Yesterday was the Marine Corps Marathon, which is held annually in Washington D.C.
In addition to the 26 mile run, the Marine Corps sponsors a 10K run in conjunction with the marathon.
This year, I ran/walked the 10K along with my oldest son. It was a
great race, and I really enjoyed the people that I met on the course. I
managed to finish in an hour and fifty minutes- 20 minutes less than I
was expecting.
I was moved by the determination of the athletes who ran the entire 26
miles. It was inspiring to watch athletes crossing the finish line
after 5 straight hours of running. It was even more inspiring to watch
the last finisher cross the line. People who just didn't give up and
just kept going - putting one foot in front of the other.
On the 10K course, I was moved to tears by the number of families who
were running in memory of family members who have been killed in the
line of duty while serving in Afghanistan or Iraq. Literally hundreds
and hundreds of families, running with the pictures of their loved
ones, which listed their duty location when they were killed. It was
humbling to realize how many have died in the last ten years. And yet,
the families have carried on the memory of the lost service member, and
have persevered, putting one foot in front of the other, continuing on
without their sons, daughters, husbands, and wives.
Even more moving were the service members who were competing in the marathon - with prosthetic limbs.
Talk about determination. I honestly didn't feel worthy to be running
on the same course as these true heroes, who have given so much in
service to their country.
And throughout it all, there were the Marines, manning the course. Ever
polite, and offering encouragement up the final 400 yards (really,
really steep hill).
Who knows what horrible sights these young men and women have seen? And
yet, they were manning the course, polite to the end to all of the
civilian runners, encouraging people to keep going, and offering support
to everyone. It was a humbling experience.
I'd like to thank all of our military members and their families. Your
sacrifices are above and beyond anything the rest of us can imagine.
Your perseverance and determination in the face of adversity is an
inspiration to us all.
This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Thrifty Living" blog. I
moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all
of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one
place. I've matched the publication dates here to their original post
date. If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking
the time to go back through them all!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Let's Begin at the Beginning
If you're at this post, you're obviously curious and want to find out a little bit more....
I am a librarian and a mother of three almost grown children. I began my professional life as a public school teacher, and then I stayed home with my kids. I learned how to squeeze pennies and live as frugally as possible on one income. I eventually returned to work as a librarian in the Public Library. I fell in love with the work, and began working on my Master's of Library and Information Science. I had hopes of returning to teaching as a School Library Media Specialist. I took a leap of faith, left the public library and began substitute teaching with the thought that I'd be able to get a job as a Library Media Specialist. Let me be clear - I LOVED working with the kids. I LOVED teaching them! I received my MLS in 2013, just days after middle child received his high school diploma. After subbing for 5 years, I still had no job offers from the school system, so I found a job as an Academic Librarian at a university that specializes in health and wellness. Most days, I really love my job.
In spite of my best efforts, my kids continue to grow up. As I write this, I have one child in graduate school, one in a four year college, and one in the Community College. They aren't around as much anymore, and I don't have as many funny stories to share about them. Since I no longer substitute teach, I don't have those stories to share, either. I really do miss the kids and their insights into life. Our grown up students at my school are great - but they just don't have the same joie de vivre.
I began blogging in 2006. I was working as a librarian in a public library, and we were required to keep a blog as part of our training to earn our initial state library certificate. I then used that same blog when we were required to use it for taking our 23 Things Training - that highlighted Web 2.0 technologies. That blog was entitled Running With Librarians. I had to set up a library alias for all of the things we were doing on the internet while exploring those technologies. I've since made that blog private. There's nothing really of note in there. We were exploring the web technologies that were new in 2006 - Flickr, Blogger, You Tube, RSS Feeds, Delicious, etc., and how we could use these technologies to reach out to our community. I wrote a little about the adventures that I had as a librarian, but not a lot. I really need to collect them and share them here sometime soon.
Once I shut that blog down, I found that I wanted a place to share my thoughts. I've always loved writing, and you are supposed to practice writing every day. I have journals stashed all over the house, but blogs give me a unique place to sit down and write every day. Anywhere I can access a computer, I can sit down and write. Some of my posts never make it to publication. I need to get something out of my system, I write it all down, and then I save it as a draft. My blogging took a dramatic change when I got a smart phone. My beloved i-Phone takes pictures, and I am able to post directly from my phone to my blog. You will notice a difference in my blog when I got the phone - suddenly, more pictures began appearing in my posts.
When I shut down my "Running With Librarians" blog in 2009, I began a long stream of attempting to find my "Groove". My first blog disaster ran from 2010-2011. I called that one "Thrifty Living". The only thing I proved while writing that blog was how sanctimonious I could be about saving money. Once I objectively went back and read through that blog, I shut it down. I apologize to the Internet for that obnoxious piece of writing.
