Hiroshima & Heroes

It was Mother's Day 2008 and I was standing in a hotel room in Las Vegas with a buddy of mine when I received a call from my mom. Typical move on my part to be out of town on such an important holiday for no other reason than selfish motives and a quasi work related endeavor. A conversation ensued:

Me: "Hi Mom, happy Mother's Day. I was going to call but..."

Mom: "Dad is in the hospital. He was feeling extremely weak so we called 911. He threw up and sort of fainted as they were loading him into the ambulance but he's at the hospital now."

Me: I'm paraphrasing here "Not cool, hope he's ok, see you in two days when I return from Vegas. Happy Mother's day???"

I leave the hotel room with my buddy and proceed to lose a couple hundred dollars while drinking my face off. No worries, we were comped for the whole weekend since I'm an avid reader and finished "Las Vegas for Dummies" on the flight out west.

Turns out my dad was inches from death due to blood loss from internal bleeding. Doctors were able to save his life with multiple transfusions and cauterization of his esophagus. I remember thinking the bad news was over so let's jump on the positivity train on the road to recovrery. You have to understand, both my parents had digestive system issues so this episode, although severe, wasn't out of the blue. Then the C bomb - Esophageal can$er (I refuse to give it enough energy to spell it properly).

I'm a health and physical education teacher by profession. I'm a certified EMT, Lifeguard Instructor, and former Sea Isle City Beach Patrol member who spent a good 20 years of my life around emergency situations. I knew enough to know it was a death sentence. Although my dad fought, went into remission for a short period, and beat the odds in terms of life expectancy, he passed away just over a year later on June 25th, 2009 at the age of 59 (same as Michael Jackson so I'm wondering if they're friends now).

You could say this was the catalyst that caused me to wake the "F" up but not in the traditional sense of the phrase. It caused a decade long journey inward that helped me to lose myself and discover my true being; God.

My mother turns 67 later this year which marks a full 30 years since she was diagnosed with stage four colon can$er, the details of which are still shrouded in mystery. I'm sure this was intentional to protect my two siblings and I but it demonstrates some of the best human qualities, unconditional love, courage, and strength. Point blank, my parents were/are my heroes. They weren't perfect and I didn't make it easy. I can never return all they gave over the course of my life but I do realize they raised me to a position of strength. From there, I plan to utilize their best qualities in conjunction with my discovered knowledge to live life to the fullest and pay it forward.

Ten years after my internal journey to find answers, at the age of thirty-seven, with a family of my own, I'm ready to share what I discovered. Waking the "F" up means utilizing this blog to emphasize the importance of living with purpose in the areas of Faith, Fitness & Food, Family & Friends, Feelings, Future, Free time, and Finances. In the end I hope to inspire the world to wake the "F" up but in all reality I only care if I'm a hero to my world; my kids.