Taking a look back over 2011 may be a bit disheartening for me, if I choose it to be. With that being said, however, I think I'll use my rose colored glasses and try to remember that most trials that we go through shall ultimately make us stronger. Notice that the key word here is "
most", because I'm not speaking of those difficult situations that we get ourselves into because of our own devices or bad choices. But even those situations can turn out for our good sometimes, too.
The year started well enough as Josh (my oldest son) and I shared a birthday on January 21. While there really wasn't any significance attached to mine, except that I was a year older at 44, Josh celebrated his 18th birthday. Plenty of significance there as we have somehow labeled turning 18 as a passage into adulthood. Good for Josh! If truth be known, I know plenty of people much older than him who seem to have never passed into adulthood...but that is another story.
Not long after my 44th birthday, I started on what seems to be a downward trend. Some may say that I was "
down on my luck", or "
unfortunate". I choose to simply view it as "
Life happened". I'll grant you that it wasn't necessarily pleasant, but then again, I'm not one to consider myself as a victim, and I certainly refuse to blame others for my fate.
In late February, my doctor indicated that my umbilical hernia had reached the point of needing to be repaired. (
I know it is gross, but one morning I noticed that my belly button had popped out like a golf ball. To make things a bit more gross, I pushed it back in and it stayed!! lol) The surgery was simple enough and we had it taken care of.
After a brief absence from work, I returned only to find out that my position was being terminated and I was being let go. Yep, I was being let go from the job that I'd held for the past seven years. Working for a large, publicly traded company has its advantages and disadvantages. Certainly, one of the disadvantages are "
cutbacks" and "
restructuring". Not making earnings forecasts are usually dealt with swiftly...at least they were with my former employer. Sadly, I have watched as many of my peers have been let go during subsequent cutbacks. I feel bad for them. In my case, however, I am thankful that in addition to my severance package, my family had enough in our savings account to weather the storm. I was unemployed for approximately 8 weeks. We calculated that we could survive for approximately 12 weeks without the help of unemployment. This gave us much encouragement.
The next event was certainly favorable as I was hired by Nestle. Yes, Nestle! Most everyone knows about Nestle Ice Cream or Nestle Water, but did you also know that Nestle owns DiGiorno Pizza, Tombstone Pizza, Hot Pockets, Stouffer's, Perrier, and Carnation...just to name a few companies. In fact, Nestle is the largest food company in the world! Click here to learn more about our brands:
Nestle. I'm certainly thankful to work for such a great company. I plan to enjoy it while it lasts (hopefully until I retire). By the way, DiGiorno Pizza really is that good!
Next on the list would have to be Josh's graduation from Valdosta High School, followed swiftly by his acceptance to the University of Georgia. And while both of those were positive events in our life, watching him drive off for Athens on that misty-eyed August day was definitely bittersweet! I was proud, but it hurt...real bad!
We've had more events transpire since then and to add a bit of brevity, I'll do my best to summarize those that remain. In November, I was blessed to celebrate my 21st year of marriage to the most beautiful person that I've ever met! Without a doubt, Karen is the best part of me and my life! Together, we were also blessed to see her celebrate her 20th year of employment at First Baptist Church in Valdosta! The membership showed her how much she means to them with an overwhelming gift of love. Just like them, I am indeed grateful to have her in my life and my children are gifted with a wonderful mother!
As 2011 entered the final stretch, we found ourselves unwilling participants in a senseless act of selfishness. On December 24th (Christmas Eve), while enjoying time with Karen's parents in Palatka, Florida, our home was burglarized. Thankfully, all of our valuables (my family and pets) were together in Florida and the thieves were only able to take a few items that can be replaced. Ironically, of the items taken, the Xbox and the Nintendo Wii were broken, and Jacob's 8 year old laptop was password protected. They were able to get away with our plasma tv, Jacob's PSP, and Josh's backpack. I'm glad we weren't there when the break-in occurred and I can't help but think that the thieves dodged a bullet (or two)...literally! For the past few days, we've been busy making significant security upgrades to our home. Hopefully, this will deter any subsequent thievery!
More bad news followed a week later as I was diagnosed with
Forestier's Disease. The medical term for it is
Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hypertosis. Yeah...did you get that?! In layman's terms, about four of my vertebrae along my upper spine have closed up on one side. Additionally, an MRI found a herniated disc and I was diagnosed as having arthritis in my spine, along with degenerative disc disease. Multiple bone spurs were also revealed. This explains why I have been having excruciating back pain as of late. I am thankful, though, that I have now been given medication to control the pain. Ironically, I am an avid "non-supporter" of medications! In this case, however, I'll have to give in....lol.
I'm sure that there are things that I left out, like Jacob breaking the thumb on his pitching hand ending his best season ever, or the loss of some dear friends and mentors such as Mr. Gil Wildes and Mr. John Wiggins, but if I took the time to list them all, I run the risk of sounding like a whiner and that is not what this post is about. Simply put, 2011 is history and I plan to learn from it.
Welcome 2012!
