Megan Morrison's Blog, page 7

Giving Back

Hop on over to "Megan's Monday Musings" at the Evolved Publishing blog to see today's post on giving back. There's no better feeling of empowerment than knowing you're making a difference.

It’s My Birthday Week and And Then it Rained: Lessons for Life is only $2.99!

Because everyone should have a birthday week, instead of just a day, right? To celebrate my birthday, you can get And Then it Rained: Lessons for Life at Smashwords for only $2.99 (both Kindle and Nook versions available) until January 17th!! The promotion code is PJ57Z. Happy Reading!

It's My Birthday Week and And Then it Rained: Lessons for Life is only $2.99!

Because everyone should have a birthday week, instead of just a day, right? To celebrate my birthday, you can get And Then it Rained: Lessons for Life at Smashwords for only $2.99 (both Kindle and Nook versions available) until January 17th!! The promotion code is PJ57Z. Happy Reading!

My Dream(s)

There's a comfort, there's healing, high above the pain and sorrow. Change is coming, can you feel it? Calling us in to a new tomorrow. Won't you stand up, stand up, stand up? Won't you stand up you girls and boys?

–Sugarland, Stand Up

As a part of an exercise with some middle school kids I visited last week, I had them write down their dream on the back of an And Then it Rained: Lessons for Life bookmark.

Now, as most of you are probably well aware, dreams tend to change a little bit between the ages of 12 and, well, every age after. If they didn't, I'd be working at a pet shop in my local mall (yes, this was my #1 goal at that age). Yet the point, I told them, was not necessarily to look back and think of this particular dream, but rather to always remember that they should keep dreaming, and above all else, keep going after their dreams.

At the end of the exercise, the kids went around and shared them with the rest of the class. A number of them said they wanted to be famous – an athlete, a singer, or an actor. A few of them mentioned how they wanted to help other people. "That's awesome," I told them. It took until the second-to-last class, but finally one of them posed the question back to me.

"What are your dreams?"

Hmmm….

The thing that caught me off guard about the question was the whole plural thing, "dreams," what are my dreams. I've always been a one goal kind of girl — get to my dream college, graduate, finish a book, have that book make the best seller list — which was why I only had them write down one. But the question made sense; why wouldn't you have more than one? Why wouldn't you have some short term, some long term, and some that maybe even build off of each other? So, today, on my 28th birthday, here's a short list of mine. (Yes, many of them do have to do with my book — hey, when you spend seven years writing something….)

Dream #1: 1 million (+) people read my book. Now, you'll notice that I didn't say I want to sell a million copies. I realize these two goals go hand in hand, yet the latter is not why I wrote a book. I'm not trying to make money. In fact, I'm not even trying to make you think I'm a good writer. Instead, I want to….

Dream #2: Inspire people. I want people to read this book and think "Hey, that reminds me of this dream I have, I should go after it," or "Maybe I really can do that," or even "Maybe these challenges aren't as hard as I thought they were. I can get through them." It's the pay it forward part of my book, and initial feedback is good that it's getting the job done.

Dream #3: Start a foundation that will help kids reach their dream college. Depending on how much poking around my website you've done, you may be wondering about Sky Blue Mission. For now, it's a work in progress, a subsection of my savings account; but I intend to take the proceeds from the sale of And Then it Rained: Lessons for Life and start a fund that helps kids get to their dream college. As I said, I'm not writing this book because I want to make money, and how cool would it be to help fund dreams, as much as inspire them? Why college? Well, if you read the book, you'll understand .

How about some dreams not related to my book?

Dream #4: Spend a month in Italy. I didn't get to do the whole "backpack across Europe" thing after college. Perhaps I could've, but with student loan payments on the very near horizon and plenty of other expenses, it seemed best to start my "real world" job as fast as I could. It's stayed in the back of my mind though, Italy being the frontrunner of places to see. Who doesn't want to spend a month basking in the sun of Tuscany, eating  (and drinking a few glasses of wine) their way through little towns? This dream is actually   scheduled… May 2012 can't come soon enough!

