Earlier this week I was on a call for one of the Board of Directors that I serve on, for the YMCA at Virginia Tech. Even though I don’t live in Blacksburg and haven’t for quite some time, I maintain this service role becuase VT and the surrounding community of Blacksburg is truly my home; …
Category: Inspirational
So darn grateful.
This post actually took the form of a very, very long private Facebook post earlier. Nonetheless, I wanted to share it a little bit more widely. Thus, here we are. I’m not even sure where this status is gonna go, but the TL;DR is: give praise where praise is due. Recognize people, positively. It’s Actively …
Virginia Tech NCR Commencement.
This past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to address our newest graduates of Virginia Tech – now alumni – at their commenecement ceremony. This was, in particular, for those graduating from our programs that are here in the “National Capital Region,” as we call it – which is pretty much Washington D.C. and the …
The Prison of Your Mind by Sean Stephenson.
I write this blog post from the comfort of my bed at 7:30 a.m. on a “#TeleFriday” as I like to call it – the second day of the week that I’m super grateful to be able to work my day job from home. I often spend days like these cleaning, surfing the internet, and …
Real talk. It feels great.
This whole motivational speaking thing was never truly planned, you know. When I was in middle school, and I was just chatting it up with classmates, my teachers would always tell me to quiet down. That was when I learned the term “Justin, your voice carries!” Oh wow, did I really NOT like that. When …
Thoughts.
Be so busy improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others. Chetan Bhagat
Coming Out: Painting Leah.
As I continue my journey toward being the best possible advocate for anyone with a marginalized identity, I’ve been more and more intrigued by the journey travelled by those who are transgender. The T in LGBTQ (I, A, etc.) stands for transgender and the generally accepted definition of that term is anyone who may have an internal …
TONIGHT! LIVE ART Premieres on National TV.
Inclusion. Everybody. Compassion. Love. Art. Performance. That is LIVE ART. Almost 2 years ago, I published this heart-felt, long, long post about an amazing, inclusive, and powerful program I had recently discovered. Although I didn’t begin that day as a part of their community, by the end of it – I was so deep and wanted …