At instructor training, one of the things we talked about was ‘finding hope.’ I rolled my eyes thinking, “This hope thing, I’ve got it on lock. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY are we talking about this? Like can we stop?” We went around the room describing where our hope came from, at which point a smirk slid onto my face and stayed there; until, I started actively listening to where peoples’ hope was coming from. One person was talking about how she had survived cancer and that made her ho

Confession time, I could not sleep last night because I was so excited for tomorrow (Saturday, March 24th), the culmination of everything good in the world, all that positivity, those good vibes, and green dots. Well, I was also up late binge watching Friends for the 5th time on Netflix and eating ice-cream, but that’s not the point. The point is that, hello, tomorrow is the Green Dot Spotlight Week celebration at The Java Cup. The best part, YOUR FIRST COFFEE IS ON THEM. Wh

What’s good everyone? It feels like it’s been ages since I’ve written anything…yeah, more like 6 days. So for this post, there is no theme. I have no ulterior motive. I am not going to try to coax, harass, or guilt you into attending Spotlight Week activities. For instance, I’m not going to brag about how fun the event is going to be. I’m also not going to say that I WILL BE THERE, in the flesh. Lucky you, you will get to meet a real-life celebrity—my fans’ words, not mine. Y

Recently, a lot of people (2) have come up to me and asked, “Isn’t it scary to be an active bystander?” and “Why do you do it?” I told the first person, “Yes, I’m obviously not meant to be a security guard, and sometimes that’s what being an active bystander feels like.” But when the second person asked me, I wasn’t as surprised by the questions. In fact, I think I had a pretty good, perhaps too honest, response. I told them, “I’m actually an incredibly selfish person. I’m se

Sometimes I close my eyes and listen to the deafening noise around me. I hear bits of conversation. I hear my dog as he greets my neighbor. I hear my coffee grinder as I make my first…third cup of the day. But mostly, I hear the silence. I hear the pauses in conversation, a silence that says more than the entire 10 minute dialogue. I hear so much silence it takes my breath away. All those meaningless words could never fully break that epic silence. Don’t get me wrong, the mos

It’s time for my Valentine’s Day rant. Sorry to all, 5, of my readers if you like Valentine’s Day. Well, I don’t, and I’m even a serial dater. Not a serial long-term dater, but a short-term dater. Anyway, I’m seeing this new person, and I was so excited for Valentine’s Day because they seemed so cool and witty and athletic. I was like, “Finally, someone who’s as great as me…😉” They took me to a B+ restaurant, so I had B+ expectations—how bad could it be? Well, my date has a

Valentine’s Day will be spectacular this year. I am looking forward to it soo much. I have a date and everything, even if I didn’t have a date I would have been my own Valentine. In fact, I was so sure I was going to be alone, I started looking up sayings and loving cards I could write to myself. Unsurprisingly, there were A LOT of suggestions. During my searches, I found things like, “You’re always with someone good looking when you are with yourself,” but I also found thing

PART 3 Summary from Part 1 and 2: I went to a Green Dot Bystander training and ran in to an old friend. We reminisced about our childhood and updated each other about our current lives. So, fast-forward to the part of the training where we talk about the barriers to being a good bystander and then where we are instructed to think about our own. A quiet sneaked across the room as people started thinking about their own lives and past experiences. In the quiet room, I gave my

PART 2 Let’s catch everyone up to speed, I attended a wonderful GD Bystander Training, and met someone from my childhood there. As we entered into our lunch break, I was shocked. I mean I’ve known Megan for years. I thought she had moved away. Growing up she used to come over to my house all the time and we would play games and terrorize my brother together. Looking at her, all the fun we had came rushing back. We started reminiscing about the past and also began the general

I had the most wonderful experience a few weeks ago and I just can’t get it out of my head. FYI the experience was so wonderful I’ve written it in 3 separate parts. PART 1 Recently I attended a Green Dot training, but this post is NOT about that training, well not really. Although the training was excellent, what I found there was even more powerful. Before I tell you this, potentially long-winded, story about how I came to find myself sitting next to my best friend from elem