Why would anyone what me to speak to impressionable young minds? High schoolers, none the less. Don’t they know that my GPA in high school was lower than the price of a fountain drink at Speedway!  I barely passed the easy classes, like art and physical education, that should have boosted my grades not send them deeper in the tank. I was smart, or so I was told, I just didn’t do the work, any work.

A few weeks back, I was asked by a teacher to speak to her class about something I do but can’t really say that I know that much about. Later this week I will talk to her students about blogging. If you are reading this, well you get the point. When I started this blog, my intended audience was one person as a way to tell “the world” what she means to me. Except it took on a life of its own. Writing about events in my life that I need to think through and process, I found that there are others that are facing similar, and much greater challenges than I face each day.

This blog has opened doors and created opportunities for me in ways that I never expected. But more importantly, it provides me a platform to encourage so many others. My words of encouragement are simple; your life doesn’t have to be ordinary, it can be extraordinary no matter what challenges you face. I believe it now even more than when I started. Why? Because it is true.

I have been posting messages once a week for about seven months. I still enjoy it in ways that are hard to explain. In a nut-shell, my world is becoming bigger. Through it all you have learned a lot about me and I have learned much about you. I am still so humbled that so many of you will take time out of your busy week to read the ramblings from some guy, one of millions, who just happens to have Parkinson’s.

While I don’t understand all the mechanics of the interaction between the blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc., I am not too old to learn. I will just need a tutorial from a twenty-something to sketch it out. I can pull reports from Google Analytics that tells me how the sight is doing, good stuff but it’s all geek to me. But so was Macro-economics and I learned that. I have reached Canada, France, India and Pakistan, although I suspect it’s the same person that is trying to sell me rubberized bracelets.

I will be making some changes to the site but its message will remain the same. Each week, it is still my goal, simple as it is, to give you something interesting to read, maybe make you smile, always make you think and even encourage you to strive for the extraordinary in the midst of the challenges you face.

I value your time and realize that there are a lot of voices vying for your attention. I certainly don’t want to get shoved aside to make room for yet another mindless tale about someone named Kardashian.

Thanks for reading, liking and sharing.

Al and his faithful sidekick, Ivy the wonder pup.