Grant Whybark is a sophomore at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois. For decades, Joliet’s claim to fame was linked to crime and corruption. It was where Al Capone went to blow off steam. Where graft and grifters and loose law enforcement coalesced to create the anti-Mayberry.
Posts Tagged ‘Acquaintances’
Winning Isn’t Everything
Friday, May 14th, 2010Call Me Coach
Thursday, December 11th, 2008By the time I hit my late 40s, life felt like it had reached a plateau.
I’d married in my teens, and now my kids were grown and I was divorced, living alone in a small, quiet condo. I was still teaching history at Curtis High School on Staten Island, just a few miles from where I’d grown up.
I’d been a teacher for 17 years. I loved teaching, considered it my calling to impact my students’ lives. Lately, though, it hadn’t felt that way. Curtis had changed a lot. Staten Island had changed.
This Is a Precious Thing
Monday, November 10th, 2008Grandma Butter was our next-door neighbor. The immigrant widow of a Polish baker, she had come to California because of the warm climate, because her ailing brother lived there, and probably, to be frank, because there was nowhere else for her to go. She lived in a Quonset hut next door to our Quonset hut, near the hospital where my doctor husband was doing his residency. But these were temporary lodgings for us, and I didn't see any need to become Grandma Butter's great friend.
A Perfect Match
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008I put up my new 1994 calendar in the kitchen, feeling like I'd finally gotten my life back on track. The past year since my divorce had been a long, hard struggle, but my three boys and I had adjusted to our single-mom household.
My job at a furniture factory kept food on the table and paid the bills. And I'd started going to church again with my mom. I couldn't quite believe as she did that God had a deep, personal interest in our lives—I figured he had more important things to worry about than me—but I definitely found comfort in being closer to him.
Another Chance
Saturday, March 1st, 2008
Of the more than 400,000 organ transplants performed in the U.S. in the last 20 years, roughly 20 percent have come from living donors, the vast majority of whom are blood relatives, spouses or close friends. It’s rare for a person to make a living organ donation to a total stranger. Not surprising when you consider the surgical risks and potential long-term complications.
Author, speaker and mentor Ronda Del Boccio presents the Shrink With Me Blog. Ronda Del Boccio is the author of I’ll Push You steer, plus numerous articles and stories.
Hello, My Name Is…
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
Everyone who sees Scott Ginsberg knows who he is right away. And it’s not because he’s famous for anything. It’s because he wears a nametag. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
On his way out of an event in college, Scott noticed a trashcan full of discarded name-tags. "I thought, What would happen if I left mine on all day?" He got his answer quickly. The simple act of putting his name out in the open "inspired these great conversations, and I started meeting all these new people," he says.
Author, speaker and mentor Ronda Del Boccio presents the Shrink With Me Blog. Ronda Del Boccio is the author of I’ll Push You steer, plus numerous articles and stories.
Pink Is for Hope
Monday, October 1st, 2007!–paging_filter–pTibetan bells chime softly as I open a door wreathed in pink roses. Pink letters spell out a welcome signmdash;Lovely Lady./p
pSoon I’ll be greeted by some very special women. quot;My ladies,quot; I call them. They mean the world to me. So does this shop. Yet if I had my druthers, I would close it down tomorrow, after nearly 30 years. Let me explain./p
pI was a young nursing student in California, full of idealistic dreams back in 1976. I didn’t know where life would take me, but like many students, I felt a desire to make a difference./p
pa href=http://www.guideposts.com/story/women-with-cancer-hoperead more/a/p
Author, speaker and mentor Ronda Del Boccio presents the Shrink With Me Blog. Ronda Del Boccio is the author of I’ll Push You steer, plus numerous articles and stories.
