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This Girl Has Some Demands For Her Future Husband — IF She Gets Married
When I was a little girl, I played pretend wedding. I like this girl's version better.
03.29.13
Thank you, Blake, for bringing some much-needed sunshine into our day.
When 6-year-old Blake Rajahn shows up to his first grade classroom on Monday, he will arrive bearing an uplifting a message for his fellow students.
Blake's mother, Nikki Rajahn, runs a custom personalization business in Fayette County, Georgia, and she asked her son what kind of t-shirt he wanted for his first day of school. He could have chosen anything—his favorite sports star's number, a cool dragon, a witty saying—anything he wanted, she could make.
Blake chose something unexpected—an orange t-shirt with a simple, sweet message for the other kids at his school to see. Five little words that might just mean the world to someone who reads them.
"I will be your friend."
Ouch. My heart.
Rajahn shared the story on her business Facebook page:
"I have to brag on my son. I told him that as a back to school gift, I will make him any shirt he would like. It could have anything—a basketball theme, football, etc. which are all his favorites. He thought a while and said, 'will you please make me a shirt that says "I will be your friend" for all the kids who need a friend to know that I am here for them?' Never underestimate your kid's heart for others! I love my sweet Blake! #stopbullying"
Apparently, such a gesture is typical of Blake. "He has always had a heart for others and is very genuine," his mother told Upworthy. She said she's donating part of the proceeds of her t-shirt sales to the Real Life Center, a non-profit that helps families in need in Tyrone, Georgia, all because of Blake.
"During the summer we had a vacation Bible school that he went to," she said, "and they did a toothbrush and toothpaste drive for the Real Life Center. He came home saying we needed to go to the Dollar Store to get some that night. We told him we would go the next day, but he had to use his money for it. He said that was fine, so we asked how much he would like to spend. He said, 'It's for people who don't have any, right?' We said yes, so he very matter-of-fact said, 'Well all of it!' And he did!"
Rajahn said everyone has been very encouraging and people are starting to order their own version of the t-shirt with "#blakesfriends" added to it.
She also shared Blake's reaction to hearing that his shirt idea was starting to spread on Facebook—and again, it's just the sweetest darn thing.
"Ever since I posted about my son and his shirt, I have sold some and told Blake about it. He said, "Oh good! Now more and more people are going to have more and more friends!" He is just so flattered so many want to be his twin too 😊"
Sometimes all a person needs is one friend so they won't feel alone, and Blake going out of his way to make sure kids feel welcomed by him is an example even adults can learn from. If we all reached out to people who might be shy or who might feel excluded, and let them know in some small way that we are open to being friends, what a better world we could build.
Thank you, Blake, for bringing some much-needed sunshine into our day.
This article originally appeared on 8.2.19
This might be the greatest game show moment ever.
Some moments never get old.
On November 19, 1999, a man named John Carpenter made game show history and quite possibly gave us all the greatest game show moment of all time.
Carpenter was a contestant on the very first season of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” shot in America. Hosted by the late Regis Philbin, the quiz show featured three "lifeline" options to help them with difficult questions, the most popular being able to “Phone-a-Friend.”
Carpenter had impressively not used a single lifeline for any of his questions. That is, until question 15. The million-dollar question, to be exact.
Philbin asked which U.S. President had appeared on the TV series "Laugh-In." The four options were Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.
That’s when Carpenter chose to call his father.
As soon as his dad answered the phone, Carpenter, all smiles, said:
“I don’t really need your help. I just wanted to let you know that I’m gonna win the million dollars."
Cue uproarious audience applause and laughter.
Watch:
RIP to Regis Philbin. One of the best TV hosts ever. This is my favorite moment in game show history pic.twitter.com/9WA1OyejVh
— Steve Perrault (@Steve_Perrault) July 25, 2020
Looking back, you can see the exact moment Carpenter realizes he’s won the whole damn thing—and it’s before the answers were even shown. He would go on to (correctly) choose Nixon, becoming the first ever top-prize winner in the entire “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” franchise worldwide.
And even now, a little over two decades later, it’s still such a boss move. Game shows might not have the same widespread appeal that they once did, but it's iconic moments like Carpenter’s phone call that still make them so fun to watch today.
This article originally appeared on 5.24.23
"Allow the body to be the guide."
An old woman holding a cane.
Death is the last great mystery that all of us face. We don’t know when we will go or can really be sure what comes next. So there’s understandably a lot of fear and uncertainty that most of us feel around death, whether we’re thinking about ourselves or a loved one.
That’s why Julie McFadden's work is so important. As a palliative care nurse in the Los Angeles area, who has seen over a hundred people die, her TikTok videos shed light on the process to make us all a bit more comfortable with the inevitable.
McFadden is also the author of the bestseller, “Nothing to Fear.”
