Archive for the American Idol Category

The “U” Word is Uncle

On November 2, 2009   /   American Idol, Dust Off, Iraq, Operation Desert Swap, soldiers, Uncle Sam, War of 1812   /   Leave a comment

Uncle Sam, that is…the national personification of the American government. The first usage of the term dates back to the War of 1812, by the way.

I’m not going to go all political on you now, but I might get a little maudlin. I’m going to talk about Iraq, more specifically about Operation Desert Swap. Because regardless of your views on Iraq, I would venture to guess you still feel it’s important to support our soldiers. I know I do. I have had the good fortune to do my small part through Operation Desert Swap.

Operation Desert Swap is a program started by a mother whose son was recently sent to Iraq. She put together a group of authors and other patriotic people dedicated to actively showing their support for the troops. The program is set up so that each author/person “adopts” a soldier, sending them a copy of their book along with an initial Operation Desert Swap letter. At least once a month we send “our” soldier a letter to help keep their morale up, and we send “our” soldier at least one care package during their deployment, plus a Christmas card. The only thing the soldier is asked to do is to swap their book with another soldier when they finish reading it, and then that soldier swaps it off with another and so on. Currently we are supporting C company 3/25 Aviation Regiment, a medevac unit also known as “Dust off.”

If any of you are interested in participating or getting the project going for another unit, go to the website http://operationdesertswap.webs.com/ for information. You do not need to be an author to participate or start a program. Uncle Sam would be proud.

Teresa Burrell
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The “I” Word–Impossible

On May 13, 2009   /   American Idol, athlete, Black Gazelle, football, gold medals, handicap, impossible, Notre Dame, Olympic, pneumonia, polio, Rudy, Rudy Ruettiger, running, scarlet fever, Wilma Rudolph   /   4 Comments

Growing up I never really thought much about things being “impossible.” As I’ve said before, I went through life doing things because I didn’t know I couldn’t. My sisters function the same way. They’ve all set fine examples for me; none of them know the meaning of impossible.

We’ve all heard of the athlete with a handicap who does the “impossible.” Just about everyone knows about 5’ 7” Rudy Ruettiger who played football for Notre Dame. Or Wilma Rudolph, who became known as “The Black Gazelle.” She overcame polio, scarlet fever, and double pneumonia only to go on to set running records and win Olympic gold medals.

But it’s the little things you do everyday that lead to mastery and eventually overcomes the impossible. Writing that extra paragraph, doing that extra set of exercises, making one more phone call, working that extra hour, saving that extra dollar, stuffing one more envelope…it doesn’t matter what goal you’re trying to reach, it’s the little “impossibilities” that ultimately make you a winner.

So, I think I’ll go eat that extra piece of chocolate and try out for American Idol. Ok, so there are limits, but most of them are in your mind.

I’m a little “Fertile” girl who went on to write a novel, The Advocate, and actually got it published. Who’d ever thought that was possible?

What “impossible” thing have you achieved?

https://www.teresaburrell.com

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