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Pick Up and Move, Florida Gratitude
From previous post.
When I got back home, it was the car ride from the airport that I realized I don’t belong in Illinois anymore. This realization and many more signs and hard work has put me in the great spot I am today. You will have to wait till next week to find out what was next for me.
Life will just exist, but in order to make it existing you need to face many challenges, fall, rise up, and move on! One chapter to the next I am living my life. Change to change I am full of gratitude the whole way.
I gratefully stayed at my sister’s place when I got home from my cruise adventure. I went on our families camping trip as a surprise and saw tons of family, but then realized it was time for change. My friend Chris and his wife Reese were up from Florida to visit and gave me the idea to move down and stay with them till I got on my feet! With my money running out, my credit cards maxing, my desire for more big change, and my friends grateful offer, I packed my car. I had a party and said good bye to Illinois. Now I was Florida bound on only the promise of an interview for a job! I had about a half dozen people worried for my drive down here, given my sleepy history, but I MADE IT!
Sunny, hot, stormy Florida was my new home. Guess what, that interview went south! I guess I was meant to be more than simply a zipline instructor. Chris and Reese work with the school district and suggested I set my efforts there. First I applied to be a substitute teacher and was lining myself up to nail this job. Then I applied to be a Para Professional for several schools. In the light of burning to the end of my money I also applied for everything even graphic design jobs. I WILL GET A JOB, that was my full time job.
I had an amazing interview at one school, the first and only interview I had down here. A few days later I got a call from my previous boss in the design business and he said the school called him and he gave me a glowing review. He also jumped the gun and said I got the job. No sooner then immediately after I hung up the phone did the Principle from my new job call me to offer me that job! YES of course I took it. The rest of this week my phone rang off the hook for interviews from other schools, and other job opportunities, I declined all of them. The funny thing is I just realized the job I have now was the only actual interview I had down here…..and I NAILED IT!
Five shout-outs for this amazing job find! I am grateful for the help of Reese, Chris, Jon, Megan, and Denise.
The job working with children has many rewards and some of my regular followers have already read about it too. I never thought I would be working with children like I am but there is far more to my experience down here. I have been kayaking on many occasions, I have visited every person I know down here, I have been to the beach so many times I lost count, I have seen so much nature has to offer here, I have seen friends from my cruise job, I have meet new people, MLS has expanded a brand new team down here the Orlando City Soccer Club, I have really strengthened my knowledge, interest and skill in spiritual energy healing, I have found a church I actually enjoy going to, and the list just keeps going. I am grateful for every little bit that I have experienced already down here and the world still has so much more to show me.
Change is challenging, but without a challenge there is no change. It’s been a scary ride the past few years but I have not stopped smiling sense the moment I got down here to Florida. I am grateful to be able to say life is amazing down here. I have made so many big changes and as long as I stick it out my heart has not lied to me once. Gratitude has been my main passenger on life’s journey and certainly there is no shortage of things to be grateful for with my life down here in Florida.
UPwithMARCH
Day 18 of 31 Days of Gratitude. Check out my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/UPwithmarc) participate, like my page and share it with your friends. Let the world know what you are grateful for.
Blow Your Own Mind
I visited my hometown area for Christmas and New Years in the Northwest parts of the Chicago area. Being a resident of Florida now and it being winter time I was anxious to see the snow again. Sense I booked my flight I hoped for snow for some time, and waited in controlled excitement for that day, just like I waited for my day at sea on my cruise vacation a few years ago. That day never came and as I flew back home that snow began to fall.
I felt weird on the way home and I told my mom and dad it was weird that I was flying home to what most people call a vacation spot, and where I came to visit was where I used to live. I landed in Florida only to hear my Father say the snow plow just went by and my Mother sends me pictures of the 4 inches of snow she got and it is still coming down. I missed what I really wanted to see by hours not even a whole day!
Should I be disappointed? NO! When you do something enough it becomes habit. On a journey to love everything in life you must take initiative to find the positives in the not so glamorous situations. Finding positives has become second nature to me. Yes I am from Illinois, snow is glamorous to me! Right off the bat anyone can conclude that I left just in time, without having any weather delays and I got home safely. I was sitting in my room in shorts and a t-shirt; thinking about the snow I was missing, I was sweating and it felt so hot here! I was antsy to look into my new Spanish-speaking program and my new Chakra set but my mind lays distracted by the snow I missed.
I took the time to figuring out what was going on in my head and I realized I wrote my answer to this issue of missing the snow, last Friday!
Variety Friday (purpose) “Finding your way means stepping away from something good for something better.”
I actually got a little teary eyed writing this because my life now has been full of inspiration and I have so much to be grateful for as a result. On more than one occasion I have succeeded in blowing my own mind. This was one of those times. These self discoveries are what taking your own path in life is all about. I shed no disappointment for not seeing more than a light dusting of snow when I left, but I do take pride in standing here in Florida, a resident for only about 6 months, and looking back up north with praise for what this world has given to me up to this point. There is more coming, there is always more coming if that is what you believe in. The snow is good but for my life the ocean is better.
Ask The Ocean
Sometimes you need to get answers that you cannot figure out. Sometimes you just want to know what to do next in your life. Sometimes you just have a simple question. When you have questions obviously you want them answered. Perhaps it is an answer that mom and dad can’t give you even though they know everything! Maybe it is beyond the realm of your teacher. Unless you’re fixed on the Magic 8 Ball for answering your life questions, there are still so many ways to get your answer. You can ask God, you can look to your guardian angel, you can entrust spiritual leaders or healers, you can scream life’s burning questions at the top of the mountain and listen to the answers in your echos. There are many ways to get life’s questions answered and I for one have begun asking the ocean!
(warning long story :P) You can get your answer anywhere but until you believe that things happen for a reason you will never hear the right answers. Life is a personal journey and this is part of mine.
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I went on vacation with my sister. We went on a cruise through the Southern Caribbean. All I could think about before the trip was our day at sea. I had no Idea why the open ocean was calling to me. But I answered! The day had finally come and this day turned out to be one of the best days in my entire life. It was my first vacation with just my sister, it was my first time on a cruise ship, and my first time at sea. I sat out on our balcony for a good hour staring out to the endless nothings of the deep ocean. This was about 2 years ago and to this day I have shared this story with no one in such detail, not even my sister who was right there. The Ocean talked to me that day. It said “Marc this is where you belong, this is your life, this is your happiness, and this is where you start living your life.” Moments after my connection with the Ocean an announcement came over the main intercom of the ship. It was for bingo at 9am! I told my sister that we should check it out. Ya know live it up by playing bingo, ha! We played and several numbers were called and when you are one number away from bingo you stand. People all over were standing up. People were calling false bingos left and right. Finally it was my turn to stand! That very next number was mine, but 4 others also stood up. Now if we all won the winnings would be split. One after another, again more false bingos. I begin to doubt my card. I was the last card to be read in that theater, and I was the only one to win $750 to spend on the ship for our day at sea. WHOA! I never win anything like that. I looked back on this event only a few weeks ago and realized, the Ocean gave that win to me, and live it up we did. My sister and I got full massage packages; we bought stuff in the shops for ourselves and some people at home. We shared our winnings on drinks for our dinner guests and spent the rest on ourselves with more beverages. I had never won that much money, I had never had such a nice watch, I had never had a massage. Who would have thought that this day at sea on our cruise would be the front lines to things I have never done.
That same evening when our winnings were almost out, we were chatting with the bartender. Here it comes I asked her the question of my future and I believe she was speaking on behalf of the Ocean that night. I ask “how does one go about getting a job on a cruise ship?”
A year and a half later and lots of hard work and changes to my life I was about to step on to the moving vassal of my future that floats upon the Ocean, who has given me so much already…..Waiting, waiting, waiting to be assigned to a ship and finally it comes, for 6 months I will be on Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas touring, wouldn’t you know, the Southern Caribbean. I was so ready for this job. I was ready to have the Ocean by my side. Every time I could I stepped out on the open decks of my new job and had many talks with the Ocean. I poured my soul into these deep waters, as the beauty of the crashing waves mesmerized my senses. So began my love affair with the water not only did I hang out ocean side on the ship I also took every opportunity to float within the waters on every beach we visited.
Then something terrible happened, I was allergic to something and it was bad. On the ship and on the shore they did all they could to remedy my situation to no avail. (in no way does my experience reflect what the guest experience on this amazingly beautiful ship.) I could hardly sleep, and my already long work days were getting harder and harder. It looked like I was going to have to be sent home. About a week before I did get sent home my watch that I bought on my vacation stopped working. Well my watched stopped before the time it should have but I now know it was a sign that it was time to go home.
I pleaded with the Ocean as to why this was happening. I loved it out here in the open waters. I got home and it just did not feel the same. What I called home was more uncomfortable than ever. I knew shortly after that I must get near the Ocean once again. That is what brings me down here to Florida.
