Showing posts with label Colleen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colleen. Show all posts

Striving for More Personality Profile

I met with Lori, a Strategist who is working with the firm that is creating our new website. She asked me a series of questions about Striving for More and then gave me some homework. My assignments including coming up with a personality profile for Striving for More. I am supposed to pretend that Striving for More is a person and decide what it would drive, wear, like to eat, like to listen to, etc. I thought I would share my conclusions.

When I stop and think about the personality of Striving for More (if it were a person), I immediately wanted to give it Colleen’s personality. Initially, I had reluctance to do this so I posted the challenge in Facebook. I was surprised to see that this was the initial reaction of anyone who knew Colleen and the origin of Striving for More. I knew at that point, that my initial gut instincts were correct. So I decided start out that way and see where it went.

To ease this description, I am going to call Striving for More, S4M from this point forward. I actually think it has a personality that would like a catchy nickname and being that she has a personality that has fully embarrassed the cyber language of texting, S4M would work perfectly.

Age/Attitude
S4M is a young lady.

She is a free spirit but a person of high ethical values. She is always honest, and authentic. What you see is what you get. People want to be her friend. She is likeable. She has a contagious laugh and she lights up a room with her smile. She would never intentionally hurt anyone and it saddens her deeply to know that someone is hurting either physically or emotionally as she is highly empathetic.

Automobile
She drives a pink or lime green Volkswagen convertible bug. She would have a vanity plate that would say STRIVING. There is definitely a bright flower in the vase on the dashboard and there are several different types of “Cure Childhood Cancer” magnets and a COEXIST magnet to represent that she respects people of all faiths.

Clothing
She wears comfortable clothing like jeans or cargo shorts and t-shirts. Nothing too revealing and always showing self respect. No disrespectful words on t-shirts. No silly words on her butt. She wears either rainbow flip flops or crocs on her feet during the summer and during the winter if it isn’t warm enough to continue wearing flip flops or crocs (which there are rare times when it isn’t warm enough), she will wear sneakers or stylish boots. She likes to be in fashion. She plays close attention to what the “in” people are wearing and tries to mimic that without spending too much money. She has a keen eye for style and what looks good. She enjoys fashion. She likes to paint her nails and paint the nails of her friends. She enjoys jewelry and has a lot of it to match different outfits.

Food
S4M likes to eat easy, fun food that is targeted for kids and young adults. Things like Macaroni and Cheese, Hot Dogs, Pizza, PB&J, Grapes, Bagels, Bananas, etc. And although, in general, she doesn’t like chocolate, her favorite candy is Reese’s Peanut Butter cups.

Music
She can most often be found listening to music on her ipod which is filled with top 40 and upbeat praise songs that she can sing along to. She loves watching American Idol, So You think You Can Dance and any and all of the other talent based reality shows. One of her favorite songs is “I Fly” by Hayden Panettiere

Read
S4M does not get into reading that much because she is very much a people person and reading is a bit too solitary of an activity for her. When she does read, it is typically for short bursts and it is a magazine article here and there. She enjoys reading People, Entertainment Weekly, Seventeen, American Girl, Cosmo Girl, etc.

Hobbies
S4M enjoys lots of hobbies. She loves to swim. She also enjoys going to the beach with her friends or family and collecting shells and making sand castles. She enjoys lots and lots of different crafts. She is very artistic. If she has nothing else to do with her hands, you can always find a pen and paper in her hand and she will be doodling.

She spends endless periods of time on her cellphone texting her extended family and large network of friends. She also will spend time playing video games on her ipod or her cell phone. She also enjoys watching things on the screen. It doesn’t matter what. She enjoys getting lost in the drama of the television. She does not enjoy cartoons as much as live action television shows and movies. Some favorite movies include Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure. Television shows are anything that are dramatic. Reality shows are definitely a favorite.

She loves animals. Small dogs and cats are a favorite. Anything that will cuddle in bed with her.

She loves to shop!

Relationships
S4M has many relationships in her life. She is close to her parents and her sister. She also is close to many cousins and friends. She makes everyone that she encounters feel as though they have made a new friend. However, she really only has one or two close, intimate relationships with friends. To those sacred few she is loyal to the end. She can also easily get her feelings hurt if she feels as though she is being neglected by those closest to her. However, if she is hurt, she rarely openly shares those feelings. Rather, she keeps them inside.

Summary
In summary S4M is full of vitality and energy. However, she is also full of compassion and love. She has a warm smile that can communicate “I know how you feel” with humility. She has a strong desire to help people so they don’t have to experience what Colleen experienced.

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I really miss Colleen this afternoon

Some times are worse than others. This afternoon is one of those times. I was out on Craigslist, trying to find Joomla web developers that I could ask to do pro bono work on the Striving For More website.

I found one who sounded really good. She even has pink hair. I thought I would tell her about Colleen and our cause and even about the day that we all dyed our hair pink. I thought the story would even be more moving if I added a picture to the email so I started going through my pictures when I found this one.

It is such a perfect picture taken only 8 days before she died. I have been staring at this picture and crying for at least 35 minutes. When I look at it, I feel connected to her. She seems to be looking at my soul and it is tearing my heart out.

According to the CDC, more than 2200 children die of cancer every year. This is so sad to me. I know it is scary to everyone who is a grandparent, parent, brother, sister, aunt or uncle. For anyone on this planet who has ever looked into the eye of a child.

I have heard of too many children having cancer that I know personally. It feels like the number is increasing. I did some research and the cancer incidence numbers are up but the mortality rate is down. The fact that they are making progress in the treatment is terrific and I pray that it continues. However, since the incident rate is up, it means that more children and their families will suffer through the emotional turmoil and pain of this horrible monster invading their lives.

This is what keeps me awake at night. This is what I have to figure out how to fix and it can't happen fast enough. Everyone keeps telling me that I am going "through the processes" to get the organization started faster than they expected but I feel like it is way too slow. All I can think is that with each passing day, another child lays in a bed somewhere thinking, questioning and wondering "why me?".

I need an army of volunteers and I need a key to Fort Knox. Anything less and we won't be able to move fast enough to help all of the children that will be seriously and irreversibly emotionally impacted by cancer. My logical self knows that this isn't a good way to look at this. So....

Today, I ask for prayers that the Lord give me contentment.
Contentment that I will see my beloved Colleen when He thinks the time is right.
Contentment that Striving for More grows at the speed that it is supposed to.
Contentment that other people are helping the suffering children and families while I am doing what He asks me to do each day.


However, what ever you do.... please do not ask the Lord to give me patience. (Sort of a general rule I have based on past experience.)

Just for the record, I stopped crying a long time ago. This blog is truly therapeutic and I appreciate everyone that allows me to share my life with them because it honestly helps me too.

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