When I first began it back on September 7, 2004, I didn't think I would still be doing it today, with so many assorted posts to my name. This one is a little more personal for a change.
My first entry was little more than an introduction and a blip from the distant past.
Weren't we cute?
At the time, we were living in Korea and I was there teaching English to pre-college high school students, interested adults, and working professionals. It was a great experience, but sadly the framework and management of Korean schools and teaching organizations is tightly controlled, inflexible, and discriminatory. Although I loved the job and enjoyed my time there, I quickly became disillusioned with the system and the structure. Reluctantly, I left this brief career behind me and moved on to different pursuits, but I will always look on my time there as a valued skill earned, along with the long time friends I still have from my time there.
We moved back to the USA in early 2005 and we got really busy. Few entries were posted that year, but this particular entry was almost an uncanny prediction.
Blog cancer
In March of 2006, my whole word changed. I was stricken with a brain tumor that nearly ended my world. My last entry before my entry into the hospital described just how much things can suddenly change.
Astrocytoma
And the entry in following April, details just how serious the situation had become.
Glioblastoma Grade IV
I had hardly made 50 entries on this blog by then and despite my efforts to be hopeful, it was a very dark and difficult time for me. Things soldiered on for a while, but it was years later when my wife told me that in her discussion with the doctor after surgery, he only gave me six months to live. By then I had long proved this to be wrong, but it is a fact I still carry with me.
In June 2009, and within barely more than a week, I was gifted with the birth of my first grandchild, and I lost my little brother to ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis).
A snapshot in time
Tracy Golamb - 1953 to 2009
Since that time, I have made many changes in my life, but inside, I have evolved and grown. Especially since 2012, I have created many more entries, and I became more of a realist than I was before. I strongly believe in science and about knowing my own mind. In March 2013, I found an old file on my computer, which helps to sum up my renewed mindset.
What I've learned...
I’m taking better care of this old frame of mine, and through eating better and returning to the basics of physical fitness, I’m in better shape than I was ten years ago, and before the brain tumor.
Harley Davidson and me
What comes next is anyone’s guess, but from all indications, I am finally finding comfort in where I am and what I’ve become. I now easily brush-off the things that have held me back, such as religion, but I continue to study them to become better educated. I take greater pleasure in the simple things I so often overlooked or failed to recognize. I ask a lot more questions, but I also question the answers. I don’t believe in luck or destiny. I believe we are the products of our effort, and it’s only through this that we can become the person we are meant to be.
After all this time, I am finally enjoying the ride.
6 Steps to Change Your Life for the Better
“Follow your bliss.
If you do follow your bliss,
you put yourself on a kind of track
that has been there all the while waiting for you,
and the life you ought to be living
is the one you are living.
When you can see that,
you begin to meet people
who are in the field of your bliss,
and they open the doors to you.
I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid,
and doors will open
where you didn't know they were going to be.
If you follow your bliss,
doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.”
― Joseph Campbell
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