Day 17: Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why?

It turns out that I actually didn’t finish my 30 days of blogging challenge. Opps. You know what they say; If at first you don’t succeed…So here I am many months later, completing what I started. Or at least giving it another try.

Day 17: Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why?

This one is surprisingly difficult for me. Perhaps because this really is a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity. The truth is, if I were to live someone’s life for one day, I would want it to be someone who truly inspires me. Some who isn’t just a good singer or a TV reality star. I wouldn’t just want to have a day in the life of a celebrity, I’d want a day in the life of someone who makes a difference. Who’s influence in the world is not based on what the paparazzi capture.

I managed to narrow it down to my top three influential women;

3.Etharin Cousin

2.Condoleezza Rice

1.Hillary Clinton

I’m greatly influenced by strong women with a passion for enhancing the world we live in. I greatly admire the work that Etharin Cousin has done through Feeding America and as director of the UN World Food Program. It distresses me that any child in the world would go hungry but I cannot comprehend why any child in America should go hungry. I would love be a part of educating people in foreign countries about how to provide for themselves, creating programs and providing the necessary tools for agriculture and development.

Condoleezza Rice impresses me. Need I say more? She a smart woman who won’t be pushed around by big men in political office. She’s candid, which is refreshing in politics. She is a woman who lives without limitations, showing young women that anything is possible. Holding the title of the first female African American, Secretary of State, even for a day would be awesome. Most certainly, Condoleezza Rice inspires me and shows me that in life, in America, the possibilities for greatness only end when you stop trying.

Okay, now Hillary Clinton might be an odd choice to some. There are some people who see her as Bill’s wife and not much more and that’s part of the reason why I love her. She’s come out from behind the shadow of her husband to forge her own identity. Honestly, I admire her for her determination, not only politically but during the dark times of her marriage. Hints of infidelity are enough to destroy any marriage but to face it in the public eye, in the biggest, whitest, most well know house in America. She’s given a whole new meaning to the phrase “stand by your man”.

The epitomizes the notion of there being a great woman behind every great man. She inspires me because she shows women that you can have it all,

she raised a daughter and when the time was right forged a career for herself. On her own merits. She was the first female Senator for NY, the first, First Lady to hold public office and I think this country would be in much better shape if she had been elected the first female President.

I had a dream about a dream

After so long away from blogging, staring at this blank page is certainly intimidating. There is a fear that I'll never be able to fill it, that my words are too inadequate for the page. For the internet, for the world. But I remember, they are my words; and that's what's most important. 

I'm coming up to a year of living in Knoxville, TN. Of living in the USA. I feel disappointed in myself that I didn't blog more often, perhaps then I'd have a better idea of how I'm adjusting to my new life and new surroundings. 

During the dark times, when homesickness takes a grip that penetrates to my core, I struggle to remember why I moved. The fact that I love the husband deeply, that he lasted two years in England and that it was always our plan to end up here, doesn't provide much solace. I still so easily recall the plethora of things I gave up in moving here.

I know no better feeling than having my nephew run up to me and give me a great big hug. Since I've gone, he's had a birthday, grown taller and older. Things that happen all to fast anyway but seem that much worse when you're not there to witness it. I know that when I get one of his precious hugs again, it will be different. 

I've had no better night out than enjoying wine and conversation with my best friends. A shared history can never be replaced. Every eventful moment in my life has been shared by a small group of ladies who have seen me go from an awkward teenager to the somewhat less awkward, youngish woman I am today.

The husband helped me come to the realization that this big city girl is a little lost in the backwoods of TN. In leaving my family and friends back home, I've lost myself. So much of my identity is wrapped up in who I am to other people. Being a daughter, sister, aunt, friend is so important to me. I recall my first ever online blog and how I used all of those words in my About Me section. 

Of course, none of this is to imply that being a wife isn't equally important to me. It isn't  a question of which identity is paramount to my perception of myself.  After thinking long and hard about my marriage, my willingness to leave all I've known and move somewhere else to be with the man I love, I found my answer. The reason behind it all. And it started with a dream.

More of a Martin Luther King dream as opposed to a Mr Sandman dream. It's dream full of hope and possibilities that are worth leaving everything behind for. 

The dream of one day having a family with the man I love, my best friend. One day staring into the eyes of a little being that is half the husband and half of me. Raising a family and inspiring them to make the world a better place.

 In meeting the husband, this dream was formed. The possibilities became endless. I know that together, what we set our hearts and minds to, we can achieve. And so, with a little (more) time and a lot of dreaming, I know I'll come to see the US as my home away from home.