There comes a time in every blogger’s life when they feel the need to give a shout-out to one of their idols. This shout-out might be a bit premature considering my exceptionally short blogging life, but I’m going to do it anyway. So, here’s a huge metaphorical high-five to one of my favorite people ever:

This guy.

Theodore Geisel. Theodore Suess Geisel. Or, Dr. Seuss, as you might know him.

“Ted” Suess Geisel was born in 1904 in Massachusetts. The son of German immigrants, Ted had his ups and downs as a child, especially after the outbreak of World War 1 socially isolated him from the rest of his peers. Ted’s adult life wasn’t all sunshine and daisies either; his first wife and largest supporter, Helen, died when Ted was 62 years old. Ted’s work was often criticized and ripped apart, and it took many long years before Ted was finally recognized as a significant contributor to the literary world.

Despite all of that, WHAT a guy! Talk about someone with a butterfly attitude! Seuss has to be one of the most inspirational authors I know. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at my favorite Dr. Suess book: Oh, The Places You’ll Go.

I read this book before the beginning of every school year. It reminds me of a couple important facts that I think everyone should know before beginning a new stage in life.

First of all, our happiness and our success are up to us! You can steer ourselves any direction you choose. Any direction. That doesn’t just mean we get to pick our own majors or which gallon of ice cream we’re going to devour this week or to which bleak hour of the night we’ll sacrifice the last moment of our consciousness. It also means we get to choose our attitudes. You’ll look up and down streets. Look ‘em over with care. About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there!” We can adopt a caterpillar attitude, and attract other caterpillar-minded people, or we can choose a butterfly attitude, and see where that path leads us. Either way, it’s our choice.

Secondly, changes happen. Good changes, sometimes, but not all of the time. It happens to EVERYONE! The hardest thing we can do when we’re feeling lonely or sad is to think that we’re the only person who is feeling lonely or sad. I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you .Bang-ups and Hang-ups happen to us all – meaning, they happen to us all. If the rollercoaster of your life happens to be at a low point, try looking around you. You’ll probably see someone in an adjacent track who is just as low as you are. You might be lonely, but you’re never alone.

Most importantly: You’ve got this! To everyone who is reading this right now, you have electricity - which automatically makes you more fortunate than the majority of people on this planet. YOU (yes, I am talking to you) have a great future ahead of you! A future filled with unexpected butterflies!

And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTIANS!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

Dr. Suess, thanks for pointing out the butterflies.

Well, you heard the man! Let’s go find some mountains!

P.S. Here is the poem, Oh, The Places You’ll Go, in its entirety. Enjoy!

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look’em over with care. About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. In that case, of course, you’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And if you go in, should you turn left or right…or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite? Or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.

No! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t. Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike. And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

Welcome to The Butterfly Campaign!

No, it’s not just a random blog name that came to me during the night: it’s actually a campaign. You see, I think that the world has gotten a little bit lax in recognizing the butterflies in our lives! If politicians can campaign day in and day out to rally support for their pompous causes, I figure that a teenage girl from Kalamazoo, Michigan can campaign for something I believe in, even if it is in a smallish way.

“But what is this cause, and what in the name of Cedric Diggory does it have to do with butterflies?” I hear you say. Well, let me explain it to you in the best way I know how: First, you need to get your thinking caps on and imagine with me. Imagine that you are tucked somewhere warm and cozy, preferably next to a large window of some sort. Through this window, you have a view of an outdoor place on a particularly rainy day. As you sit, staring dreamily outside at the scene before you, you begin noticing that the people you are absentmindedly but slightly creepily observing fall into two behavioral categories. The first category or behavior that you would observe would be what I lovingly refer to as caterpillar behavior. People who conform to this first, and sadly more popular type of behavior would be distinguished by several key features – Number one; in this particular situation, they would probably have their heads bent in obvious dismay, the body language of the mop from the Swiffer commercial, and a face which somewhat resembled your face immediately following your first taste of lemon. If you still aren’t sure at this point whether or not the person you are observing falls into the caterpillar category, I’ll give you the key to picking a caterpillar out of a crowd: Complaining. For this example, they’ll probably be complaining about the rain. However, if it were sunny, they’d be complaining about the sun. Essentially, they look at the caterpillars of life and see just that: a disgusting cross between a worm and a centipede that spends all its days eating away at their loveliest garden endeavors. Thus, the classification of caterpillar behavior.

Now for the second behavior you might observe through your window to this outdoor place on this rainy day: Butterfly behavior.

I believe that the best example of butterfly behavior I have ever seen was one displayed by a random little boy at a random rainy location a number of random years ago. Well, actually it was my brother, at Disney World, 7 years ago. Now, normal people would get particularly irritated if it began to rain during their day at Magic Kingdom in Disney World, which is presumably the happiest place on earth. Most people. Not Parker. I remember him practically jumping out of my mother’s arms, his little chocolate-brown eyes sparkling with joy and his chubby cheeks pushed back by his huge grin. Leaving the rest of my family to huddle in our miserable caterpillar state, Parker joyously ran to the center of the walkway, looked around briefly to locate the absolute largest puddle he could, ran to it, and with an ear-piercing shriek of excitement, jumped. Soon, due to the jovial example of my two-year-old brother, the rest of my family was also happily jumping in the puddles – even my 6’4” dad. The rides, characters, and sunny moments have all faded from memory, but my little brother’s example of butterfly behavior is still firmly ingrained in my memory.

Parker looked at the caterpillar that life gave him and, when life gave him the option, chose to see much more than just a caterpillar: a baby butterfly.

“Be Happy. It is one way of being wise.” – Sidonie Gabrielle

My campaign? I'm hoping we can all see the butterflies.

Again, Welcome to The Butterfly Campaign!