Okay, first of all, this story begins with happy news and ends with happy news. But let's first start from the beginning. I met Frank and Catherine Genovese, owners of the Candy Cane CHRISTmas Tree Farm in Oxford Township. They helped the campaign Trees for Troops donate trees to military bases. I think this is great what they are doing for the troops and their families -- giving them a Christmas when they, otherwise, would have been without their families and without a holiday.
As I was leaving the tree farm yesterday afternoon, Frank said something that stuck with me. I had been having a hard time that day because, at work, I felt like all I did was make mistakes. Frank was showing me around the farm, showing me all the trees he was so proud of. And when I was about to leave to go back to the office, he hugged me. He only knew me for about 15 minutes, yet he hugged me and told me not to be like other journalists. He told me that, if a cauliflower wanted to be a broccoli and it became a broccoli, it wouldn't be a very good broccoli. So why settle for not being a very good broccoli when you were a great cauliflower all along?
And that really hit me. He could see something in me that I couldn't even see myself. And it made me realize, that's why I've been screwing up. That's why I haven't been on my best game lately. I've been trying to be like everybody else, trying to be that broccoli, when I was meant to be a cauliflower. If you try to be somebody you're not, if you're always worried about being that person others want you to be, you will screw up. But, as Frank taught me, why try to be something different when you're amazing just the way you are?
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