I am...

Today was a wonderful day, perhaps the best day since I arrived back in the States. You might be wondering what made it such a special day... so, I will tell you. About two weeks ago I went to dinner with my father and some of his old high school classmates. While we were eating one of my dad's friends offered me a scholarship (worth approximately $2000) to take the Dale Carnegie Course for business.

Well, today was the first day of the course (there are still two more to go) and I must admit, that it has lit ignited a flame which has long been extinguished. By now, you are probably wondering how. There was one exercise we were asked to perform and it went something like this - Imagine yourself six months from now the happiest you have ever been. Now, go ahead and write what is going to happen on December 17th of 2008. My paragraph went a little something like this:

I am the happiest I have ever been as I find myself waking up in the Aochi household. I awake a 6 am and perform 15 minutes of meditation before throwing on my running shoes and heading to the gym. After an invigorating workout, I head back to the house and write another chapter in the book I have just started. The writing goes smoothly and effortlessly and within an hour I am off to meet my friends to dine at a famous sushi bar. On the train ride there I put on my Japanese lessons and study for a bit. After enjoying lunch, it's off to work where I teach English. The students enjoy my enthusiasm and participate in each lesson, showing a marked improvement from when I first started teaching them. After work it's off to a 280 bar to grab drinks with my co-workers, many of whom share different nationalities, some of whom have become my closest friends. When I arrive home, I give my family a call, seeing as how we speak twice a week. Now, it's time for bed seeing as how I start my first martial arts class in the morning.

As I read my paragraph to the group, I could hear and feel the happiness in my voice, realizing that more than anything, this is what I want to be doing. The instructor also shared a story about how a car slammed into her house and knocked a door into her father. Everyone was alright; however, the father had to go and get x-rays. The x-rays revealed cancer but seeing as how it was in its early stages, her father ended up living a good 40 years instead of 4. Had the car never hit the side of her house and the door never cracked into her father, the cancer never would have been revealed. I know this is an awkward comparison, but it's how I feel toward Agnes. Something horrible in my life is going to actually turn out far more positive then I ever would have expected because now, I am free to go back to Japan.

It was a wonderful day and once again, I can feel the happiness and joy slowly creeping back in to my life. I can feel the energy just getting ready to burst out. Since I have been home, I have yet to find a reason or purpose to stay here, attempting half heartedly to come up with something. Well, now I know it's not where I want to be right now in my life. Now that I shared my six month goal, I would ask you to do the same and leave a comment, so we can hold each other accountable. What have you always wanted to do? What would offer you the most fun out of life? Well, imagine that all your dreams come true and write a paragraph of what's going to happen to you on December 17th, 2008.

On a final note, we also did some memorizing exercises and learned a few techniques to memorize names. If you don't believe me, call me with a list of nine items, assign each item a number, and test me. I feel pretty confident that I will be able to repeat the item along with its number.

One last thing so I guess I should remove "final" from the above note. I finished the book John Adams- and have now started watching the mini-series on HBO. Although there are several historical inaccuracies it is rather quite intriguing and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. Hope you are all doing great and can some how find a way to capture that zeal for life which I rediscovered on this Tuesday, June 17th, 2008. Best wishes to all and remember to listen!