I like to believe that throughout my life, so far, I've been a helpful person. I enjoy helping others, and enjoy it even more when I see that, after my help, they can handle it alone. But I want to do more. Much more!
On the picture above you see "Coach Rich", my helping hand during labor, and our princessa Gabriella, a few hours old. This was one of the biggest helping hands I ever got, and I wanted to celebrate it by paying strong respect for him!
When I was a student at Rollins, I was a tutor to students taking Accounting (part of our International Business major). I LOVED it. We would sit in the cozy "hub" at TJ's, the tutoring center, and I would lead them into finding out how to solve the problems, how to create balance sheets and understand income statments, budgets and cash flows. I would challenge them to make their annual report review a bit more "accountingish", and I definitely loved the group sessions I conducted. In Glion, where I went to Hotel School, I tutored Human Resources Management, and although it was not as intensive as at Rollins, it made me feel very good and helpful.
I kept on tutoring my dear stepdaughter in Spanish for a while, until Gabi was born. Now that Gabi is a bit "older" than when she was a newborn, I'm hoping to pick up the sessions with Brittany again, but, as she's doing quite fine in Spanish, maybe we'll look into something else (I know that a big part of the deal for her is to sit at Barne's & Noble Starbucks and be able to have her double-chocolate chip Frappuccino...). Maybe we can study the art of making these bombacious coffee drinks!!!
Anyways, a few days ago I took the "challenge" of helping a friend with her research paper on Sylvia Plath. You see, I never took "English I" or "English II" in College, and having gone to a German-Brazilian School my entire life, I was never really exposed to Sylvia Plath. She's more than a poet, writer, literary icon. She's a metaphor for many things that happen in our lives that we don't want to realize. My point here is not to write about Sylvia Plath now, but look into her work and life if you have interest and time. Quite interesting! So, I'm helping her out and hope our combined effort is well rewarded afterall, as my intentions are good enough.
My beautiful and wonderful friend from Brazil (although she's actually American) who's pregnant got my helping hand too. I signed her up to receive a whole bunch of "baby info", which is basically promotional stuff from Huggies/Pampers/Nestle, and even if you don't use these brands, they provide you with coupons and a whole bunch of good info. I also gave her and my husband's Godson's parents each a subscription to a baby-parent magazine. Just a small helping hand saying HI!
Monetary help is the one I least enjoy... It can actually make 2 or more parties uncomfortable, rather than happy, and there's not really a win-win situation if you analyze it closer. You want to help because you experience the win-win situation. Monetary help can be "yucky" if not done properly, and I guess that's why we should turn to the ones who enjoy doing the yucky business: banks and other loan providers! BUT WAIT! I LOVE sending my donations, monetary donations, to my favorite charities, and I will always, always, keep on doing that!!! My favorite charities are for animals and children. I will write more about that on another post.
Does gift giving count as "help"? Well, I think it could....the magazine subscriptions I made were gifts, and I am hoping they come in handy when we're all still learning the ABCs of baby-care.
I am also helping one of my best friends in her quest to maybe come to the US and work here for a while. She's looking into Events Management, something amazingly HUGE in Orlando, and there are a few companies offering internships for foreigners. I really want to help her find a great opportunity, and hopefully we'll be able to celebrate later, together, here!
My parents are helpful people. I might have learned it from them, observing, al these years, how they've been so helpful towards others. My mom, always willing to give our friends a ride home, would say "don't worry, it's the car that's doing the hard work. I'm just sitting back and stearing!". My Dad would give jobs to those in need, and have them fix things around the house or in our sort of Country Club "Sociedade Germania". Some of the people stayed and worked for us for many years to come. For many years, I would open my bedroom window and would observe the homeless family living across from our house. They used a city park's benches to make their home, and they would do everything there. To avoid contact and exposing our family to them, my sister and I were never allowed to speak or give them anything, especially money (which would most likely go towards alcohol, cigarettes and drugs). Nevertheless, my parents never denied them food, often giving them fruits and sometimes even homemade sandwiches. I learned early on that money is not the solution, and that going back to the basics (food, in this case), has such a greater value.
One of my goals is to teach my daughter Gabi to enjoy helping others. The law of attraction clearly states that you have to GIVE in order to RECEIVE. Denying people help will catch up with you later, but if from early on you learn how to give, you will keep on receiving in life. Think about the times you have GIVEN and you have provided a warm, helping hand. I'm sure it has made you feel wonderful. Don' t you want to feel that again, as often as possible? The next time, I will present to you my "Helping Hand List", new ways to help and boost my GIVING. How about you?
