"The Shining Star"

Working at the post office made me an angry person. Well...angrier. When I became vegetarian, I was made fun of for weeks, being called a hippie and that "animals were born to be food." When I wanted to buy a foreign car for fuel efficiency, I was openly called a Communist by several people at work. When I told them I was running a marathon, the biggest response I got was "Oh. That's nice." I wanted to shoot myself whenever I walked in the door.

Since coming to the hospital in November of 2007 (almost a year now), it has since been a total turnaround. The marathon came around again this year, I had people sending me emails cheering me on. I had nurses stop by my desk and talk to me for 10 minutes, asking me about how I got into running, how often I run, and what my other plans were. When the Civic Open came around, over 10 nurses and doctors told me they were actively trying to get the night off to come see me sing. Today, my first day back to work since the competition, I returned to find a huge, hand-made card on my desk.

The front had my name written on it, and a huge star "Stress Ball" that they had written "Our Shining Star" on it in pen, as well as the name of the song I sang.

The next page had a pasted picture of a guy dancing and singing, and said "From all the 4BC staff! You can use the stress ball for whenever you get nervous."

The last page had a large message for me.

...and was signed by everyone on my floor.

Some even wrote me a little message.

I swear, if I hadn't been at work, I would've cried.

Like a baby.

A baby with Colic.

This was the nicest thing they couldn't ever done. These people haven't even known me for a year, and they cheered me on, sent me congratulations, and even spent money to come see me perform.

Somehow, getting Second Place didn't matter anymore.

being upset over a decision means nothing compared to the number of friends I had behind me that night.