I Got Stories: A Story - June 11, 2016

I am recommitting to rewriting my Memoir with the help of a writing partner. As I embark on this journey I have been reflecting back on my life and on life in general. I realize I have been blessed with wealth, now not financial wealth, I'm still working on that but a wealth of experiences, opportunities, friends and stories. Helen Keller said, "Life is a great adventure or it is nothing at all". I can say I have had some great adventures.

The picture I posted below is the tenement apartment I started life in and lived in for 18 years in the South Bronx. My widowed mother took care of us on two checks, my deceased dad's veterans' check and his Social Security check. I dropped out of high school at 15 and started to work.

Flash Forward to the future and I have lived a life that I never dreamed of when I was a teenager sitting in my apartment in the South Bronx. Someone had a bigger dream for me than I had.

I have lived a very colorful, eclectic and adventurous life. I've worked in factories, worked at the Post Office, worked as a substitute teacher, worked as an oral history interviewer, I'vbeen a counselor for runaways in Hollywood, I've acted in film and television, produced over 25 feature films, attended the Cannes and GI Film festivals, scouted states and countries for filming, directed a short film that was accepted into the GI Film Festival in DC, became a Adjunct Professor teaching MBA students in film, created a family and raised a daughter, given public speeches to film and veteran groups, walked across hot coals in NYC and Maui, reconnected with my family in Ireland and travelled there four times. Got my Irish dual citizenship and the list goes on and on. I not even scratching the surface here.

So I Got Stories. And I am amazed at how my life has turned out and all the opportunities I have had. I don't now if everyone is blessed in the same way or in the same amounts but I know I have been truly blessed.

So if I wasn't' grateful every day I would be a fool. I start every day out reviewing all I am grateful for.

So I hope to begin to start sharing my stories and eventually my memoir in the future. The adventure continues .... Make Your Life a Masterpiece and Live with Gratitude