Admiration

I can vividly remember this day eight years ago when the world lost an amazing soul. I remember exactly where I was, who I spoke to and what was said, and what occurred for days, weeks, months, and years later. My husband and I were gearing up for an anniversary trip to Florida and I had just left the tanning salon when I heard a voicemail from my uncle requesting that I call him. Considering I do not typically hear from him because over the years we grew apart, I was instantly concerned and immediately called him back.

The words that left my uncle’s mouth changed my life forever. My uncle was calling to inform me that my grandfather who I idolized had lost his battle with cancer. This news jarred my mind, heart, and soul because I had a deep connection and love for my grandfather. I guess I could say that in my mind, my grandfather could beat anything and would live forever, but that childish thought was proven to be very incorrect.

I always had an incredible amount of admiration for my late grandfather because he had a heart of goal and was extremely thoughtful, loving, fair, considerate, and much more. Much of the way my late grandfather was has been instilled into me, which I am and always will be forever thankful for. I do not think there will ever be a way to be as wonderful as he was, but I will never give up trying.

Unfortunately, I think it is normal for people to disappoint others, but my grandfather never once disappointed me. I could always count on this man because he loved his family so purely and deeply. His core values were inspiring, encouraging, motivating, honest, generous, optimistic, and so much more, which I hope to carry with me until I see him again.

Although my grandfather passed away eight years ago, his spirit will live on within my heart and soul for the rest of my life. I know that he is watching over me and even though I cannot hear his voice, I can feel his presence when I am going through difficult times. He has always been a voice of reason and logic, where is rare in the world today. At the lowest and most difficult times during my life, my grandfather’s voice would ring in my ears, and everything became much easier to handle. He even made being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when I was only 19 years old easier to tolerate.

Every year on my grandfather’s birthday and the day he passed away, I have a difficult time. However, please do not mistake this because I will be forever thankful for the times I had with my grandfather and do feel like his life should be celebrated and I know he would not want me to be sad, but there is still an ache and emptiness in my heart from losing him.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is large.jpg

I think I have mentioned this in a previous post, but my grandfather was a writer for his local newspaper and was an amazing pro-golfer. I do not know the first thing about golf but would love to believe I get my love for writing from my grandfather. The only thing that helps me deal with my emotions, positive or negative is to write about them, which is the reason I am writing about my grandfather on the eight-year anniversary of his death. Writing may not always take the sting of the pain away, but it does help me to let everyone reading this post understand how wonderful and amazing my grandfather was. There will never be a day that I am not thankful to have had James Bucky O’Brien for a grandfather because some of my best qualities were derived from him.

Thank you for visiting my site today. I wish there was a way to express even more how much my grandfather meant to me and how much I hope I am making him proud of who I am today because this is extremely important to me. I do not think I will ever be half the person he was, but I will never give up trying to be the best part of myself I can be. I hope your week is going well and you are staying safe. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

Admiration is a strong and powerful word, but what does it mean? Admiration is an emotion that is felt when we witness an individual that is competent, talented, and or exceeds the typical standard. We may feel deep respect or show warm approval for that person. Admiring someone could cause us to envy or be jealous of what another can do, which may motivate us to try hard and assist with self-improvement.

What are a few qualities you admire in an individual and why? There are numerous qualities that I admire in an individual that help me to continuously try to be a stronger and better person. One quality I find admirable is determination. All too often it can be easy to get discouraged when it seems like something is impossible and we want to give up. When someone is filled with determination, they never give up and use those feelings to make what was thought to be impossible, possible. There have been times in my life when I felt discouraged because life threw too much my way all at once. However, even though I felt this negative way, I always try to keep pushing forward to accomplish what I desire most.

I find people that are resilient extremely admirable. I would say that determination and resilience go hand and hand to help us succeed in life! Those that are resilient can recover quickly from the challenges of life. There is no denying the fact that life can be difficult, and it takes a lot to make it through. However, I am sure we have all survived many challenges in our lives and we keep going!

I believe an important quality to have is integrity. A person with integrity is honest and has strong morals. We might not always agree with our friends and family, but we must all remain honest. It seems like many in the world have forgotten what their morals are or even what that means. Morals are an individual’s standards of behavior or beliefs that concern what is and is not acceptable for them to do. For instance, I am a strong believer in treating everyone with respect and have never judged a person on anything but their actions.

Another quality that I find admiration is when someone is empathetic towards others. We never know what another person is going through in life, and I think it is crucial to try to understand, even though it might not be something we have gone through personally. The person that is going through a difficult situation may just need someone to listen and not judge.

A quality that I wish more people had is the ability to believe in the importance of equality. It does not matter what the color of a person’s skin is, where they are from, what their religious beliefs are, who they love, or anything else because we are all human and deserve to be treated with respect. I do not think what is going on with racial discrimination is fair. Too many people feel like they need to hide who they love because the other person is of the same sex. I believe that if people are loving and not hating, I do not see why it matters at all. During Pride month there was a very disturbing situation that occurred on a lake. One boat had a Pride flag flying not causing any troubles, while another boat began harassing them. The boat that was harassing them ended up catching on fire, which I think what karma all is about. The crazy thing is the boat that was being harassed saved their harassers by helping them get to safety. I was impressed that the boat with the Pride flag flying and being harassed saved the ignorant people because I do not think I would have.

Is there a certain person that you have a lot of admiration for? If so, who is this person and why do you admire them? Even though a certain person I have a lot of admiration for is no longer with us, I still have deep admiration for my late Grandfather. All the qualities I listed admiring, he had and then some. My Grandfather had a heart of gold and he will be forever missed by everyone that was honored to have known and loved him.

I am simply curious what would you have done if you saw the boat with the Pride flag flying and another boat harassing them, but then end up catching on fire. Would you have helped the boat with the ignorant people harassing the other boat? If you would have helped them, why would you have helped? If you would not help them, what would your reasons be?

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you enjoyed this post, and I am looking forward to reading your comments, which I will respond to as soon as I can. I hope you are enjoying your weekend safely and you can relax for the last few hours of our weekend! Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!