in time. Shimelle's last prompt asks us to send her a photo of the book when we are done...I wonder if she has had anyone take this long to finish the project!
This is what I'm adding to the back of the page above: "I find it ironic that Shimelle’s class fell in a month with such incredible highs and tragic lows! As a Star Trek fan, I couldn’t have asked for a better month. I finished the 40th Anniversary celebration blog, attended the big event in Seattle, met many of the stars of the show, wrote reviews for StarTrek.com, was interviewed by Rico at Treks in Sci-Fi, and eventually ended up in LA sitting next to Tim Russ while we were getting our Vulcan ears applied! Had that been the opening and close to my month, it probably would have been the best month of my life (other than May 1990, of course!). Yet, tragedy struck in the middle of the month when my cousin died. I was overwhelmed with profound guilt. I had tried to call him earlier in the month and left a message, but I never called him back. After Grandma and Dad died, I told myself I wouldn’t live with regret. I would let people know that I love them. I would stay in touch. I wouldn’t let myself be put in this situation again…but, here it is, two years and eight months later, and nothing has changed. I don’t make the call. I don’t stay in touch. I let life get in the way of telling my family and friends how much I love them. I hope they know, but how will they unless I tell them. It makes me ashamed of myself. To top it off, my student died at the end of the month in 2006. Another one of my students died at the beginning of this year. What am I doing each day to let my kids know how much I care about them? I know it hasn’t been enough for any but 3rd period this year. So, the lessons learned are things I know in my core, but do I have the strength to apply them to my life? Do I have the courage?!"