Leap Year of Firsts (eBook)

366 Adventures to Appreciate and Learn from Life

Keith L. Baldwin (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022 | 1. Auflage
298 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-6678-1297-7 (ISBN)

Infos

When Keith Baldwin started his innocent and fun quest of 'firsts' on January 1st, 2020, it ended up turning into a year like no other. A year where he did something EVERY day for the 'first' time in his life. A year that turned into chaos, opportunity and a few unthinkable 'firsts.' Ride along as Keith takes you on a journey where we experienced a pandemic like 1918, unemployment and depression like the Great one in 1929, Civil unrest like the 1960s, and an election that brought back images of our Civil War. Although it was a year with 'firsts', it also was a year when the author discovered his 'WHY'.

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When Keith Baldwin started his innocent and fun quest of "e;firsts"e; on January 1st, 2020, it ended up turning into a year like no other. Ride along as Keith takes you on a journey where we experienced a pandemic like 1918, unemployment and depression like the Great one in 1929, Civil unrest like the 1960s, and an election that brought back images of our Civil War. Although it was a year with "e;firsts"e;, it also was a year when the author discovered his "e;WHY"e;. Dive into Keith's adventure and join him as he experiences a bucket list of firsts. He believes he did the best job of his life for free, but he was paid more than he had ever been paid in his life, just in so many other ways. Throughout his life-changing journey, there were many along the way who threw a pebble in his pond that created many ripples which effected many others. He hopes to pay it forward in some small way by sharing this book.

Textauszug

Chapter One:
Start of A Leap Year of Firsts –
How did I get here?

It’s midnight on December 5, 2020, and I’m horizontal on hard, wet ground, on a slightly sloped hill between two large boulders, strategically positioned to block the breeze. I’m tucked in a worn, beaten-up sleeping bag. A rolled-up old towel is my pillow. It’s in the 30s, with a biting wind — COLD. I didn’t shower, and my clothes are war-torn and old. My location is Sixth Street, between Callowhill & Race Streets in Center City, Philly, just blocks from where the business I currently own started almost a century ago. It is blocks from where I walked through the door of that business as an ignorant, wet-behind-the-ears teenage employee 40-plus years ago. My head is on a swivel, keeping a constant eye out for danger. The din from the nearby highways is distracting. There is a half-moon with a few stars above. The nearby streetlights provide a minimal amount of illumination. I am trying to catch a bit of shut-eye, despite having one eye open. I’m spending the night among the homeless on the streets, with mini tent-cities on either side of me that reside under the adjacent highway overpasses. How did I get here? Why do I find myself here for the first time in my life sleeping on the streets of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on a bitter December night as a homeless person…voluntarily?

The answer to this question started exactly one year ago to this day, less than ten miles away, at my first Human Resources Management Association breakfast meeting on the morning of December 5, 2019, at a local South Jersey eating establishment. I was one of the few guests in the crowd of close to a hundred members. The guest speaker was LuAnn Cahn, a veteran Emmy Award-winning journalist and cancer survivor who wrote a book called I Dare Me: How I Rebooted and Recharged My Life by Doing Something New Every Day. It was fate that the speaker that day hit on a topic that inspired me to pursue my very own unique journey. A yearlong adventure of sorts. During her 20-minute presentation, she asked the attendees to write on an index card one thing they would commit to in the upcoming year, which would be a first for them. I wrote “fly a plane.” (This was an idea I gave up on many years ago because of the assumed cost and time commitment.) She had us turn to the person on our right and make this commitment. She wanted it to be a goal, a written one we were committed to. She asked for volunteers in the audience to stand and share their commitments. I was one of the few guinea pigs selected to share. I was honestly somewhat embarrassed and self-skeptical when I stood and said, “fly a plane.” I’m sure, like most in the room, I thought we would commit and forget about it once we walked out of the door and back into our busy lives. My goal seemed far-fetched, self-important, and rather unachievable, especially at my advanced age. I’m old — I’m over 60! Would I do it? I really wasn’t sure that morning.