Dream #5: Live within driving distance of my Alma Mater. It makes me crazy that I don't. I love my home state, and I'm very lucky to live in a college town where I have great teams to go out and cheer for. But they're not my teams, my fellow alumni that I'm cheering with, and nothing reminds me of this more than when I actually do go back to my college town and attend an event with those dressed in the same colors as me, yelling loudly for the same team. I don't need to live in my college town, in fact, I'd rather not. Just somewhere where I don't have to hop on a plane to spend a day roaming around campus, and could maybe even think about getting season tickets.

Dream #6: Own a beach house. Yes, I'm going to have one someday, and I'm not waiting until I retire, either. It doesn't have to be big, can be a condo even, but I want something on the beach where I can wake up and go running with my golden retriever in the morning, sit out on my deck and watch the beautiful sunrise over the ocean (hint: I prefer East Coast beaches), or walk to a nearby market or seafood restaurant.

Dream #7: Move to the beach. I mean, if I'm going to have a house there… No really, I want to live by the ocean. There are times when I think to myself "Would I really appreciate it as much if I lived there?" But every time I'm back, I remember I would. It took me until I was 18 years old to finally get a chance to see the ocean, and perhaps that's why I just don't think I'll ever be able to get enough. (Yes, this all fits in just fine with #5).

Finally, one last dream… I want to Change the World. Simple right? And not at all ambitious; yet as I said, I have a tool now that I believe will inspire people. It's not going to end hunger, solve world peace, force enemies on the battle field to shake hands and walk away. But if it gives people the motivation to overcome their challenges, and/or to follow their long held passions, then, well…

The possibilities are endless.

What are your dreams?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Monday Musings – Stop by for some inspiration to begin your week

Happy New Year! If you're looking for some inspiration to begin the New Year, or new week, stop by the Evolved Publishing blog and check out my new weekly column. If you've got time, stay a while and check out the entire site – lots of work done in the past month by my publishing company, and lots of new titles out!

http://www.evolvedpub.com/press/blog/megans-monday-musings-january-2-2012/

Victories of 2011

Cause I can see the shadows at the foot of my door                                                         I can see the faces that don't doubt us anymore                                                                I can see it coming, I pray I don't go blind                                                                         In the middle… of our reckoning time                                                                                 –Need to Breath, The Reckoning

"Why do you root for San Diego State?"

That was the first question out of an old friend's mouth when we ran into him at a bar this past March, and it caught me a little off guard. I'd been so busy preparing for the night, ready to cheer on a school that had never won an NCAA Tournament basketball game before, that I'd hardly thought about how others might find it a little weird that I rooted so hard for them. Sure, my dream school's team didn't play until the following night, so I didn't need to wear a shirt representing their logo (shirts that make up approximately 70% of my wardrobe), but what was with the red and black long sleeve shirt with the letters SDSU across the front?

This friend wanted to know.

"Um…." If only my book were published, I thought, then I could just point him to that, but who knows when on earth that will be.  I nervously glanced at the TV — tipoff was less than five minutes away. I smiled. "You know what, it's a long story."

"Oh," he smiled back, leaving me to find a seat in front of the monitor and get on with my cheering.

"Come on, San Diego State, let's get a victory!"

Eight months later, there's been a lot of victories.

Some downs, some tough moments, but when I look back at this year and everything that's happened, it's about the victories; the small — the basketball games (yes, SDSU did secure their first-ever tournament win that night); the big — the fact that I can now point friends to that published "long story;" and all of those in between, from a relationship with my dad again, to welcoming a new brother-in-law into the family, to introducing my college roommate to my home state during one of the most fun weekends I've ever had.

As I continue to build on those moments from 2011, I'm reminded to celebrate all of the victories, no matter how big or small. It's not always about winning the National Championship, or even getting to the Final Four. Sometimes it's about just getting that first win, and using it as a catalyst, a building block for many others.

What will 2012 bring? I can only hope more of the same.

What were your best moments of this year? Your favorite memories?  And yes, you too will have to check out And Then it Rained: Lessons for Life to find out why I cheer for two schools every March .

Lessons for All Ages — First up: Middle School

I'm very excited about a special opportunity I have next week: to visit several sixth grade classrooms and talk about my book. The teacher who invited me to do so asked me to prepare a presentation for it — points of emphasis, ideas to discuss. The request got me thinking.