From 2011-2013, I wrote another blog, "A Mom's View". Better than the last blog, but again, not great writing. I still hadn't quite found my writing voice. The quality of my writing took wild swings day by day. I put several political posts in that blog reflecting my own beliefs and opinions. Once again, not quite the tone I wanted to strike.
In the meantime, I began a blog for a Young Adult Literature Class I took while working on my MLS. Books For Teens has been up and running since 2009. I review YA books that I read, when I read them. It's published sporadically - whenever I read a YA book that I feel is worthy of attention, I review it on that blog. Not everything I read is worthy of attention, and not everything I read is YA Literature. When the two happen to meet, I post about it.
I began this blog in 2013. I believe I've finally found my voice. Not all of my writing is amazing, but I am pleased enough with this to leave it all up! I recently went through all of my old blogs and moved over highlights from both Thrifty Living and Mom's View. (More from Mom's View than Thrifty Living.)
If you really are dedicated to reading through all of the old posts, I thank you!
-Bettina
Jan. 20, 2016
"Life's a journey, not a destination." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am a librarian and a mother of three almost grown children. I began my professional life as a public school teacher, and then I stayed home with my kids. I learned how to squeeze pennies and live as frugally as possible on one income. I eventually returned to work as a librarian in the Public Library. I fell in love with the work, and began working on my Master's of Library and Information Science. I had hopes of returning to teaching as a School Library Media Specialist. I took a leap of faith, left the public library and began substitute teaching with the thought that I'd be able to get a job as a Library Media Specialist. Let me be clear - I LOVED working with the kids. I LOVED teaching them! I received my MLS in 2013, just days after middle child received his high school diploma. After subbing for 5 years, I still had no job offers from the school system, so I found a job as an Academic Librarian at a university that specializes in health and wellness. Most days, I really love my job.
In spite of my best efforts, my kids continue to grow up. As I write this, I have one child in graduate school, one in a four year college, and one in the Community College. They aren't around as much anymore, and I don't have as many funny stories to share about them. Since I no longer substitute teach, I don't have those stories to share, either. I really do miss the kids and their insights into life. Our grown up students at my school are great - but they just don't have the same joie de vivre.
I began blogging in 2006. I was working as a librarian in a public library, and we were required to keep a blog as part of our training to earn our initial state library certificate. I then used that same blog when we were required to use it for taking our 23 Things Training - that highlighted Web 2.0 technologies. That blog was entitled Running With Librarians. I had to set up a library alias for all of the things we were doing on the internet while exploring those technologies. I've since made that blog private. There's nothing really of note in there. We were exploring the web technologies that were new in 2006 - Flickr, Blogger, You Tube, RSS Feeds, Delicious, etc., and how we could use these technologies to reach out to our community. I wrote a little about the adventures that I had as a librarian, but not a lot. I really need to collect them and share them here sometime soon.
Once I shut that blog down, I found that I wanted a place to share my thoughts. I've always loved writing, and you are supposed to practice writing every day. I have journals stashed all over the house, but blogs give me a unique place to sit down and write every day. Anywhere I can access a computer, I can sit down and write. Some of my posts never make it to publication. I need to get something out of my system, I write it all down, and then I save it as a draft. My blogging took a dramatic change when I got a smart phone. My beloved i-Phone takes pictures, and I am able to post directly from my phone to my blog. You will notice a difference in my blog when I got the phone - suddenly, more pictures began appearing in my posts.
When I shut down my "Running With Librarians" blog in 2009, I began a long stream of attempting to find my "Groove". My first blog disaster ran from 2010-2011. I called that one "Thrifty Living". The only thing I proved while writing that blog was how sanctimonious I could be about saving money. Once I objectively went back and read through that blog, I shut it down. I apologize to the Internet for that obnoxious piece of writing.
From 2011-2013, I wrote another blog, "A Mom's View". Better than the last blog, but again, not great writing. I still hadn't quite found my writing voice. The quality of my writing took wild swings day by day. I put several political posts in that blog reflecting my own beliefs and opinions. Once again, not quite the tone I wanted to strike.
In the meantime, I began a blog for a Young Adult Literature Class I took while working on my MLS. Books For Teens has been up and running since 2009. I review YA books that I read, when I read them. It's published sporadically - whenever I read a YA book that I feel is worthy of attention, I review it on that blog. Not everything I read is worthy of attention, and not everything I read is YA Literature. When the two happen to meet, I post about it.
I began this blog in 2013. I believe I've finally found my voice. Not all of my writing is amazing, but I am pleased enough with this to leave it all up! I recently went through all of my old blogs and moved over highlights from both Thrifty Living and Mom's View. (More from Mom's View than Thrifty Living.)
If you really are dedicated to reading through all of the old posts, I thank you!
-Bettina
Jan. 20, 2016
"Life's a journey, not a destination." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
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