Broken Love

Seth first stepped on the hockey rink at the age of nine. Later, he told me he was, "fully dressed and ready for practice, except for my skates. Mom and Dad had to tie those." He grew up playing every sport he could get his hands, foot, bat, stick, or glove on. It wasn't until he found the fast paced, physical, and challenging sport of hockey that he fell in love. When a friend's dad signed up to coach his son in hockey, Seth thought he'd tag along. Little did we know that the small boy with a crooked-smile who kicked around a ball would become the devoted, competitive, determined hockey player and man he is today. Seth is my big-little brother; though I am older, he towers over me. At eighteen, Seth has played hockey nearly half his life, and we have watched his love and passion for the sport only grow stronger. Currently, he is the assistant captain on the AAA hockey team in Utah, which is quite a feat for anyone in this highly competitive sport. However, Seth...

For my tenth birthday my aunt and uncle gave me a short children's book called, You Are Special. The book is set in a village made up of little wooden puppets called, Wemicks. The puppets run around all day trying to impress each other with how talented, beautiful, or smart they are. Each one has a box of star stickers to stick on other Wemicks when what they see pleases them, and a box of dot stickers to give to others when they fail. How many stars or dots a puppet has determine how popular they are. In the story we first meet a small, not-so-handsome, clumsy, tongue tied, puppet named, Punchinello. He has been given many dots by the puppets around him. Eventually he meets the woodcarver. My favorite part of the book is when the woodcarver puts his hands on Punchinello's shoulders and says, "You are special because I made you, and I don't make mistakes." Looking back over my life these words had an amazing impact. When my aunt and uncle gave me this book for m...