October was an odd month for me, it was at it’s a core a month of remembrance.
Early in the month, I was contacted via FB by someone who was seeking out an Alison he once knew and based upon our subsequent heartfelt, albeit short-lived, correspondence an Alison he once deeply loved.
Needless to say, I was not the Alison he was questing. Although upon reading his words a part of me wished I had been. I wished him well and hoped that he would find her.
Later that month as my son was writing his college apps, his Middle School teacher whom had been a mentor for the past eight years of his life died unexpectedly at the young age of 42.
He was also the teacher whom organized Spring Break trips that allowed students to participate in educational trips abroad. As my son said—I traveled the world with him. I travelled the world due to him.
His death rocked both the school and the community not to mention the lives of all the families and students he impacted.
To be honest, and I do not say this lightly, he is irreplaceable. I have never encountered such an educator in all my life; including those among my college Profs, some whom were brilliant.
At his memorial, former students, many who are now Princeton, Yale, and Duke grads, attended or sent homage. All credited him as the teacher who influenced their lives most. His death hit my son particularly hard as not only was he the teacher who introduced my son to his love of history, all things Shakespeare, and law, he was also one my son had intended to ask to write his college letter of rec.
The third event that effected the perfect October trifecta was learning that someone I once loved deeply and who influenced my life and career decisions in both negative and positive ways and whom I once thought I would end with as a life partner got married. Only not to me.
So where did this all leave me?
Remorseful. Reticent. Reflective. Most of all it left me with the realization that the here and now is all we get. So best enjoy it. Treasure the people in my circle of life now as best I can. Which brings me full circle to my son’s sentiments as we left the service. I overheard him consoling some of his classmates. My son told them to live life as he had lived life and as a tribute to what he taught.
Wise words from one 17-year-old to another. Which spiraled me into reflection upon and later ascension from the earlier events of my October trifecta.
I thought about the man looking for his lost Alison…maybe if he had told her then what he told me some decades later, he would not be searching for her online. Second, I thought about the one who got married smack dab in between the school memorial to the fallen teacher and the church service; the one who had left me as part of the trail of his wake of destruction many years ago now.
Most of all I reflected upon the teacher and lights that shine upon this world so brightly and so vastly that they go dim before we are ready for them to fade to black. Which got me thinking, how do I want to be remembered and as whom—as one filled with regret, one that causes others regret, or one that lives a well-loved life with no regrets?
I choose the latter, which do you chose?
Read more posts by Alison Blasko, a contributing blogger for JenningsWire.
JenningsWire.com is created by National Publicist, Annie Jennings of the NYC based PR Firm, Annie Jennings PR. Annie Jennings PR specializes in marketing books for getting authors booked on radio talk show interviews, TV shows in major online and in high circulation magazines and newspapers. Annie also works with speaker and experts to build up powerful platforms of credibility and influence.
