Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Heartwarming, encouraging and inspiring

I know that I can be critical to the extreme and even I get tired of my own negativety sometimes. That is one of the reasons I have not been posting as often as I once did.

Over the weekend there were a couple of stories in the local fishwrapper that I really found heartwarming and encouraging.

The first concern a teen sentenced to death in the time of the Mexican Revolution. He escaped to the Unidos Estados, married and raised a family of ten children. What makes this story so encoraging is that although he only had the equivelant of a thrid grade education he saw to it that all of his children at the very least graduated High School.

One of his children, son Marty Ramirez went on to college married and raised seven children or his own. What makes this heartwarmng is that the last of his seven children recently graduated from college.

Father proud of his seven college grads

Imagine that, a man with a third grade education raises ten kids that at least graduate high school. One of those kids goes on to college and raises seven kids that not only graduate high school, but they all graduate from college.

The second story concerns a local youth that had a miscreant past in sunny Southern California. Michael Preciado's parents relocated the family to Nebraska in hopes that the change would have a positive effect on Michael and his brother.

Former dropout makes best of his second chance

Michael had dropped out of high school at one point, had a change of heart and re-enrolled here in Nebraska. Michael is now a high school graduate with a good future ahead of him.

Wow !!! Call me softhearted or sentimental, but these stories really moved me. This is the American Dream at its finest and truely illustrates what can be accomplished with dedication, determination, encouragement and hardwork. Their stories are inspiring and I am privileged to be able to post them here.

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