{"id":42,"date":"2011-07-28T16:54:49","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T22:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.livinglasvegas.us\/LivingtheStory\/?page_id=9"},"modified":"2013-10-16T09:26:47","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T16:26:47","slug":"who-am-i","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/?page_id=42","title":{"rendered":"Who Am I?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who Am I? Has anyone ever asked themselves that question? Well, I never did \u2013 at least not until I hit 40. And no it\u2019s not because I\u2019m \u201cover the hill\u201d \u2013 I can\u2019t be over the hill when I haven\u2019t reached the top, yet. And a\"\"<\/a>s I cruised past 50 and now I\u2019m 55, it seems to be more prevalent that the question arises in my thoughts. Is it because I wonder if my life has had purpose? Who am I? Am I the culmination of everything that seems to have occurred in my past?<\/p>\n

Come with me as I look back at the stories that have brought me to this place and time, to see if there is a clue as to Who I Am.<\/p>\n

Wah! Did it begin as an infant? All the baby knows is if it is comfortable or not in the environment. Does it smell where I live? Is it wet? Am I clean? Am I being fed? Am I loved has to do with how the sounds and faces show up in front of it. Hmm. Maybe not so different today?
\nLater, when the food includes things like lima beans and Brussels sprouts, I learned one of the first hard lessons \u2013 maybe not everything that shows up in my environment is good for me. And then the second grade happened \u2013 this is when I got glasses \u2013 I found out that I didn\u2019t see the world like everyone else did and that was a bad thing. Corrective lenses are the technical term. And something even more devastating \u2013 I found out that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny weren\u2019t real. Why was that so important? Well, pretty much up until then I believed everything that my parents told me. And they were the ones who kept telling me that I was loved.
\nIn the third grade, more stuff \u2013 tonsillectomy, appendectomy, BRACES \u2013 even my body was rejecting me! By fifth grade I was totally alone. I ran to my Mom and cried \u201cI don\u2019t have any friends!\u201d She took me in her arms and comforted me \u2013 \u201cI will always love you\u201d. And then she did something \u201cmom\u201d-umental \u2013 she bought me a subscription to Sports Illustrated! \u201cIf you want friends, you need to speak their language.\u201d This worked! Life was better when I was \u201caccepted\u201d. But did that define \u201cWho I Am\u201d?
\nAnd then something else happened \u2013 the swimsuit edition!
\nLike a bolt of lightning \u2013 I discovered \u2013 that there was an \u201copposite sex\u201d. The rules for friendship and Twister would never be the same. I was a bit slow in this category, though. Maybe because I enjoyed hanging out with my new friends. What they thought of me certainly seemed important, and what my parents thought \u2013 well that seemed to matter less and less. But did my friends define me? It wasn\u2019t until I was a senior at Upper Sandusky High School that I finally had a \u201csomeone special\u201d \u2013 a girlfriend! And how she looked at me meant everything. Now \u2013 well, now there was only one person whose words meant anything! This was \u201cWho I Am\u201d!
\nBut it didn\u2019t last. Off I went to college, leaving behind my friends, my girlfriend \u2013 the comfort zone of my youth – to do what every other 18 year-old does when they go to college \u2013 party! And learn to talk to the opposite sex. And also to somehow decide what we want to be now that we\u2019ve grown up? How we want to make money for the rest of our lives while we spend the money that our parents made for all of their lives? It\u2019s the American Dream!
\nAnd if we were lucky \u2013 we might even fall in love and get married. And then we enter the real world, where we have to make money. And then we might have kids. And if we have kids then we don\u2019t have money, anyway. That also seems to be how it works. Now, my job, my family, my house, my car seem to define \u201cWho I Am\u201d \u2013 and although it seems that I have \u201cmade it\u201d \u2013 there was something missing. And it took me 20 years to look really at what that might be\u2026.
\n\"Brian<\/a>Now I\u2019m 57, standing here – looking at all of you. Do I care how you see me, what you think of me? Well, yes, damn it! But there is something that I have been discovering, and Toastmasters \u2013 you – has helped me to discover it. When I celebrate in the accomplishments of those around me \u2013 when I congratulate and encourage the people in front of me and around me \u2013 when I am giving something and not expecting anything in return \u2013 then, I am feeling that I know \u201cWho I Am\u201d. I know this is true, because I feel good doing it.
\nThe world is not happening TO me so much as I am happening to my world. What I hold to be true becomes true in my experience.
\nI have many friends. I am loved. I love.
\n\u201cWho Am I?\u201d
\n\u201cI am the only one who can answer that question.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who Am I? Has anyone ever asked themselves that question? Well, I never did \u2013 at least not until I hit 40. And no it\u2019s not because I\u2019m \u201cover the hill\u201d \u2013 I can\u2019t be over the hill when I haven\u2019t reached the top, yet. And as I cruised past 50 and now I\u2019m 55, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-42","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42\/revisions\/106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}