If I had to choose a target age group for And Then it Rained: Lessons for Life, I'd probably say first and foremost, 17-35. One of its underlying messages is about finding yourself in those all too crucial, and very challenging years post-high school. Yet, as I've always known, and as I've realized so much more as I've reviewed the "lessons" for the purposes of this presentation, the takeaways of this story span all ages. In honor of this, today is the first in a series of blog posts I'll do with a sample of some lessons for specific age groups. I'll start with those middle-schoolers I'm going to talk to. (As a sidenote, each lesson is based off a verse from a poem I wrote that forms the foundation of the book. It's entitled, you guessed it, Lessons for Life).

Don't concentrate on weaknesses

But don't let strengths define

Character is what matters most

Everything else disappears with time

The important thing to note about this lesson is that it's not just about weaknesses. I suspect most parents drill into their kids at a very young age that everyone's different, and if someone's bad at one thing, they're probably good at another. Yet as I learned at a very young age, it's equally important not to define someone by what they're good at.

Go ahead, I bet you can name them , or at the very least, picture them — who were the guys on your football team? The class nerds? The "bandos?" (yes, that was me, I was in band). Who was your prom queen? The pretty girls? The popular crowd? Every school has them, and the problem is, as those people — and you're going to be placed in one of these categories — you start to define yourself that way, too. You end up defining yourself and others by things that within ten years, maybe five, maybe even ONE year, won't matter at all.

The most important things, as I learned by wrongly focusing on both the good and bad characteristics of my idol (why the bad? Well, what do you do when you're jealous of someone?) are those that won't change: How do you approach other people? How do you treat other people? Are you sincere, do you have integrity? Do you smile and say hi to each person you see… ?

Speaking of smiling and saying hi….

All it takes to be an idol

Is for one person to look at you that way

Smile and say hi to each person you see

You never know what it might mean to their day

Yep, that's all it takes, or rather, all it took for someone to become my idol. It was a perfect storm of sorts: a time when I not only needed someone to look up to, but also comfort; a light in the dark, an escape from the troubles of a dad's severe alcoholism and parents' divorce.

Enter Maya.

Looking back, she really didn't do a whole lot. She never stopped me for a long conversation, or even asked much about what was going on. But because I admired her so much, that simple smile and hello, that pinch of the shoulder was all I needed to cheer me up. You may never know the affect such actions have on other people, so just in case, you should always do them. They might make you a friend…. In the right circumstance, they might even make you a hero.

The final lesson in which I plan to focus on with the group of youngsters I'm talking to next week is this:

If only you could hear the words that others try to say

If you only you could understand what others try to do

If only you feel the love that others try to show

If only you could see, what others see in you

Many of the verses in my poem are made up of some of my favorite quotes, and there is one contained here: "I only wish you could see what I see when I look at you." (Kobi Yamada)

At the time I read that quote, I was riding my bike twice a week to talk to my idol, and listening to her tell me (and show me, through certain stories) how discouraged she was. On one side of the counter (she worked in a coffee shop), stood a person who was incredibly down on herself; on the other side, stood a person who looked up to her and believed in her more than any in the entire world.

How sad.

I often rode the 20 minutes home from our visits wishing I was brave enough to tell her those things, wishing that telling her those things would actually make a difference. Which was why the quote obviously struck a chord with me.

We all get down on ourselves some time, we all have times when it isn't worthwhile, when we enter a dark hole we struggle to climb out of — no matter how old we are. Take a step back every once in a while and pay attention to what you mean to those around you. They may be trying to say something you really need to hear.

What are some important lessons you learned in middle school? How did they shape you?

The Season of Hope

Those Christmas lights… light up the street

Down where the sea and city meet

May all your troubles soon be gone

Oh, Christmas lights, keep shinin' on

–Coldplay

She'd loved the rust-red sweater the previous year. 

The v-neck wool sweater I'd surprised Mom with on Christmas morning — the same one I'd caught her eyeing in an American Eagle store while shopping a couple weeks earlier — she'd actually pranced around in all of Christmas morning, a perfect combination (she thought) with her rust and green plaid flannel pajama pants. I'd really outdone my fifteen-year-old self, which was why the next year, I had to do even better. 

