The Year in Review and the Year to Come!

My travels of 2012

The best year of my LIFE...so far is what I will remember about 2012.  This is the breakthrough year that I have prayed for and to see it unfold was an incredible experience.  It was quite surreal to experience things firsthand that I have only seen in pictures like:

• Seeing the twinkling lights of the Eiffle Tower at night

• Standing in St. Peter's Square with my lovey

• Taking a deep breath inside the Sistine Chapel
• Burning my feet in the sand of Ipanema Beach
• Looking up at the Pearl Tower

• Looking down at Rio from Christ the Redeemer
• Posing on the Great Wall
• Taking a picture on bridge with two of the best friends I made this year in an Eastern European city (Prague) that I never thought I would visit

What a breakthrough indeed, especially since I have never been outside of the country before the beginning of this year.  However, this year wasn't all excitement and adventure.  I did have to perform in graduate school during all this traveling.  Education was always a top priority in my life and one that I excelled in, but doing it in the midst of travel and living in unfamiliar territory was a new challenge for me.  A challenge that taught me some valuable lessons and made me a much tougher person.  Lessons on work/life balance and relationships also made this year as much about becoming a better man as getting an education and traveling.  

So now what? How do you follow up a year like this one?  By having another breakthrough year!!!  I was tempted to end this year and experience by being a little let down that the whirlwind Global Partners MBA experience was over.  Then I realized that this is just the beginning. I just turned 32, have multiple degrees and a world in front of me waiting to be explored.  I still believe as most do when they are kids that the sky is the limit...with the proper amount of hard work and determination of course.  This isn't the end of something, but the beginning.  That is the attitude I will take into the new year.  Of course there will be hard and broke times, but hard times and financial hardship just make me stronger, wiser and more grateful so BRING IT!  On the other side I hope to find myself a stronger, more intelligent, disciplined and ambitious man.

 But for now Happy New Year and may what I come to remember about 2012 is that it is 2nd only to what I experienced in this coming year. 

A Week to Remember

It's hard to believe that it is has been 14 months, 3 continents, 6 countries and countless assignments since I started the Global Partners program.  The first day that I walked into the Buckhead Center full of excitement and anxiety seems like yesterday.  The world looked a lot bigger and more intimidating that first day than it does now; one year older and on the verge of graduation in a few hours.  This past year has truly been the best of my life and this week is a culmination of more than 14 months of work and perseverance.  

This year has been one of the most unique experiences anyone can have filled with highs, lows, the brightest nights and darkest days that I have ever had.  The memories that I have of all the good times with my Global Partners family  will be cherished for the rest of my life.  Now a new phase of my life is beginning and while it may not include weekend excursions to Brazilian beach towns, I do have a lot to be enthusiastic about.  So today I will walk across the stage, reminisce with my friends, enjoy this time with my family and next week it's time to go create my destiny and embrace the future.    

Blame it on Rio!!!!

I understand what people mean when they say traveling abroad changes you.  I feel that I will never be the same after my experiences in Rio.  I've been challenged on many levels and I'm grateful for each one because that's where growth takes place.  Critical thinking is always important with challenge you take on, but true value of critical thought was really put into a different perspective for me.  Maybe that's the difference in handling challenges in developed country versus a developing country.  When your future is uncertain the thought process used to solve problems is completely different when decisions are made from a position of stability and comfort. Having my thinking challenged in this way is one of the best experiences I could've had in Rio.  This country and city has a lot to offer and I'm extremely blessed to have been able to enjoy multiple facets of Brazilian culture.  And this is just the beginning.  I get excited when I think of the person I will at graduation and how different the world will look to me.  I'm sure every subsequent place I travel to will have an impact on me, but Rio will always have a special place with me.  I guess you can say Rio popped my traveling cherry and it's all downhill from here.  So if you notice any changes with me in the near future, you say it was the wine and art in Paris, you may say it was scenery in Shanghai but you can really just BLAME IT ON RIO!

Fun times in Lapa

     

 Cristo Redentor

Complexo do Alemao favela

Sunrise & Sunset on Ipanema Beach

Weekend in Buzios

From Decatur to Rio!

At some point we all wish, pray or work for a breakthrough.  We make New Year’s resolutions to do things we’ve never done and see things we’ve only imagined.  There is a big difference between wishing for and actually being in the midst of a breakthrough.  Right now I am in the middle of what I’ve been working and wishing for since I was a kid.  I’m in one of places I used to look at on the globe as a kid and wonder about.  What are the people like? What does the food taste like? How do the people live?  I asked all these questions and more.  I always knew there was more to life than just what was in front of me and once I realized that I became very discontent with my surroundings.  I was determined to see and discover more of the world.  At one point I wondered if I would ever get the opportunity to travel after every attempt I made to do so failed miserably.  But I guess determination really does pay off because four years ago I had no degree, no job, no money and not much hope that any of that would change.  Today I’m in the middle of Rio de Janeiro on my first international trip and it’s a surreal experience. I wake every morning still amazed at how far I've come and how much further I'm going to go.  Life seems wide open right now and this is the first step in a new phase and adventure in my life.  I guess the lesson is to never give up, stop working toward your goals, or give up hope.  Always stay faithful because I do believe God has a plan and mine is coming together quite nicely!

