Thirty Fortunate Day 1: My Roots

I spent the day of my birth driving to the homeland, getting family portraits done, and enjoying a lovely dinner with my Pantz, my bros & their wives & my bff of 19 years. We've never celebrated this way before, but K & I share a birthday & M's birthday is 3 days before ours, so we thought it might be fun to be all together. Indeed, it was.

Being back home reminds me of how very lucky I am to have been raised by such wonderful, giving parents in a small community. Of course, growing up I didn't always see it that way. But as I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate that I was raised in a place where people know each other & ask how your family is doing--where they wave when you drive by them on the road & coach little league years after their own kids have outgrown it.

My parents raised us with values that I wouldn't trade for anything--that people come before things and that anything worth doing probably won't be easy. I grew up in a place where you have to work your butt off just to get by, and then if you want to actually build something for yourself and your family, you work even harder. They taught us these things by example, and for that, I feel very fortunate.

Otsego Lake.

The view from behind my family home.