For those who know me, that's just how I am. If I run 10 miles one day, I have to run 10.1 the next (through the years, such a trend has brought me up to an ability to run 23 miles at a shot). And it was how I was that Christmas. 

Mom didn't have a lot of money. In fact, she barely had enough money to get by caring for my sisters and me on her own (Dad's child support checks were few and far between at the time). And she needed a new coat. My two sisters agreed with me — a great idea –  and with pooling the babysitting and part-time job funds between me and my middle sister, we could get something decent. 

But… Then I thought about it some more. If we're going to get her a coat, a winter coat, something that in Wisconsin, you tend to use just a bit, shouldn't it be a really nice coat? She's going to wear it all the time, both as an accessory, and to keep warm, so shouldn't it be top quality? 

The Columbia jacket my sisters and I purchased for her (at the time, this was "top quality" to us) cost a few months worth of our job funds, funds that otherwise went to all of the extra stuff we had to pay for ourselves — clothes, movies, nights out with friends. I didn't mind a bit.  We bought the olive and navy blue jacket the day after Thanksgiving, and nearly every one of the next five  days, I took out and tried it on myself, imagining mom modeling it, cozy in that soft, fuzzy lining. What a great surprise. 

Only…. Well, what if we could make it an even bigger surprise? What if we got mom a few extra gifts under the tree, so much so that she wouldn't expect anything else? 

Another couple months of funds later, my sisters and I had a full line-up of presents — ornaments, movies, even matching gloves and a scarf (of course, she wouldn't know what they "matched" to when she opened them). 

Christmas Eve, I took the perfectly wrapped box — silver, glittery wrapping paper with red ribbon — out to the trunk of my car, and placed it in there under a few blankets (not like Mom ever went in there, but you never know). 

Christmas morning, Mom opened the rest of her gifts and thanked us profusely. "I told you guys, you don't need to get me gifts, you need to buy your own stuff." 

Yeah right, this is way more fun. 

I waited until about 10:30am, after our typical Christmas morning breakfast of cinnamon rolls, went out to my car, got the present, and laid it on the doorstep. 

"Mom, we think there's something at the door for you."

"What?"

"At the door, there might be something from Santa." 

She raised her eyebrows at her three daughters, Cheshire cat grins across our faces. 

Her eyes stayed that way as she brought the sparkly package inside and opened it up…. 

"You guys………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" 

I think she was actually more mad at us for the purchase than excited, but she quickly got over it in favor of enjoying her new outerwear, even taking a ride out to my aunt's house to show it off. 

My college friends used to call me Mrs. Clause — maybe it was my yearly tradition of getting them together in our dorm kitchen to make cookies? The decorations that covered my dorm room?

My sister, after living with me for a year, usually describes my decorating this time of year as "Christmas threw up in her house." And I've been known to stay up until midnight on Halloween night to listen to Christmas music — my self-imposed line in the sand is no Christmas music until Halloween is over, but once that clock strikes midnight…. 

Why? 

Because there's just something about this holiday that gets me. No matter how much money you spend — and believe me, the point of the story above is not the price of the jacket — it's a time to focus on bringing joy to those around you. 

I was feeling pretty down that "year of the coat," trying to get over a huge fall-out, searching for answers to questions I never thought I'd even have to ask. Yet rather than discourage me from enjoying the season, it only made me more determined to take advantage of the holiday for all it's worth, to keep believing in what I could do for others.

There's a reason it's called the "season of hope." 

What's your favorite thing about Christmas? What gift are you most looking forward to giving? 

Happy Holidays to you all, and please enjoy what is now my new favorite (non-traditional) Christmas song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1rYmzQ8C9Q

PS: Looking for a last-minute inspirational gift? And Then it Rained: Lessons for Life is now in paperback! Get it here: http://www.amazon.com/Then-Rained-Lessons-Life/dp/1466334266/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1324573502&sr=1-1-catcorr

Another Letter

"Do you want to see it? The place where I am free?" –Augustana

If you've read my book, or, if you've read even the synopsis of my book, you know that there is a letter I wrote which is a central focus of the plot . Yet there is a another letter I received — ten years ago today — which is of equal importance: the acceptance letter to my dream school. 

