Finished my first day at Duke

Well I just finished my first class at Duke. It is exciting to be able to say that especially after only spending 4 hours in a classroom. I attended a Strategies for Fund Raising class. There was an excellent instructor who had a lot of practical experience and I took away a lot of good tips, and a folder full of great examples of things that I will need in my work (grant proposal, letters of interest, corporate proposal, etc.). He was a strong believer that fund raising success is 99% relationship building. With that comment, my confidence grew stronger in my abilities to be successful for the kids I am working for.

I woke up this morning with my (soon to be) bald head on my mind. I am not sure why, but I had renewed momentum to get moving on the St. Baldrick's event. I created a Facebook Event and will work on an Evite this weekend as well (for the people that are not on Facebook). I would love to get as many people to the event as possible to support us.

If I miss you for some reason, check out the details of the event at either My St. Baldrick's Pledge Page or Vince's Pledge Page. It is crazy, but right now, I am not the least bit nervous about shaving my head. When I think of all that Colleen went through, this is nothing. It is only hair and it grows back! I think it will also be a way for me to open up conversation with people to tell them about Striving for More.

It is 20 degrees in NC today. I wore a hat to bring Mackenna to Middle School Prayer group (I don't usually wear hats but I was really cold). I told Mackenna to get used to it, it would probably look a lot worse when I am bald. She said "OK, new rule! You are not allowed to pick me up from school when you are bald!"

Days at Nortel continue to be an nervous ride for Vince. Many of my friends from my Sony Ericsson family are beginning to move away for new jobs in other cities. Moves out of my neighborhood for new jobs seem to be at a higher rate as well. I guess for the first time in my lifetime, I am being directly impacted and seeing direct evidence of the difficult economic times.

I am trying my best to get out of my slump but it is a conscious thought process that I need to go through every few hours. I have to force myself not to be down and to continue to be productive and grateful for my life. It is sort of like when they say if you force yourself to smile, you will eventually feel happy.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and messages of encouragement. Please continue praying. I am a strong believer in the power of prayer.