Stand in the back or be the star

Fame is a drug, wanna hit that? Cuz they know exactly where to get that. Did you get that?

ON AND ON, ON THE BEAT GOES. Sorry, I love that song. I love the artist part of Kanye but not the person part. Just putting that out there. He's a tad too drama queen for me, but that's another story.

Today. May 17th. Haha, good call, I know. Today was the Department Junior Convention. And you have know friggen idear what that means do you? Of course maybe 3 people reading this will know, as in KSAL, Lindz, and Sami.

So let's back the truck up. Do you know what the American Legion is? Ok, now maybe I got some more people understanding. IF NOT, I shall explain it to you. The American Legion is an organization who is based on for God and country. In fact, here is the Preamble to the Constitution that we recite at every meeting:

"For God and Country, we associate ourselves together for the following purposes:
To uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America
To maintain law and order
To foster and perpetuate a one hundred percent Americanism
To preserve the memories and incidents of our associations during the Great Wars
To inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state, and nation
To combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses
To make right the master of might
To promote peace and goodwill on earth
To safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom, and democracy
To participate in and contribute to the accomplishment of the aims and purposes of The American Legion
To consecrate and sanctify our association by our devotion to mutual helpfulness.

I gained my eligibility through my grandfather who was in WWII and my dad who served in the Army during time of war. So now; the Auxiliary is the women who had a father, grandfather, so on that served in a war. The Juniors are the daughters and granddaughters of the Auxiliary members. I sure as hell hope that makes sense. It's a veterans organization who also does community service and service to children.

I am the state[aka Department] of Ohio Junior Auxiliary president. I'm in charge of all juniors in the state. K? Well since I had leukemia, my special project this year was dedicated to Children's Miracle Network which was started by national Children's hospitals. We've raised about $1500 and the deadline is before May 31, so we're hoping to bust that $2000 mark! I present my check to CMN on the 31st. I'll be on TV. Channel 7 to be exact.

So today I was completely touched. TWICE. I was at the podium telling everyone about my experience with cancer and about CMN and one of the women in the audience took my picture and afterward she brought it up to me and I almost cried. Keep in mind, NO OTHER PICTURE of me had anything wrong with it. But in this one, there were 5 orbs around me. Orbs are little lights that show up in pictures signifying people who have passed. I gasped when I saw it and she asked me if I knew 5 people who I was close to that had passed and I truly haven't. Our explanation: 5 little children in Heaven who died from what I had, were with me during my speech.

And 5 is my lucky number which is the reason I cried.

Then I was touched again. After the meeting was over with this older woman asked if she could talk to me. When she pulled me aside she said this, and I wrote this down as soon as she walked away because I'll remember it for the rest of my life, she said:

"I don't know you, and you don't know me but I'm proud of everything you've done for Children's Miracle Network. I'm currently fighting cancer and I congratulate you on you beating cancer and staying in remission. You're a beautiful young lady and you're going to grow up to be something wonderful."

She hugged me and walked away. Left me stunned.

Of course I cried. I'm going to type that up and carry it with me. Anytime I feel discouraged, I wanna read that. I don't know her name because she walked away before I could get it, but I'll remember her for the rest of my life. That's one of the most touching things I've ever been told in my life. I'm honored.

This just got really friggen long again. I apologize. "I wanna know have you ever seen the rain, coming down on a sunny day?" That was just on a commercial. Sorry, I was definitely distracted.

Until next time, do what you can while you can! Xoxo

I'm proud of this more so now than I ever have been: