New Year!

     Hello and welcome everyone to a brand new year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, spent with lots of time with friends, family and random bar patrons getting drunk. I spent the last couple of days with my Boyfriend. We spent some quality time just hanging out watching youtube videos, playing board games and drinking....

     *Caution* just because you want variety at your New Year's Eve party, it does not mean you should try one (or more) of every drink. I learned a thing or two about beer mixing and champagne as well. I think everyone should take some quality time and find a few drinks they like, just so they have some choices to fall back on in social settings.

     Hopefully this new year proves to be full of even more exciting times, stories, and adventures than last year did. I hope everyone was safe and sane this Holiday season!

P.s. I will continue with some more self help advice column posts after I get resettled into work this week! Tell me what you want to see posted, I will gladly give anything a try.

~Ben

My Life....

     Today started out much better than yesterday did by far! I went to work, I only had to work a single 4 hour shift where I cleared $100 which is a great shift for me. I was blessed with many very nice and solid tipping people. If everyday of work was as beneficial as today was I would be a happy camper.

     After work I went and got my hair cut and a shave, which to me is one of the best things I can possibly do to reinvigorate my self image. I feel so refreshed and rejuvenated after it that it's hard to bring me down. I then when shopping with some co-workers and spent a bit too much money, but hey everyone makes mistakes. I learned today that it's always better to let the good times out weigh the bad in your memory and to always push forward. I also learned that smiling will almost always over power anyone who is foul mouthed or in a bad mood. It's contagious!

Sorry I don't have more from today, maybe one day I'll video blog my day. I have also thought about reviewing and blogging about recipes, gadgets, stores, and restaurants, let me know if you think I should delve into this!

~Ben

New hope

Tonight I was given new hope in humanity by the form of two wonderful guests at my table. One was an older woman who worked for the Blount county library system and the other was a retiree from HGTV of 29 years. They showered me with compliments and praise and even told my manager how she was wasting my talents and time.

This selfless act single handedly made my night possibly my week. They implored me to put in applications elsewhere and even told me they would put in recommendations for me. I have waited so long to feel this kind of appreciation, it truly makes me feel great. This is what people need in their lives. People need to feel appreciated in whatever job they do, it's not an easy world to live in and sometimes all you need is a thank you or a hug and it will somehow make everything better.

I would love to hear about your stories regarding selfless acts of kindness or charity. Feel free to leave a comment below!

~Ben

The Holiday Spirit

     The holidays have started and some have even finished, for many of us holidays are a time of new beginnings and for others it's a time of reflection over a year that has come and gone. For whatever reason you celebrate the holidays (or don't) , we can all agree that this special time of year always brings out a different side of people that we don't always see. This can be good, you might get gifts or even just a smile, or it could be bad, and your family could bicker the entire day and end up holding grudges.

     I had a great day filled with love shown not only from my family, but from my friends as well. I also saw some hate from family, but this was overshadowed by good memories. My mother, who is struggling to keep a roof over our heads got together money and framed my diplomas for me and surprised me with them early this morning. This kind of selfless love is what should characterize this season, but often gets lost amongst the selfish consumer whoring that we all are guilty of at one point or another.

     What I am saying is people forget that their actions directly affect others and we should try to work together as the human race, and not just around the holidays. We as people forget this, some of us try to make a world a better place and some just try to mask their inferiorities by breaking down the spirit of others. While others go spend at least one day out of their week at church to be reminded of how to treat others, but those lessons often times get left at the alter (that is a discussion for another day).

     So, what ever you celebrate, I hope you do so; happy, safe, and with people you love.

~Ben

A wonderful addition....

As we continue on...

     After pulling myself up I wasn't content with where I was so I set off to work towards a goal. My end goal is to open a business (preferably a restaurant) and prosper. I do this goal to not only help further myself but also those around me that have helped me during this great journey we call life. I never forget those who help me even if it is just giving me a compliment, because sometimes that's all I need.

    I began my next semester of college and started working more diligently towards opening a bakery with my friends Tiffany and Stephanie, they would prove to be two of my closest friends during college. We worked through the nights and weekends, doing everything from sketching out possible bakery layouts and signage, to building menus, to writing the business plan. We traveled around Oak Ridge, TN (where they live), looking for the perfect place to open up shop. We finally found somewhere that was somewhat affordable, the only downside being it was previously a finance office and didn't have even the slightest inkling of restaurant readiness.

     So we began the build out needed, we were fairly broke during this time and therefore did a majority of the work ourselves with the help of friends and family. This took almost a month to complete but in the end it was worth it. We opened up on April Fools Day of 2012. It was no joke. This would begin a very important chapter in my life and would provide me with more hands on learning than college would ever come close to teaching me.

     to be continued....


If anyone has any comments or wants to share a story of there on, I invite you to do so! I am always on the look for others who wish to share their experiences and lessons.

Thanks,

~Ben

Continuing on...

     First off, I apologize for my lack of  a post these past two days! I have started my oh so fun work week of 4 doubles in a row.

     I want to continue where I left of the other day and expanding on it with some very real experiences. After finding myself jobless I felt that I had finally hit the bottom of the barrel. I started skipping classes and getting down on myself. I was also single at the time which only further added to my negativity. After applying for unemployment I finally felt that I could sympathize with all of the middle class Americans that fell shorter and shorter on their bills after the recession hit.

    I decided to do what any problem solving entrepreneur person would do, I shifted my focus from the negativity to the future. I started going back to class and with the help of my friends and my director (at school) I turned my failing semester into a new start. I ended the semester with a new job and a B+ average.

     This just goes to show you that sometimes in your darkest hour if you can just shift your focus and maybe, just maybe distract yourself a bit from the reality around you. You then begin to open up and allow people to help you back to your former self if not better.

    I am going to cut today's blog just a little short, but I will try to post more and continue some more of my back story as I work this weekend.

Thank You,
~Ben

Working Through It

    Today I want to talk about a situation that happened to a young man as he was nearing graduation and didn't know quite what to do.

    This young man didn't particularly know what he wanted to do with his new degree or what path he would take. He had tried in the past to make strides in his part time job and perhaps even form a niche role that he could fill post graduation, thus turning his job into a career. This didn't look like it would quite pan out for him so he decided to band together with two of his close friends from college and start to form an idea for a business that they could start up. The first idea they had was to start a restaurant, well this idea seemed to be in the distant future as they were all pretty broke (as most college students are). So they started doing what any good entrepreneur would do and they shifted their focus.

     With their focus now shifted they started to work on the idea that maybe they could start up a new business that would fulfill some of their wants to have a restaurant and be successful. That's when they began work on a bakery/cafe concept. They worked tirelessly through the nights both after school and on the weekends. All the while they were working on internships for their respective degrees. The young man quit his part time job, and decided to work more at his internship as it was paid and showed promise. Then tragedy struck and without notice the young man's internship was told to lay off some new hires in preparation for a shift in management. In a blink of an eye the young man was jobless.

The young man mentioned here was me, I faced these very real and very common problems that an upwards of 53% of college age people and college graduates face in these hard times. I would like to elaborate more tomorrow on how you can pull yourself up from a seemingly bottomless pit of problems and negativity.

~Ben