I highly doubt Jerome in admissions remembers me, and truthfully I don't remember a whole lot of him. I never encountered him during my four years at my dream school, never saw his face. Yet his name will forever be engrained in my mind, the name that sat on the top of that letter, just before the words "Dear Megan, It is my great pleasure to offer you admission to the…." 

As I was reflecting on that letter this morning — the moment I read it — it occurred to me that I never wrote one back. I sent in my housing documents, my financial forms, registered for classes, but amidst my jumping and screaming that day, I never sat down to officially "accept" my admission. So I thought I'd do that today — better late than never, right? 

Dear Jerome, 

It is my great pleasure to accept your offer of admission. Your university is among the best in the land, the campus by far the most beautiful, and I can't wait to spend four years of my life there. 

You should know that I may not always be happy at your school. I'm traveling over 1000 miles away from home, leaving dozens of friends and family members behind, and I'll likely be homesick, perhaps cry myself to sleep the first few weeks. But I'll get over it. I'll figure out how to survive on my own, and make plenty of new friends on campus to help me feel more comfortable. 

I promise to take advantage of all the opportunities you give me to me. I'll get involved on campus, participate in and help organize some of your biggest charity events — Relay For Life, the Dance Marathon. I'll even offer to be the event chair of one of them, work my tail off recruiting participants, and help to raise the most money of any event before it. 

My involvement in these events might make me second guess my major. Right now, I'm thinking business, for sure, but after seeing the kind of impact I'm able to have, I might be compelled to look at areas where I can continue to make a difference in others' lives. Don't worry. No matter what, I'll work hard in my studies, and graduate with a GPA both you and I can be proud of. 

I'll become an even bigger fan of your sports teams while I'm in school. Now, I have to tell you, I'm from the Midwest. It's going to be tough to fit into your football traditions down there — do you really tailgate on picnic tables? I'll embrace it as best I can though. I'll come out and cheer, and if we happen to beat a #4 ranked team my junior year, I'll rush the field screaming with the rest of the fans. 

Basketball should be a bit easier. I know you've had a rough year this year — in fact, the worst year your basketball team has ever had. But I bet you'll get better while I'm at school. I bet those freshman you have coming in with me will be really good. Maybe you can even bring in a new coach to tap into their full potential, maybe the team can even win a title? No, I can't possibly believe you'd do something like that while I'm a student, that would be far too much to ask for. 

I'm going to guess my senior year will be tough, thinking of all the people and memories I'll leave behind, and how the journey I'm waiting for now is coming to an end. I'll keep my head up though, and think of all the great things I can do as an alum of your university. I'll continue to carry both yours' and my mission forward in every way I can. 

Any ways, I just want to thank you for this opportunity, and for you to know how excited I am to attend your school. I look forward to embracing the campus culture, learning everything I can both inside and outside the classroom. It'll probably be the most incredible experience of my life. 

Maybe I'll even write a book about it someday.

Thanksgiving Tuesday

"I'm going home, back to the place where I belong, and where your love has always been enough for me." — Daughtry 

There's something about the Tuesday before Thanksgiving that still gets me a little giddy inside. I know, right, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving? What's that about? The Friday after is fun, maybe the day before, but…  Tuesday? Are you that big of a college basketball fan, the Maui Invitational tournament is that important to you? 

Well, actually, yes it is, but there's a different reason that Tuesday sticks out to me, and why it especially did during my four years at college. 

It's the day I got to go home. 

I spend a lot of time on my blog talking about my dream college, and how cool it was to go so far away. But the truth is, it was just as fun to come back, the first time in particular. 

It had been 108 days  — not that I'd been counting or anything. In fact, I'd stopped my countdown in favor of trying to focus on enjoying my time at my dream school. But when that day got close…. 

My work-out that morning was a piece of cake, adrenaline almost propelling me off the front of the treadmill. My suitemate's parents who were taking me to the airport weren't coming until 10:30am, and since I was far too excited to sleep in, I decided to go to the campus gym instead. I still remember the songs I listened to that morning, including Amanda Marshall's Fall from Grace: 

"Gimme faith in dreams

And someone to hold

Gimme love 'cause I'm out here in the cold" 

That was me. In a few short hours, I'd be back in the warm and comforting arms of my family. The idea evoked goose bumps. 

