Sunday, December 2, 2012

Are you coming home for Christmas

Home is Where the Heart is...

Are you coming home for Christmas


I haven't blogged for months so I made an early New Year's resolution to start again. So much has changed since I last wrote, some challenging and others unknown. The song 'I'm coming for Christmas' is especially meaningful this year. 

I'm grateful to being home with my friends and loved ones but I still feel the New York City pull. Can you ever truly come home again or are you in a state of limbo, waiting for your life to start?

While contemplating my next move, I'm cherishing the time with my mom and dad and can't believe a year ago we weren't speaking. How quickly time can slip by until we realize what's important. 

It's not the things we have but the people we love who make us who we are and when push comes to shove we can disregard possessions but not people. Hurricane Sandy taught us to hold our loved ones close and value the time we have with them.

I remember tossing aside things that I thought were so important to me and realizing they held little value. As I struggle to start my life over I ask that you keep in mind that it's not the stuff that matters but your loved ones. Don't fight over getting the perfect gift as in the long run what they will remember is the simple words 'I love you.'

Happy holidays!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

All I really needed to know I knew when I was five years old?



It’s funny how your younger self knew with the utmost certainty what they wanted to be when they grew up. Now depending when you asked them, the answer could be vastly different but they were convinced they knew the inevitable.

As you grew older your dream was reinforced by classes, teachers and practicality. When I was growing up I wanted more than anything to be a teacher as I wanted to make a difference in children’s lives. I was lucky enough to have teachers who made me believe in myself when I didn't have the courage to do so and I wanted to be able to give that hope to others.

I had a few obstacles in my way and that being the practical subjects. Give me a creative task and I look forward to the challenge while math or science seemed like conversing in a foreign tongue. That could stem from the fact that I have very few memories before the age of thirteen when your structural math education should have been formed. I have to say to this day, I’m glad to have ten toes and fingers as they are used more than they should be for simple factoring.

Thanks to a great RA freshman year I found out about the Hamburg program and was lucky enough to be selected. It seemed that all the stars were aligned, I would teach throughout my senior year at the Hamburg schools and afterwards most students would be placed in the district upon graduation. I hurried to complete my studies and by junior year I had finished all requirements to be ready to spend senior year way from college and then disaster or providence hit and I had to take a math teaching class.

Not my strong suit but I felt like I rose to the challenge. I bought math games, conversed with other teachers on how to make the tutoring fun and then I was given, I’m sorry to say but the torturous trio as these three could have waylaid Harry Potter.

The two boys were best friends and had that secret code all tiny tots seem to have to be able to converse and torture adults without speaking and were determined to rattle me. They kept slamming their heads against the desks and that was the least of their angst while the girl didn’t speak at all. It was a ‘fun’ three month session.

Although I escaped with an A in the course, I sought guidance from a counselor on what to do with my life. She suggested that despite the fact that I enjoyed working with kids throughout the summer, they were there because they wanted to be at camp where a classroom setting is far different as the natives are being caged. I quickly switched majors to English/Electronic Publishing and by the end of junior year had all the credits I needed to graduate.

So I decided to study abroad senior year was accepted into a London program where I was all set to go but due to a mix up in my scholarship I ended up graduating early instead of studying abroad. Coming home I found nothing out there and had to work at Wegman’s in the produce department but was asked to do the cooking demos one day (not that I cook now but I can) one day and I loved it and my station became a popular one as I would get the other departments to enhance my meals with steak, shrimp…etc  and that ended up being a great way to further get out of my shell.

I found out that I love talking to people ( I know big surprise for anyone in high school when I think a mouse scurrying around was louder than me) but I came into my own especially when I moved to NYC and now I’m jumping ahead of the story.

I borrowed the Writers Market book from the library and started cold-writing different publishers asking for a publishing internship and Black and Dog and Leventhal opened the Big Apple’s doors to me and I’ve never moved back.

Staying at some jobs longer than others it was publishing, Broadway, newspapers, theatre…etc and now who knows. I sometimes feel like that proverbial spinning top wondering where the next turn will take me and although I enjoy the ride, I sometimes wish I had a more concrete direction.

To the young Amy, you’re a long way baby from where you started and life isn’t always what you planned it to be.


Monday, July 2, 2012

Finding the Fourth by Amy Carothers




Looking into the mirror I see a past reflecting me
Those who’ve given their lives to allow us to be free
The families at home worrying about their loved ones overseas
The gratefulness I feel as the flag proclaims our nationality

We may not all agree with the politics sending our soldiers into war
but think of those who have died to allow our dreams to soar

Friday, February 10, 2012

Rewinding the Past by Amy Carothers


Rewinding the Past
By Amy Carothers

Years slipping by
faster than we can hold on to
The mirror reflecting a face that shouldn't be so
For some the marching of time is their greatest fear
While others see it as a map of life's accomplishments

Each dent or slope a hidden memory
A gray hair, not something to be pulled but examined
before
  being
     colored
         away

Watching children skipping down the street
Don't envy their energy
but take a deep breath
and reclaim your own

The passing of time can not be altered 
                                                                     
                                                                     So
                                                                    As
                                                                Time
                                                          Ticks on
Make it count!

Monday, December 19, 2011

A New Yorker’s 12 Days of Christmas

Five Golden Rings

A New Yorker’s 12 Days of Christmas
By Amy Carothers



12 Drummers Drumming: 'Music' Makers banging on garbage lids
11 Pipers Piping: The same clarinet player playing Part of Your World day in and out

10 Lords a leaping: Cockroaches scurrying along the streets or subways
9 Ladies Dancing: On the bar after too much merrymaking
8 Maids a Milking: Women on the prowl during the weekends
7 Swans a Swimming-Central Park’s Swan House and Turtle Lake
6 Geese a Laying: No geese but New York City’s Bird-The Pigeon
5 Golden Rings: With the ratio of guys to girls people are searching for at least a brass ring
4 Calling Birds: People giving the bird after someone steals their taxi
3 French Hens: A French Guy in the city, at least 3 women will be after him
2 Turtle Doves: Couples kissing on the train pushing you in the corner so they can make out
1 Partridge in the Pear Tree: Kevin is not the only one Home Alone

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Life’s Bumps


Life’s Bumps
By Amy Carothers
Such a tiny little thing almost could be ignored
Fighting its way to the surface more of a bothersome than a sore
Wouldn’t even have noticed except a blackish bruise
Now the waiting begins, to find out the news

The unknown is fleeting more than ever before
How could such a small thing become impossible to ignore
Settling in the back of my mind making me question
Life’s oddities and my future’s direction

Family history has always been important to me
But this tie to my past, I’d rather not see
Banding together the women in my family tree
What leaf will be unturned, what will the future be?

Thanksgiving is a time of hope and health
Never more, do I want that for myself

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Choice

The Choice
By Amy Carothers 

To many years I fought the waves
The ups and downs keeping the currents at bay
I’ve learned this year you can’t control
Everything life bestows

The most important thing is to be true to you
Don’t let others drag you down or be cruel
Make a choice to stand up for yourself
You’ll be surprised how good it felt

Loving is powerful but can be binding
Leaving is sometimes the most freeing

Sometimes the life we were born into is not what we need
By removing ourselves , it’s like the cage bird being freed

You can love but not remain
Be true to yourself, be happy and that’s winning life’s game