A bit of inspiration

The first day of the year is always a good day to watch movies as almost everything, even in NYC, is closed. I think it's some sort of unsaid national holiday-everyone needs the day to recover from the festivities.

Last night I took the time to watch the new Denzel Washington movie, The Great Debaters. It was a so-so movie but the movie inspired me to check out some poetry by Langston Hughes. There is a scene in the movie where Denzel stands up on the chair in front of the class he is teaching and recites one of Hughes' more famous poems, I too, am America. It's a short but very important American poem.

Poetry has always been a side passion of mine and through the power of the internet and the wonderful power of google, I not only checked out Langston Hughes but tried to remember some poems I memorized during my grammar school years. Of course when we were pre-teens all meaning was lost on our inability to process emotion. There aren't enough years to experience the meaning behind the poems.

I digress as usual. During my google search I came across some of Robert Frost's work and became reacquainted with a poem that resignates with me more now than it did before.

Check this poem out.

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

It does make all the difference.

The New Year

I know, I know. I've been a bad blogger lately but I assure you that I'm only partially to blame. The holidays are the real culprit in this matter. You can either spend the extra hour with your sister that's in town or you could spend some time blogging. You can spend time getting more presents and filling out one last Christmas card to an old friend, or you can spend your time blogging. Obviously I have been choosing the former over the latter. Sisters, Christmas cards, and old friends tend to take the priority.

I'm headed to NYC tomorrow to meet up with my teammate Hanna for a New Year's celebration. We felt that it was necessary to really bring this particular year in with a bang. It is 2008 afterall-the year of the Beijing Games! After a day of rest after our festivities it is back to work of course.

I am getting back to Rochester on the morning of the 4th because of an engagement I have with some volleyball players. Interesting. Apparently there is a fundraiser for the high school volleyball players in Rochester and I'm the guest speaker. I have to come up with ten minutes of awe inspiring material for a room full of high school female athletes. Any suggestions? There are a lot of things that I could probably talk about but I have no idea what would really be of use to these girls. It's been a while since I've been in high school.

Incidentally-I'm going to be turning 27 on the 6th of January. Just thought I'd put that out there! :)

Well, it's off to NYC for me and also time to plan for that speech. Ten minutes is a long time in front of a big crowd.

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope this year brings everyone great joy and success.