This past week over Thanksgiving break I stood by the Ocean alone for just a few minutes at a time almost every day up in New Symerna Beach, FL. All I asked is “what is next”? This brings us up to just about right now! I Listened, I listened to the waves crash up on the beach, I felt the waves crash into me, I walked the beach up and down to let the Ocean know I was there. I woke up one of the mornings later in the week, and to my surprise my answers have come.
The Ocean has spoken to me clearly once again, “Marc you belong here, the ocean needs you close by. Your job search landed a new career choice to make a different and it is where you belong right now. Your next step is to settle down and continue to build your new life here. Your next step is to find someone special to share the rest of your life with”.
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Everything happens for a reason, it is what you choose to hear and see that shapes your future. Live your life, Love your life, and share it with others. Take your next question to the ocean and let yourself accept whatever answer it gives you.
Okay so that was long! But I hope that some of you have been inspired! I Sometimes part of becoming positive is reading positive stories or writing your own even. love all of you, and I am grateful for all your support.
Learning Experience
No matter how much you are prepared for the new things in your life, the hidden challenges will show themselves. Take every bad choice in your life, every bad thing that happened to you, every negative experience and ask yourself what have you learned? No matter what happens in your life never leave it in your mind on a bad note. Sure there will be things in your life that will devastate you and things that will knock you down. Let the tears and fears within, out. Get that negative energy out of you and start to accept what you have learned in a positive direction. What you have learned in your life is of much more substantial value than anything you lost. Put your mind in the positive. You can never completely erase your past but you can certainly set up what you want to remember from it. Remember the good things.
Where are you in your life? Take a moment to cue up all the successes in your life. If you have not filled up your head with tons of positive experiences you are not thinking hard enough. I don’t care how old you are or how big or small these successes are I know each and every one of you has a huge list! It is all about what is important to you and more importantly what you have learned.
You can look at every failure in your life as a success story. When you fell off your bike the first time did you give up and never get back on? Apply that idea to everything you have ever done in your life. I remember just learning how to ride my bike, getting faster and faster, taking more risks, going out farther away from home. I hit a big hole in the sidewalk and went sailing over my handle bars badly scraping up my body from head to toe. You know what? Today on my bike I can ride about 70 miles in one trip and I can hit speeds over 30+ miles per hour. I have mountain biked over dangerous terrains and on the edge of mountain side cliffs. I would say that’s an accomplishment. I would say that is a learning experience. If I fell off my bike and never got back on there is so much in life I would have missed.
Let me relate that to right now. My life bottomed out. My love life was torn to shreds, the luster of my career as a graphic designer has met its end. I had just thought I found myself only to realize I was lost again. Never thought I would say this but there is a lot to learn on the bottom. I was too young to see it when I was down there before but down there again into familiar grounds I found so much potential. I stepped into an amazing talent for cake decorating, I started a big vow of positivism in my life, I started this very blog to share all of my positivism with the world. Career wise I am sampling so many pieces to my dreams. Networking has been an angel of opportunities. I have been sampling marketing, promotions, creative writing, motivational speaking and careers in the outdoors. Just like with my bike I have ventured farther away from home and challenged a career at sea. I will talk more about my experiences with ship life later but this has marked an exciting challenge in my life. I should now say a huge learning experience. More importantly ship life has been an amazing adventure in the future of whom I am and where I am going. There is an entire hallway of open doors for me to walk in and explore now. My best friend and his wife have generously reached out to me with a place to stay and a wealth of opportunities. I would be a fool not to jump on that, so in four days I pack up my life once again and now I am headed to Florida! I am at a point in my life were I expect the challenges and I look forward to what I will learn from them.
Through all of this change I have not only discovered a very heavy spiritual side but, I side that really is telling me to share it with others. There will be a day were I can motivate many, where I can change lives and get people to realize all the positive energy within each one of us. There is a lot that has to happen first but one thing at a time I am on my way.
The most important things in your life are not your failures, but what you have learned from those failures. When you fall all you have to do is get up. Learn from your experience both good and bad. What is the next step in your life? Take that risk in a new direction. The worst that could happen is you learn something new about your life. If I am not mistaken that’s what life is all about, learning new things from new experiences. All you have to do is never give up. Life is going to get hard. If your life is not hard you are not learning anything, and your experiences are slim. Take your life and get out there and do what you want to do with it, challenge it. It is your choice to choose to do nothing or everything.
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