I hung around after the presentation to acquire a signed copy of the speaker’s book. I also wanted to personally tell her that she had inspired me that morning. The story she recounted of sitting down next to a homeless person in Rittenhouse Square touched me. It was the first time she had a conversation with a homeless person. Her curiosity and dare to herself had pushed her out of her comfort zone. The room was silent, as people wiped away tears as she recounted it. It still moved and affected her to that day. It moved me! She planted a seed that day within me that would grow into a life-changing experience, one that would place me on the Philly streets, homeless for an evening, a year later.

I received a signed copy of the book that morning. I disclosed to the author that I was going to take her dare and do my own year of firsts starting on January 1, 2020. There you go. I was committed. I was all in. I’m sure she heard this commitment often. I wondered how many would follow through. I wasn’t sure if I would after the high of the morning wore off. Did I have the staying power to see it through once punched in the mouth by the fist of everyday life?

As I walked to my car, I started to think, “every day?” It seemed like a lot of work, but I have never been afraid of hard work. I opened I Dare Me and skimmed the list of her 365 firsts at the end of the book. I was intrigued. That day I started to read the book to wrap my head around what my firsts might look like. The author’s first of her year was the Polar Bear Plunge in Atlantic City on New Year’s Day. I decided that was a good start for me, too. I had never taken a Polar Bear Plunge in freezing cold water before. I Googled the event, signed up, ordered, paid for a commemorative t-shirt, and awaited my first on the 1st. I was on my way.

I am fortunate that 2020 was a leap year. It would make my year of firsts unique in a way; 366 versus 365 — I’d have one extra first. In the weeks leading up to my first, I started to write a list of other possible firsts. I pilfered a few from her book and started to come up with several of them on my own. I sorted them into firsts I would need to plan for and others I could do at a moment’s notice as filler. I also searched my upcoming calendar of firsts that were already booked for the year that I could count on.

As part of this, I wanted to start a daily journal for the first time in my life to document these firsts. On January 2, I would start my journal. My intent was to turn it into a book, this book, another first. I would do this for me, for posterity, by self-publishing a few copies for my family. I was planning to call the book A Leap Year of Firsts — 366 of Them. Here is the list I compiled and headed into my year with:

Ideas I Need to Plan For

• Fly a plane
• Speech – Write & perform one
• Watercolor class – Paint my wife
• Walk to work
• Magic trick – Learn
• Song – Write
• Unplugged – A day without a cell phone, Outlook, Facebook, etc.
• Edit a video – Learn
• Serve dinner at a homeless shelter
• Work with my wife (Carter’s)
• Fly in an air tunnel
• Karaoke
• Fenway/visit Boston
• Rock climbing – Indoors
• Skydive
• Sign language – Learn to say: “I Love You” and “Forgiveness”
• Surf
• Limoncello – Make
• Row on Schuylkill River
• Drum lesson – Learn a song
• Guitar lesson
• Race car – Drive
• Wheelchair – Spend a day in one
• “Blind” – Spend an hour/day
• Yom Kippur service – Attend
• Video interviewed by my kids (my life)
• Shoot 78 – Lowest round of golf in my life
• Reconcile longtime feud – To forgive
• Acupuncture
• Piano – Learn to play a song
• Pickle Ball – Play
• High heels – Walk in
• Poetry reading – Attend one
• Shoot a gun
• No TV for a week
• Mud run
• Snowboard
• Zoo – First time with my first grandson
• Grandson firsts throughout the year
• Virtual reality – Try it
• Book – Write one
• Wire an electrical outlet (or something electrical)
• Speedo – Wear one
• Radio show – Call in
• Mummers Parade – Live
• Fantasy Football – Participate

Ideas – Same Day/Fast

• Engrave holloware (mug or bowl) on computer
• Make a vinyl sign
• Tweet
• Juggle
• Skype someone
• Joke – Learn to tell
• Speed limit – Drive all day
• Red Bull – Drink one
• Bow tie – Tie one
• Mosque – Visit
• Poem – Write
• Medical marijuana with mom
• “Moon” – Old neighborhood friends
• Teeter – Hang upside down
• Socks – Wear wild/crazy socks for a day
• Tarot card...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 14.1.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• ISBN-10: 1-6678-1297-1 / 1667812971
• ISBN-13: 978-1-6678-1297-7 / 9781667812977