The nurse’s experience helping people in their final stages has given her a unique perspective on the process. In a recent video, she shared how she can see the first symptoms that someone is going to die a natural death about 6 months before they finally do.
Interestingly, she can determine that someone only has half a year left to live when most of us have no idea they have entered the final stages of life.
@hospicenursejulie Replying to @Mariah educating yourself about scary topics will help decrease fear. ✨Nothing to Fear ✨- my book- out june 11th #hospicenursejulie #hospicenurse #caregiversoftiktok #medicaltiktok #learnontiktok #nothingtofearbook
McFadden adds that people who are dying are usually placed in hospice care when the symptoms begin to appear around the 6-month mark.
"You will have very generalized symptoms. Those symptoms will usually be, one, you will be less social. So you'll be more introverted than extroverted," McFadden said. "Two, you will be sleeping a lot more. And three, you will be eating and drinking a lot less. Literally, everyone on hospice, I see this happen to."
A Ray of light over a mountain. via PIxbay/Pexels
You are going to notice more debility,” McFadden continues. “They will be staying in their house most of the time. It's going to be difficult getting up and just going to the bathroom. Again, sleeping a lot more and eating and drinking a lot less.”
Something usually begins to happen in the final month of someone’s life. They start to believe they are in contact with others they have lost. It’s like they are there to make the dying person feel comfortable with their final transition.
"Usually around the one month mark is when people will start seeing 'the unseen', they have the visioning. They'll be seeing dead relatives, dead loved ones, dead pets, old friends who have died,” McFadden said. “Again, not everyone — but many, many people will start seeing these things at around one month."
An angel with a trumpet.via PixaBay/Pexels
Angela Morrow, a registered nurse at Verywell Health, agrees that people in the final stage of life often hear from those who have passed before them. Morrow says we should refrain from correcting the patients when they share their stories of talking to people and pets who have died. "You might feel frustrated because you can't know for sure whether they're hallucinating, having a spiritual experience, or just getting confused. The uncertainty can be unsettling, but it's part of the process," Morrow writes.
At the end of the video, McFadden says that the most important factors palliative care nurses look at to determine the stage of death are eating, drinking and sleeping. “Most people, a few weeks out from death, will be sleeping more than they are awake. And they will be barely eating and barely drinking,” McFadden said.
In the end, hospice nurses “allow the body to be the guide” as they help their patients transition from life to death.
McFadden’s work has brought a lot of peace to her followers as they go through trying times. "My mom is in hospice right now and she’s currently, I think, hours or days from death. YourTikToks have helped me out tremendously," Deb wrote. "My grandma passed away in February, and she experienced all of this. this page brings me peace knowing everything she went through was natural," Jaida added.
"Thanks, Julie. I volunteer in a hospice end-of-life facility, and this helps educate the families. Your posts are wonderful," Grandma Nita wrote.
One of the things that makes death so scary is the number of unknowns surrounding the process. That’s why it’s so important that McFadden shares her stories of helping people to the next side. She shows that death is a natural process and that hospice nurses are here to help make the transition as peaceful as possible.
Nearly 80 percent of all books are bought by women
The first time I sat down to write a fictional story (about 13 years ago), I wrote a screenplay jam-packed with stuff a 20-something year old guy thought was cool.
There was a bank heist gone wrong. Guns. Bad guys. Car chases. Explosions!
Since then I've become a father to two amazing girls, and for a long time my writing career was put on the backburner.
(Turns out, you suddenly have a lot less free time as a parent.)
But in early 2021, after many long months of COVID lockdown, I wanted to try writing something straight from the heart, something that better reflected who I am now — nostalgic, sentimental, both excited for and terrified of watching my girls grow up — and I wanted to try it as a novel.
So I came up with the idea of a bunch of dads trying (and hilariously struggling) to connect with their daughters at a weeklong summer camp retreat.
There are plenty of books written by and mostly for men, of course.
But those are usually confined to genres like military or historical fiction, or SciFi. Basically, anything with weapons and/or spaceships and possibly murder.
Men also read somewhat prominently in biography and memoir.
But books about family and relationships and (gasp) love from a male perspective? That seemed to be fairly uncharted territory.
So where did that leave me and my idea to write a book that was funny and heartwarming and all about fatherhood?
I wasn't sure. But I knew the story I wanted to tell and I knew that I wanted to take great TV dads like Bandit from Bluey, Phil Dunphy from Modern Family, Carl Winslow from Family Matters, Alan Matthews from Boy Meets World and so many others — and see them represented on the page.
So I wrote the book anyway.
Holding an early draft of the manuscript in 2022Evan Porter
As I went along, I kept searching for more books like what I hoped to write. Generally, they were few and far between, but I was eventually heartened to find that they did exist.
