Follow Your Heart

I have been procrastinating writing this blog for a few days now. This time, it wasn't out of not wanting to but rather, how to. To me, a post about someone who has so significantly changed my life deserves more than just a passing glance, a few punctuation marks and a couple poorly structured sentences. 

My uncle is possibly one of the most influential men in my life. The funny part is however, he would have never have thought so. He never looked at himself as a man of such dire significance, and I think he struggled often with where he fit into this big old world. But one thing I am definitely sure about, he was my whole world.

Ever since I was a baby, there always seemed to be some mysterious force that pulled us together. He understood me without me needing to use words and loved unconditionally. As the years went by and I grew older, I saw him less and less. Life seemed to always put road blocks up that kept us from seeing each other as frequently. But every time I did see him he always said the same thing, "When do you graduate? and What do you want to be when you grow up?" And he always promised me two things: that he'd be there to watch me walk across that stage and receive my diploma no matter what, and that he'd support me with whatever career path I chose. 

I remember clearly, one of the last times he asked me what I wanted to be. I matter-of-factly recited the same phrase I had by now ingrained in the muscle memory of my mouth. "I want to be a geneticist Uncle Tommy!" But this time his reaction was a little bit different than the millions of other responses I had heard from him in the previous years. He said the following, very important phrase....

      "No matter what you choose, I will support you proudly, I've always promised you that. But never forget to always make sure you follow your heart. Nothing else is more important in making decisions than that. It will guide you to where you really belong." 

A week later, just about a month before my graduation date, my beloved Uncle Tommy passed away unexpectedly . For some reason, until that moment, I had never truly given much thought as to where my heart truly belonged regarding a future career. I thought for a long time about what my uncle had said and finally understood. 

So here I stand today, halfway through my Early Childhood Education program at Southern Connecticut State University, and enthusiastically pursuing my ambitions to be a teacher and doing what my Uncle would have wanted .....following my heart.