Category: rome

July 22 – U

On By randysanghaIn 2016, 365 days, 365 days of gratitude, 80s, 80s music, accounting, aging, appreciation, art, aunt, babysitting, back handed gratitude, bc pavilion, beauty queens, blue collar, bonds, Bootlegger, brother-in-law, brothers, bullies, burnett, canada, charlies angels, classroom, clone club, coaches, confidence, cousins, cyberworld, dad, daughter, David Bowie, delta kappa epsilon, Disney, doctor, education, elementary school, england, entertainment, ethnicity, europe, extended family, facebook, family, females, first impressions, football, former student, fraternity, freud, friendship, Gilligan's Island, golden years, grad date, grade 12, gratitude, gratitude blog, growth, gym, happiness, high school, Hilary Duff, hockey, hockey dad, I Dream of Jeannie, iggy azalea, india, Indian, indo-canadian, inlaws, inspiration, instagram, internet, landlord, learning, librarians, life, mariah carey, McDonald's, mcnair, mental health, mentors, Miss India, Miss Universe, mothers, mulder & scully, mumee, music, neighbour, new westminster, niece, nursing, orphan black, outside comfort zone, parenting, photography, plus sized, Pokemon Go, pop culture, Prince, professors, psychology, punjabi, Quebec, queensborough, reality tv, religion, renters, reviving ophelia, Richmond, richmond high, robert bateman, robin thicke, role model, rome, sarcoidosis, schizophrenia, secretary, senior citizens, separation, service providers, sesame street, sibling, Sikh, sister, sisters-in-law, son, soul mate, speech pathologist, sports, Star wars, steveston, strangers, student, student teacher, students, Survivor, tatiana maslany, tattoos, taxes, teacher, teaching, technology, teenagers, tenants, thanks, the truth is out there, therapy, Thompson, Thompson Twins, top model, trans, true to yourself, tyra banks, Uncategorized, uncle, Universite de Laval, Universite Laval, vancitybuzz, vanessa williams, walking dead, weight loss, westwind elementary, white boys, wife, witness, women, xfilesLeave a comment

363/365 – people to thank who have had an impact on me.  Wow, only 3 more gratitude posts left including this one!!  When I started this journey a year ago, I was a little nervous as to if I would have 365 people to thank.  I didn’t want it to come down to posts such as thanking my mailman for the flyers he delivers in that they were the ones that led me on to some awesome deal!! ; )  Early on in these posts, I started hearing from friends that so and so had made “the list”.  I didn’t understand what that was until I was told that it was my “gratitude list”.  That put some pressure on me to say the least as there was now a “list”.  I didn’t want it to be a list and I didn’t want it to be some type of contest.  Then I heard that some people mentioned they were in the 80s and others were in the 200s!  I do have to make it clear that I haven’t had an order as to who I thank and thus whatever number gratitude post it was has no relation to ranking.  Most posts are the night before or a couple of days before.  Yes, I saved my dad for his birthday as I did with my children for theirs, my mom was first because well she is my mom but save for them and the final two gratitude posts, no one had a day or a number.  The list by the end of Sunday is far from complete.  I could thank another 365 people who got me to where I am today and this is what today’s gratitude post is about – to all of the people I didn’t name and there are hundreds of you that have impacted me!  So many former students, co-workers past and present, family members, inlaws, bosses, professors, fellow students, random strangers, neighbours past and present, friends, backhanded gratitudees (bullies and the like), service providers, celebrities etc, etc – just so many people who have made me who I am and to all of you un-named in this past year, you are part of this gratitude journey just because you were not personally mentioned here doesn’t mean you weren’t recognized by me.  To all the new people that will come in to my life, thanking you in advance as some of you will change and influence me in new ways.  Thank you to all of you who came along with me on this 365 day journey as well.  Your encouragement and support has gotten me to this end point.

February 18 – come Explorica with me

On By randysanghaIn 2016, 365 days, 365 days of gratitude, appreciation, bonds, career, culture, europe, facebook, field trips, first impressions, friendship, gratitude, humour, laughter, learning, life, outside comfort zone, rome, strangers, teacher, teaching, UncategorizedLeave a comment

209/365 – people to thank who have had an impact on me. It’s a few weeks away from spring break and I don’t think my plans are going to come to fruition – traveling to Russia as I just got the go-ahead from doctors but too tight a turnaround for visa applications and approvals 😦 alas, maybe that’s what supposed to have happened. This got me to thinking about other trips that I have taken and today’s share a past memory on Facebook brought forth a picture from a trip 6 years ago. This was a crazy, amazing weekend jaunt to Rome!! Yes, you read that right. As the new teacher leader of a student trip to Europe, I was asked to come to Rome all expenses paid for a weekend to introduce new teachers about the program and to get a taste of where we would be bringing our students. I thought for a moment and then ignored those thoughts and a few months later, was on my way on a red eye flight to Europe. This was also a true test for me – I have never ever been thrown into a situation with total strangers and was nervous if I would connect with people. I got off the flight and a few teachers were waiting for the last couple of teachers to arrive – we were the Canadians. I met Marti and her husband Joey, I met Dolph, I met a few others and we had our initial awkward conversations – hey, brown guy with ultra-blonde hair had to tame himself a little 😉 Then we met the Americans – oh the Americans!! Chuck and Brandon and Ryan and Bennett and Dana – so much fun. That weekend went by so fast but it felt like we were there for a week as we had so, so many adventures traveling in catacombs, drinking copious amounts of wine, dancing into the wee hours, earning nicknames – Passporticus Minimus, exploring the Colisseum (some at night!!), not making meetings in the morning because some of us were a little “too tired” and realizing one of us was not a teacher but a mother of teacher who loved marching (okay, more like singing) to the beat of a different drummer. I made some great friends in those few days and am still in touch with them not only through Facebook but real-life reunions. Teaching instantly bonded us but the love of life was the commonality. To my Explorica group – great memories forever!!