Authors like Jonathan Tropper, Nick Hornby, Matthew Norman, and Richard Roper were doing amazing things in male-centered fiction that didn't involve guns and aliens, but rather focused on emotion and relationships and even romance.
Still, even with those guys blazing the trail, that didn't make things any easier when I started pitching my finished novel, Dad Camp, to literary agents.
A lot of them told me they just weren't sure what the market was for a book like mine. Who's going to read this? It seemed unfathomable that actual dads would read it, so surely it had to have crossover appeal to the childrens market, or it needed a strong romance element to draw in female readers.
Many even liked the story a lot but just didn't know how to pitch it to publishers.
You can hardly go anywhere on the Internet without running into the "why don't men read" discourse.
That's because the facts are inescapable:
Around 80% of book sales come from women. Every study and survey and data set you can find shows that boys read less than girls starting in childhood and the gap only gets worse and worse as they get older.
Why don't men read more? Well, there are a lot of theories.
A lot of men report finding reading fiction to be a waste of time, that they have to be productive with their 'downtime' instead — which would explain why men are actually big readers of non-fiction, which is deemed more useful.
(Weirdly, that mindset doesn't seem to stop men from watching movies or television or spending tons of time gaming.)
Other theories say that men's brains just aren't wired as well for inhabiting the mind of different characters and empathizing with them.
And then there is the self-fulfilling prophecy of it all. Since men don't read, boys don't have as many good reading role models, and the cycle continues on and on.
Us dudes with our "linear thinking brains" like hard data, right? Well it's difficult to argue with the science behind reading fiction. It's extremely clear cut.
When you read fiction, you exercise your brain's Theory of Mind, or its ability to understand that other people are thinking and feelings and experiencing different things than you are.
People who read fiction frequently display more creativity, more empathy for others, and more skill in social relationships.
I'd like to see a non-fiction or self-help book that can achieve that.
And get this, some data even shows that readers live longer than non-readers!
So instead of spending a fortune on reducing your biological age and doing things like having young people's blood injected into your veins, just try picking up a $17.99 paperback novel.
Seeing Dad Camp on shelves at the bookstore for the first time was a pretty special feelingEvan Porter
And I'm really excited that it's out there in the world finding its audience of, not just dads, but moms and daughters and anyone who knows or loves a dad.
One last point from my research that really stood out was that men are apparently extremely reluctant to pick up books from female authors — a perspective, you could argue, we desperately need!
I'd like to hope that, one day, my book could be something of a bridge, and show more men that it's actually good and fun to read about relationships and family and romance.
Once you cross that bridge, there's a whole world of amazing books and storytellers waiting for you — and the positive impact those stories have on your brain and well-being will be well worth the effort.
People are calling Sara Beth a relatable breath of fresh air and the show's new "hidden gem."
Sara Beth auditioning for "American Idol"
High-level talent competition shows have been around for a long time. And from them, we’ve come to expect spectacular performances from trained artists completely dedicated to their craft. While that’s remarkable to watch, sometimes it’s just as inspiring to witness average folks doing something they love.
Take it from Sara Beth, a mother of three recently dubbed the “Accidental American Idol.”
First of all, Sara Beth is filled to the brim with quirky charm and does nothing to try to hide her nervousness. Judge Katy Perry accurately described her as a “comic strip character brought to life.” In a sea of ultra confident divas, it’s refreshing, to say the least.
Second, as a 25-year-old who married and started a family young, Sara Beth admitted that she had been focused on being there for her kids and only recently began pursuing music. Or as she called it, having “a minute for me.”
So when asked if singing was her dream, Sara Beth was hesitant.
“I’m still processing…I can’t even answer. This is so much,” she confessed.
That answer didn’t impress judges Lionel Richie and Katy Perry, but it certainly resonated with people—parents in particular.
“As a mother of two young boys I can easily relate to this not being her dream yet,” one mom wrote. “She has spent years pouring into others and taking it day by day and she just recently pulled her head out of water and remembered that she is a person with talents and hobbies and interests outside of being a mom...she doesn't even have the mental capacity for [“American Idol”] to be a dream yet but she took a huge bet on herself.”
Despite Sara Beth not fitting the usual parameters for an American Idol, there was no denying her incredible voice once she started singing.
Watch:
Sara Beth might have moved forward with only two out of three yes votes, but let’s just say her audience approval rate was pretty damn unanimous.
“Sara Beth is wonderfully herself and a breath of fresh air, judges are faced with a woman who is open with no filters of fear. I think she's amazing.”
“I think she IS the hidden gem in this competition. She could definitely win.”
“I won't be surprised if she wins this whole thing.”
Just take it from the “Accidental American Idol": It’s okay to be unsure…and go for the thing anyway.
This article originally appeared on 3.8.23