Desiderata by Max Ehrmann

Go placidly amidst the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

A NEW WORLD

I have heard it said that the only constant in life is change.  The word change used to bring the most unnerving feeling of fear and uneasiness over me; so it’s ironic that change is the thing I’m most grateful for right now.  After months of anticipation, I have just completed my first week as a Georgia State Global Partners MBA student.  That is a drastic change for my life.  I used to look up from my desk and see nothing but a dead end, but now I wake up every day and see nothing but opportunity.  I now welcome change with open arms and embrace the fear that comes along with it.  Change is my best friend and greatest agitator.  Facing fear is never comfortable or easy however, it is necessary and this life changing experience is driving me to face many fears even when I want to run.  My new motto is; conquering life one fear at a time.

I suddenly find myself no longer hiding from the world but pushing myself to discover my true potential and deeply buried talent.  I get to do all this while traveling the world with a group of intelligent, talented, insightful, very diverse and encouraging people that I suspect will feel more like family than classmates by the end of this journey.  This experience feels nothing like graduate school but like a completely new world is opening up for me that I didn’t think existed for me.  I think the rest of my life has just begun.  Thank God for change!  

FROM BS TO MBA (Pun Intended)

I find myself in a rather rare position these days.  For years, I have been saying that a monumental breakthrough was coming in my life, but year after year passed and I found myself in same situations repeatedly.  I felt as if I was on hamster wheel just going in a perpetual circle and making no progress.  The word breakthrough began to hold no meaning for me except something to say on New Year’s Eve to describe what I hoped the coming year would bring.  The day I finally finished my undergraduate degree was an important milestone in my life and what I thought was the beginning of that big breakthrough that I had been talking about for years. However, not soon after it was as if I found myself back on that damn wheel going nowhere as fast as possible.  Now I find myself on the cusp of the greatest adventure of my life so far and I’m reluctant to even claim the victory that I have worked so hard to achieve.  Over the years I have developed what I call the “loser mentality” and what I realized is that I had become so accustomed to loss and disappointment that I don’t know how to respond to winning.  I spent a year trying to get into this unique and prestigious MBA program and it’s hard for me to even tell people about it. 

Today I find myself in a position of promise, unlimited potential, endless opportunity for success, and a chance to travel the world as few have the chance to.  Yet when people ask what I’m doing these days, my response is just “I’m going back to school, I just got accepted in to GA State’s MBA program.”  My response should be I just got accepted in GA State’s Global Partners MBA Program!  Which will take me to China, Brazil, France, Brussels and many places in between.  I got here by studying countless hours for the GMAT, learned enough Mandarin Chinese to pass a spoken language test, and made my way through one of the toughest interviews of my life.  But for some reason I can’t bring myself to say that and why?  Don’t judge for this, but I was watching Oprah’s finale episode and she was talking about the one thing that all of her guests had in common was the need for validation.  She went on to say that, everyone deserved the opportunity to have what they want out of life for the simple fact that they were alive.  I had never thought about life in those terms.  You mean just because I was born I deserve the opportunity to be happy and live the life that I want, who knew?!?  

From that day I began to ponder two things; validation, entitlement and how they are related.  What I came to realize and except is that God made who I am and for good reasons still mostly beyond my comprehension.  He gave me everything I needed to realize all of my dreams and so much more.  He didn’t create me to fit the standards of this world, but to be the man He envisioned I could become and anything or anyone who tells me different is a LIE!  Many times in my life I have felt entitled for expecting so much from myself and out of life; I believe that was mostly due to the fact that I felt I didn’t deserve to have what I wanted.  I felt that way because I thought I was inadequate and inferior.  What I now realize is that I do deserve to have what I want out of life and to live my dreams; and if I don’t then who does?  I also realize that it’s not out of a sense of entitlement to feel that way.  It is fueled by a drive to live up to the potential that I know is inside of me because if I let all the talent that I have been blessed with go to waste then I really will have proven myself inadequate .

My misconception of taking pride in my accomplishments versus boasting is one of the main reasons this is an even an issue for me.  All of my life I’ve felt the need to dumb myself down and that problem persists today.  Yesterday I read a daily inspirational message entitled “Don’t Downplay your Blessing”.  That message really put things into focus for me.  Take all of the hard work and effort I put into this endeavor out of the picture and what I realized is that I’m insulting God’s work by not acknowledging the results of all of His planning, which is the real reason why my future looks as bright as it does right now.  He orchestrated so many people and events so that I would meet the necessary people at the right time and show up at the right places when I needed to be there.  So how dare I not tell everyone about what He has done with my life.  It’s starting to really become clear that my life is about to soar to heights that I had always hoped but always doubted were possible.  In order to live this life I have to let go of fear, doubt, hesitation and embrace the man that God is molding me into.  It’s time to live the life that I want, be who I want to be, live life to the absolute fullest and keep pushing towards my dreams until they are my reality.