About a half-mile from my college town's airport, there is a Sheraton, with the big letter "S" looming on a sign over the interstate. It's a signal you're almost there (well, that, and the planes buzzing over your head). To this day, I still associate Sheratons with "happy," remembering what it was like to see that big "S" from my passenger window then. One step closer. 

Airports, at that time, had just implemented a policy to check all laptops. Previously, you could put your laptop through security without taking it out of the bag (can my fellow business travelers even imagine such convenience now?). The line of five people in front of me all scowled at the request. Me? I handed mine over with the widest grin ever. The security guard, clearly relieved to see a smile, asked me where I was headed. HOME, I told him, more goosebumps spreading over me just saying that word. 

Thank God my flights were on time. I really can't imagine having had to wait any longer in the airport. On my layover in Detroit I purchased a sandwich from "Rio Wraps," what would become a staple of all my trips home over the next four years. The shop is closed now, which I can't believe. It's still my all-time favorite airport food, and on that day, provided yet another — delicious — mood boost. 

Airports had also instituted the no-greeting-at-the-gate policy by this time, so I walked out of the jetway after landing without too much thought. I strolled down the carpeted aisle, out the door, and… 

A familiar face. 

I didn't even know his name, just a person I'd seen around the gym the past few years. But here's the thing: it had been 108 days since I'd been anywhere and seen a familiar face. Everyone at my dream school was a new face, people I'd known less than three months. Not here. 

A quick pause was all I had time for. In fact, it seemed to take up too much time, so I ran to make some of it up, sprinting through the terminal, down the stairs, through the construction tunnel and… 

Mom. 

108 days since I'd given her a hug, and let me tell you, we made up for lost time. It was five minutes before I finally let go. 

After a conversation-filled ride home, we pulled into my driveway and I recognized a vehicle parked on the curb. I asked Mom why my aunt, uncle, and three cousins were here. "Oh Meg, that's not their car," she said. 

Right. Did I mention I memorize license plates? 

My three littlest cousins, or "my kids" as I called them after nannying the past four years, jumped up from behind my couch the minute I walked inside and raced into my arms.  

"Did we surprise you?" The oldest girl asked. 

"Oh yeah." I smiled, and reached over to grab their presents that had been occupying the top shelf in my closet for two months. Finally I got to see how cute they looked in my school's gear. 

My sister was performing with the dance team at our high-school basketball game that night, where I'd see dozens more familiar faces. Yet when I walked into the gymnasium, I hardly noticed the crowd full of my hometown's residents. Instead, I focused on another aunt, and another set of four cousins who I was close to. "I didn't know you guys would be here!" 

My aunt ran up for a big embrace: "Welcome home, Megs!"

We caught up amidst the buzzing crowd, and cheered wildly for my sister and her classmates at halftime. By the time I got home, I was exhausted, but stayed up with our family golden retriever any ways, petting her as she laid across my lap on the couch I hadn't sat on for three months. Five hours home and I'd already seen so many of my favorite people. Would Thanksgiving merely be an anecdote? 

No, it wasn't, of course. Actually, I asked my uncle that Thursday if I could follow up his saying of "Grace"  with a special thank you of my own, telling each of my fourteen aunts and uncles, twenty-five cousins, mom, sisters, and grandma how great it was to be back home, and how much I'd missed all of them. 

My mom makes fun of me for remembering specific dates. If you went through my memoir, pulling out the most significant events, I could tell you the date for nearly all of them. It's just how my brain works, and there's an irony in one. November 26th — this Saturday — is the 10-year anniversary of the date I got my acceptance letter to my dream school. It's also the 9-year anniversary of that first Tuesday I ever went home. 

Honestly, I can't tell you which event made me happier. 

Back in my hometown for good now, around my family so much more, I sometimes lose sight of what it was like to be away. But on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving every year, I'm reminded of how lucky I am to have so many people who care about me. 

It may be the biggest lesson going away to college taught me. 

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?