In the shadow of a calling I found myself...

                                                Reflective.

Musical Moment ~ “Dum Diddly" Black Eyed Peas

It's my anniversary! Twenty years ago today, I boarded a plane for NYC leaving my home in Tampa. I grabbed life by the balls and said, "Show me what's next". I had no idea of what I would experience when I left my home, my family, my best friends, and the life I had established--all 24 years of it and a few thousand dollars in my pocket, no job in sight, but a heart full of dreams and a head filled with determination. It's been a wild ride filled with love, laughter, lessons, pain in many of its incarnations, hellos, good-byes, visions, transformations, births, deaths, new friendships, new careers, adventures, and more blessing than I could have imagined. I was not afraid that day I boarded that plane all by myself. I was not afraid when the plane taxied down the run way and I could no longer see my parents worried faces. I was not afraid when I saw the tall, magnificent, and intimidating buildings of NYC, and I was not afraid during my first hurdle of the worst bout of food poisoning two weeks later that still makes me shudder and sweat when I think about it. Twenty years ago today, I took a risk on myself and damn it, it was worth it. I have become someone I am proud of and I am going to keep on walking my path as fierce and as fearlessly as I can. Twenty years ago, I proclaimed myself ready for the world. Today, I proclaim myself Fabulously Fierce at Forty-Four. The door of the world is open. I wonder what is next...