23 March, 2020: The Best Day of My Life

Thankfully my beautiful wife was blessed with the capacity to function before 9AM. If not for her comforting reliability at waking me I would spend my mornings running an hour late in a wrinkled shirt and mismatched socks.

As my feet hit the floor that old familiar thought runs in my mind. "Its a good day," I say to myself, a habit I've kept for years now. When I was a young man early in my journey through life I had a distorted world view. I hadn't yet realized that I needed to be focusing my efforts into the process of my life and not the outcome. My expectations were completely out of whack, and as such I was constantly setting myself up for failure. So as a way to remind myself on a daily basis to focus on what matters I came up with a saying: "If I wake up and put my feet on the ground then it is a good day." It allows me to acknowledge the broken "If : Then" model I was measuring my life by so that I could change my way of thinking over time.

"Its a good day"

There really is no substitute for a hot shower first thing in the morning. In my 37 years on this planet I haven't been able to find anything to match its power for starting a day on a good note. Finish with a nice shave, add some deodorant, brush the teeth, and I'm ready to step into some clothes. Boxers, not briefs thank you, black socks, some khaki cargo pants, and one of my faithful Bob Marley t-shirts under a sharp short sleeve button-up. While I've always been a function over form kinda guy, the button-up is a nod to my wife's desire I try a little harder to look like a teacher.

Scrambled eggs, biscuits, bacon, fruit, and milk. Let it be known, here and now, my wife is a goddess with no equal. I honestly couldn't tell you how I survived my 20's without her. If you will permit my corniness for a moment, she is the yin to my yang. But enough gushing from a fool in love, breakfast is amazing as always, and my son even manages to resist the urge to show daddy his deadly accuracy with a handful of cheerios.

Kiss the wife and kid and we're out the door. Between you and me, I am extremely pleased with our decision to buy our new '21 Honda. The new fuel cells in it emit nothing but water vapor and a $40 tank of plasmid fuel will get you about 4000 miles. Back when I was a delivery driver by trade, and gasoline was the fuel of the day, I felt like I was doing good at 10 bucks for 100 miles, and now we're up to a measly dollar for 100 miles and zero pollution. I could have made a killing if only Exxon had figured out the plasmid fuel thing a decade earlier, but i digress. The on board computer is what makes this amazing car truly inspiring. Over the course of my 45 minute commute to Booker T. Washington high school I can answer every e-mail I've received overnight, and then repeat on the way home from work. When you run an open source educational blog/network in your spare time you can get a little popular in the inbox, so being able to simply talk in the car and answer 50+ e-mail's while drinking my morning coffee is simply amazing.

Ahh, my parking spot. I'm not exactly sure why something as mundane as a parking spot being available puts such a smile on my face but I've got a pretty good idea. But enough about the simple pleasures in life, there are young minds waiting for new ideas and we haven't a moment to lose!

Every school day for the past three years I've taught English to both general and honors students. I won't bore you with the minutiae of a day in the life of a high school English teacher, I'd rather tell you why I do what I do. I was fortunate to discover rather early in life that one of my great joys is helping others. Now, through my adolescence and early adulthood I wasn't always sure exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I was pretty sure that I wanted to teach, but I had no idea why. Luckily that all changed. After a period of time and series of events in my life around my 26th and 27th years I finally came to realize WHY I wanted to teach. I want to help young people realize that there are an infinite number of ways to approach every situation and to empower them with the knowledge that is necessary for critical and introspective thought. I truly believe that by giving someone the tools to think for them self, and then teaching them how to communicate effectively with the rest of the world you will help develop a free thinking individual capable of doing good in the world. My own experience with the public school system left me both depressed and inspired. While some of my teachers dared me to be great, the crushing majority were just lifeless bodies collecting a paycheck. I decided to do something about it, and here we are. Honestly, there were times I didn't know if I could make it to this point in my life, but by examining and retooling my approach to life I was able to accomplish my life goal of becoming a teacher. Yay me! +1Life Goal

Another thing that the computer in my car is amazing for - homework! Now, I'm still an old fashioned, turn in your paper kind of teacher, however, my professors are much more online. So on my commute home I answer e-mails and then check up on assignments for my current cla****. I've been working on my Masters in European Literature for the last three years. It takes a little while when you teach full time as well, but I've always enjoyed keeping myself busy as well as learning, so really its the best of both worlds for me. Eventually I would like to become a professor myself, moving from high school to a junior college and eventually to a university. Always have a goal, and always work towards it, just don't lose sight of the fact that you can't accomplish everything in a week.

This time of year the sun is out past 7, so I guess I'll mow the yard when I get home while my lovely wife cooks something that smells absolutely intoxicating. I've often wondered why I enjoy hard work so much, and I can't help but think about it again as I sweat behind a lawnmower. The sense of accomplishment from accomplishing a difficult task is so rewarding that I really couldn't imagine spending my life doing easy things. I'm not suggesting that mowing the grass is hard, but I think we can all agree that doing it in Florida in the middle of August is just a little brutal. ;) Luckily my genetic advantage in covering ground pays off yet again as I finish just as my wife waves at me in a fashion I could only describe as "lunatic without straight jacket." Have I mentioned how much I love that woman.

We're having the fish that Jayson (my brother) and I caught over the weekend. It really was an amazing trip out on his boat. We fished the pass and ended up with around 9 reds, and a cooler full of white trout. You know, ever since they moved the waste water treatment facility from downtown and enacted the environmental controls on the waste discharge from the local industries into the water the fishing has been better than I've ever seen in 30+ years on our local waters. I'm going to have to write a nice thank you letter to GE as well for those ingenious water scrubbers they designed and pilot tested in Pensacola bay. Anyhow, some delicious baked red drum in a lemon butter sauce, fresh green beans, a baked potato, fresh rolls, and a nice glass of milk; I'll bet you are starting to get a hint at why I am the luckiest man alive.

After the wonderful meal and a quick shower its time for the family to play some games. Every night the three of us, and any company that might be over, take time time to play games together. Tonight we're going with a true classic: Monopoly! After my wife and son (teams are so not fair, even when one member is 2) take a quick lead I'm able to make an epic comeback and manage to finish just ahead in cash and assets when our timer goes off. Haha, finally daddy is able to win one. Currently I'm way way down to my wife and son, she's brilliant, and he's got beginner's luck, and I assure you that is every bit as deadly a gamer combo as it sounds. My wife and I met as a result of both being gamers, so we've incorporated gaming into our family life as well. I for one believe that few things truly engage and stimulate a person like a good game. Give it a try sometime, in fact I insist, go forth and game!

After the game is put away and our son is fast asleep my wife and I curl up in bed and she asks, "whats shakin'?" Now this sounds like an innocent enough question, however, the only time my wife asks with those particular words she is usually up to something tricky. "You're looking at it sweetheart" I reply. "I have something wonderful to tell you, but I want to ask you something first. Have you been keeping up with your happiness through simplicity thing baby?" I assume she's asking about my "its a good day" idea that I shared with you earlier as she takes pride in helping keep me motivated. "Of course honey, Its been a wonderful day," flows effortlessly, honestly, naturally from my mouth.

"We're going to have another baby!"

Honestly, how can you beat an ending like that? It really was the best day of my life!!!

If you managed to read all the way through that I would really like to thank you from the bottom of my heart! I wasn't planning on getting into it like that, but as I wrote, more and more came out so I decided that I would just go with it and see where I ended up. I hope I was able to weave enough real world detail with abstract idea to provide you with an enjoyable read about my day 10 years from now. Please, feel free to comment and let me know what you think, I would love to hear from you!

one love

-mike