What everyone wants from life is continuous and genuine happiness.

>>> Larry's Thoughts >>>

Last weekend, my wife and I accompanied my in-law's up to St Louis.  My in-law's used to live in St Louis from 2007-2010 when my mom-in-law worked for AT&T's office up there.  We had a good time and while we were up there, I got to re-connect with an old friend of mine from high school, Marcella Zinno.  To backtrack a little, when I was in high school, I was heavily involved with the Catholic youth group at my parish- St. Paul's.  I had been involved in Catholic education for a long time because I had gone to Catholic school for most of my life so this was a natural extension of myself.  One of the highlights of my involvement was being able to go to LIFE Camp during the summer before my senior year of high school in 1993.  1993 seems like an eternity ago and it partly is!  I was so innocent and naive to the ways of the world.  Looking back, I had not done a lot of activities normally associated with teenagers-  I had barely gone on my first date the year before, not really into partying, played a little basketball, but did well in school and really preferred to just keep to my small circle of friends or read a book.  Anyways being selected by my parish youth group to attend LIFE Camp was a big thing to me at that time.  LIFE stands for Living In Faith Experience- a two-week retreat to the Hill Country of Texas where I would learn leadership skills in a theological context in order to return to my community and help other young people and my parish as well.  Check out their website to learn a little about this experience-> http://www.marianist.com/life.  LIFE Camp is administered by the Marianists, the religious order of brothers with the Society of Mary.  This is the same order that founded Central Catholic High School and St. Mary's University.  The Marianists have a long history of working with young people so this camp is considered one of the best.  I'm not much of an outdoors person (especially in the summer when the camp is held) nor was I a really big extrovert but yet I remember being excited at the opportunity.

When I got to LIFE Camp, I was very nervous because this was the longest I had been away from home.  I was around a couple of hundred other teenagers who I didn't know but who had the same interests as I.  The unique thing is that parishes from across the country send their young people to LIFE Camp for the same reason that I was selected to.  So being able to be around teens like me made it a little more bearable.  Fast forward a bit because a recap of 14 days in the Hill Country can be a little dull but I did make friends.  Referring to the beginning of this entry was Marcella Zinno.  Marcella was from a parish in Fort Worth, TX and was about as innocent as myself.  She was going into her 10th grade year so she was a little younger than I.  But we became friends because she was somewhat of an academic "cerebral" type as myself.  We became friends and kept in touch for a number of years after we had moved on to college.  But, as life often was pre-Facebook, people lose touch and so did we.  We re-connected a couple of years back via Facebook and it was great to see my old friend grown up, married to her high school sweetheart that I remember her talking about over a decade ago, and with 3 little ones of her own.  Being able to visit in St Louis, albeit brief, was a good thing because it helped me remember the innocence of youth.  That period of my life was probably the most innocent part of my life because I had not yet been "corrupted" by the evils and challenges of real life.  I was finishing high school and was hanging around other teens who were basically rule-followers like myself.  Visiting with Marcella and remembering the old days helped remind me to carry my youthful optimism with me my whole life.  It was also very nice to introduce her to my wonderful wife, Bridgedette, because Bridge is the best part of my life today.

Part of remembering back to these days reminded me of another old friend from LIFE Camp.  His name was Otto Crump and he was from a parish in Fort Lauderdale, FL.  Otto was a smart ass guy but one who had values unlike many other teenage boys.  We became best buddies at camp and I got to know the other teens who came with him from his parish.  We kept in touch for a while too after camp and high school but he was another who fell victim to losing contact with over time.  We have emailed back and forth off and on for the past few years because, fortunately, he has had the same email address since the 1990s even though he doesn't use Facebook.  I took the time to email him after visiting with Marcella and he immediately replied, which gave me a good feeling because he took the time to stop what he was doing and write back.  Otto wrote that he was doing great and was happy to hear from me.  He did not know that I had gotten married but said that he was thrilled because he knew that time would never corrupt me because my values are deep and timeless.  This gave me chills because my wife often says she married me for my values so this pleased me to know that, despite all my challenges and less-than-perfect decisions of my younger years, I was still the same guy.

Otto told me something else that one of the teens from his group that I had also become friends with, Margarita Gomez, had recently passed away.  This sent a shockwave through me because we're all the same age.  I remembered her to be a friendly vibrant person with faith in God and ability to help others.  Apparently Margarita had been in a terrible motorcycle accident 2 years ago that left her paraplegic.  But, according to Otto, she had conquered this challenge and was on her way to trying to walk again with assistance and had even won Ms Wheelchair USA 2011!  Last month, while doing water exercises to strengthen her legs, she drowned in a swimming pool unable to save herself.  This served as a reminder to me to never lose my optimism no matter what life throws at you because being disabled didn't change Margarita.  I also was reminded to live life because tomorrow is not promised to anyone.  Otto and I promised to keep in touch more often and it would be great to visit him again in Florida sometime soon.

Anyways, this past week was one that took me back to an innocent time of youth that should always be my foundation for whatever my future holds as well as to cherish that which God has given me.  These reconnections with old friends from a positive time in my life will hopefully keep going too because we should never forget where we came from.  Below is a link to a song by John Mayer that I think sums it all up.




PS- I am constantly reminded by my lovely wife that I should blog more.  As an introvert, it is sometimes hard for me to open up because I'm not sure if anyone really cares to hear what I have to say and plus its not always easy for me to open up.  I promise though to try and blog more often because its not necessarily a bad thing ;)

Until next time.....

LRY