When I was a student at Rollins, I was a tutor to students taking Accounting (part of our International Business major). I LOVED it. We would sit in the cozy "hub" at TJ's, the tutoring center, and I would lead them into finding out how to solve the problems, how to create balance sheets and understand income statments, budgets and cash flows. I would challenge them to make their annual report review a bit more "accountingish", and I definitely loved the group sessions I conducted. In Glion, where I went to Hotel School, I tutored Human Resources Management, and although it was not as intensive as at Rollins, it made me feel very good and helpful.
I kept on tutoring my dear stepdaughter in Spanish for a while, until Gabi was born. Now that Gabi is a bit "older" than when she was a newborn, I'm hoping to pick up the sessions with Brittany again, but, as she's doing quite fine in Spanish, maybe we'll look into something else (I know that a big part of the deal for her is to sit at Barne's & Noble Starbucks and be able to have her double-chocolate chip Frappuccino...). Maybe we can study the art of making these bombacious coffee drinks!!!
Anyways, a few days ago I took the "challenge" of helping a friend with her research paper on Sylvia Plath. You see, I never took "English I" or "English II" in College, and having gone to a German-Brazilian School my entire life, I was never really exposed to Sylvia Plath. She's more than a poet, writer, literary icon. She's a metaphor for many things that happen in our lives that we don't want to realize. My point here is not to write about Sylvia Plath now, but look into her work and life if you have interest and time. Quite interesting! So, I'm helping her out and hope our combined effort is well rewarded afterall, as my intentions are good enough.
My beautiful and wonderful friend from Brazil (although she's actually American) who's pregnant got my helping hand too. I signed her up to receive a whole bunch of "baby info", which is basically promotional stuff from Huggies/Pampers/Nestle, and even if you don't use these brands, they provide you with coupons and a whole bunch of good info. I also gave her and my husband's Godson's parents each a subscription to a baby-parent magazine. Just a small helping hand saying HI!
Monetary help is the one I least enjoy... It can actually make 2 or more parties uncomfortable, rather than happy, and there's not really a win-win situation if you analyze it closer. You want to help because you experience the win-win situation. Monetary help can be "yucky" if not done properly, and I guess that's why we should turn to the ones who enjoy doing the yucky business: banks and other loan providers! BUT WAIT! I LOVE sending my donations, monetary donations, to my favorite charities, and I will always, always, keep on doing that!!! My favorite charities are for animals and children. I will write more about that on another post.
Does gift giving count as "help"? Well, I think it could....the magazine subscriptions I made were gifts, and I am hoping they come in handy when we're all still learning the ABCs of baby-care.
I am also helping one of my best friends in her quest to maybe come to the US and work here for a while. She's looking into Events Management, something amazingly HUGE in Orlando, and there are a few companies offering internships for foreigners. I really want to help her find a great opportunity, and hopefully we'll be able to celebrate later, together, here!
My parents are helpful people. I might have learned it from them, observing, al these years, how they've been so helpful towards others. My mom, always willing to give our friends a ride home, would say "don't worry, it's the car that's doing the hard work. I'm just sitting back and stearing!". My Dad would give jobs to those in need, and have them fix things around the house or in our sort of Country Club "Sociedade Germania". Some of the people stayed and worked for us for many years to come. For many years, I would open my bedroom window and would observe the homeless family living across from our house. They used a city park's benches to make their home, and they would do everything there. To avoid contact and exposing our family to them, my sister and I were never allowed to speak or give them anything, especially money (which would most likely go towards alcohol, cigarettes and drugs). Nevertheless, my parents never denied them food, often giving them fruits and sometimes even homemade sandwiches. I learned early on that money is not the solution, and that going back to the basics (food, in this case), has such a greater value.
One of my goals is to teach my daughter Gabi to enjoy helping others. The law of attraction clearly states that you have to GIVE in order to RECEIVE. Denying people help will catch up with you later, but if from early on you learn how to give, you will keep on receiving in life. Think about the times you have GIVEN and you have provided a warm, helping hand. I'm sure it has made you feel wonderful. Don' t you want to feel that again, as often as possible? The next time, I will present to you my "Helping Hand List", new ways to help and boost my GIVING. How about you?
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