Thursday, October 2, 2008

#200, Great to Be Here

Recently, my wife gave Todd and I an award, which I was honored to receive. She, after all, inspired me to begin this blog. Numerous others had suggested it, but she finally gave me the motivation I needed to do it. Writing it with Todd has been a real pleasure, since we'd wanted to write something together for ages. We even tried co-writing a website before the age of blogging began, but it was not to be. Now we have this blog.
What inspired us to begin? We wanted to share our thoughts on success, on what that really means for us (and perhaps what it should mean for others), and on how we hope to find it in various elements of our lives. Hopefully over these two hundred posts we have at least scratched the surface in that endeavor. Certainly there are many more things we could write about on the subject of success. Along the way, my own plans in life have changed (or at least accelerated), and I give Todd a lot of credit for helping me wake up to that possibility. So, to my co-blogger and best friend, many thanks.

Finally, in the spirit of an acceptance speech, I'd like to thank my children. They bring joy to my life each day. The way they greet me when I come home would make life worth living even if I were shoveling manure to pay the bills. And even greater, looking at my children every day has helped me realize how important it is to follow my own dreams. I can't bear the thought of having to explain to them one day that "Daddy had a dream, but it wasn't important enough to follow... but you follow your own." No, I must show them - lead by example - if I can ever hope to give them the fatherly love and guidance they deserve. These special beings give me so much hope for the future - their future - and I would hate to be the one who snuffed out that hope.

I don't know seven bloggers to pass this award on to - at least not that my wife hasn't already given it to. I will say I have truly enjoyed Attached Parent (my wife's blog) because it is fun to see her perspective on our life together, both for the similarities and the differences. I have only recently started reading Natasha's blog, but I would definitely pass the award on to her because I love the conversational tone of her posts. I second my wife's inclusion of Melissa's blog because so many of her posts make me laugh, and her virtual book club has gotten me to read at least one excellent book (The Last Lecture) and one other book I would never have read but for her. I also like Jill's blog because it is full of humor and great family experiences. The same goes for Darlene's blog - have I ever mentioned I love my in-laws? - which helps me think about things we should be doing for our little family. Martha's blog is always full of happy thoughts - she is one of the most upbeat people I've ever met - and great pictures. Crissy's blog (when she writes) is inspiring because I know it has to be hard as a single mother of three boys to even consider working toward debt elimination. Good for her.

So there are seven blogs I have enjoyed reading and with whom I would gladly like to share the award our blog received. Thank you again.
-- Robert

4 comments:

Melissa said...

Thanks!

Sorry I've been in total lurker mode lately, but I loved your posts about deciding on schools. Especially the one about Harvard. I had a friend who did the opposite of you and regretted it every day she was there. She ended up finishing at Cornell.

Robert said...

Yes, as I said in the post, the professor who said that was far from the first. He just wanted me to know his perspective (and what others he knew felt) regarding how they use (for lack of a better term) their junior faculty and Ph.D. students. I don't want to resent where I go to school. I've been there and don't want to ever do that again. School will be hard enough without that mindset.

And don't worry about lurking. Clearly you're not the only one (or at least I hope there are others out there reading). I wrote those posts for me to have a record more than to get comments. Thanks for reading!

Jill Skouson said...

Thanks Rob! I've been meaning to add your blog to my blog list but I just never follow through. I'll add it now :) I read it occasionally by linking from Ellie's but adding it to my list will make me a more frequent visitor.

Robert said...

Thanks, Jill. Glad to hear it. I've always enjoyed your blog and try to catch every post. I don't always comment, but it's fun to keep up with what you two are doing.