My Alpha...

The first one; the beginning.  An so this is the beginning... I won't take you all the way back, but for you to get to know me I have to take you back to my beginning with the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure.  It all started with with a promise, a promise to honor three special women that shaped my life and helped me to become the woman I am today.    I picked up the phone and called 800-996-3DAY.  I spent $90.00 to register, to walk in my first 3-Day for the Cure in Cleveland.  As I hung up the phone, racing through my head was I need $2,300 in donations, walk 60 miles and in three, (3) days...  I had to say three twice because I was honestly unsure about walking 60 miles in 3 days.  I told my husband about my plans and he looked at me a little funny... I think WHY was in there (Somewhere).  He chuckled and told me that, as with any thing else that I have put my mind to I would succeed at this.  So, with that I started to share with family, friends and anyone else that would listen to me about what I was going to do.  The looks, the look of Really?!?!  Your REALLY going to walk 60 miles ?!?  Then the ( Long drawn out ) WHY...?  Most people didn't know that my Grandmother was a 25 year breast cancer survivor or that my Mother was a 10 year survivor.  Then in 2007 my dear friend Debbie, lost her Mother.  Judy was like my second Mom and her family is my extended family.  So, why did it take me till 2010 to stand up and do something?  I can't honestly answer that question with 100% certainty.  All I can tell you was I felt it was my time.  I knew that I didn't want to wait until I was sitting in a  doctors office to hear, "You have breast cancer".   Why wait until you are touched by breast cancer to be affected by it.  My mind racing, I started to come up with different ideas and how I was going to get done what I had envisioned.  I wrote down everything and made my dream list.  One by one I called, explained what I was going to do and why.  I found that over the phone was a little more difficult than I thought it was going to be.  So, step two was to cart around our 2 and sometimes our 5 year old, as I went from business to business.  Trying to secure locations and donations for events that I wanted to have.  I can only say that it added another layer in the challenge department.  There were some days that I swear I got not only my training in miles, but in patience as well.  (Oh the stories I could tell you)  Each time people told me that I would never get something, it made me that much more determined to get it.  I kept telling myself that the worst thing people could say to me is "No".   No, does not always mean NO, sometimes it means "Not Right Now".  I refused to let "No" keep me from my goal.